The Great Neck Public School District provides an innovative and collaborative educational environment that supports academic excellence and the social and emotional growth of all students so that they may become life-long learners and compassionate, productive members of a diverse, global society. The purpose of education in our schools shall be to kindle a desire and provide the means for an intellectual, emotional, moral, social, and physical growth leading to knowledge and excellence; to help all children acquire, according to their capabilities, the power and will to learn and to live a creative life as a member of a democratic society; and to help each individual student develop the will to explore and enlarge the realm of the human mind and spirit. In order to achieve these goals, our schools will provide teaching that inspires, challenges, informs, and constantly searches for methods of improvement; a classroom climate that recognizes the value of encouragement and the positive approach to education; and professional, flexible evaluation techniques that reflect children's cumulative growth and complete development as well as their academic achievement.