Communication Arts

Students speak to the world in unique, important ways, and your child’s voice matters. We teach them to be heard.

It Starts at the Very Beginning

Opportunities for the development of communication skills abound at all ages at JA. Communication skills are developed in all divisions through daily classroom interaction. In the Lower School, students are regularly given the opportunity to present speeches to their classmates. In Middle and Upper schools, more formal instruction is offered in presentation opportunities and special courses. Communicative arts give JA students the skills to think and communicate verbally in a technologically and visually-driven era.

Sports Broadcasting Class

The broadcast class offers students in tenth through twelfth grades the opportunity to learn the art and science of professional broadcasting in conjunction with the Raider Network. Students rotate through the roles of director, replay operator, camera operator, and game announcer for JV football, basketball, and baseball broadcasts to find out which they enjoy the most. The students are trained on equipment that prepares them for the field of broadcasting, should they decide to follow that path in college. 

School Newspaper

The JA Chronicle is the official student newspaper of Jackson Academy and is available online at janews.org. Students agree that joining the staff is like joining a family, and love sharing their creative and investigative talents through writing and photography. The paper is prepared by a staff consisting of students in ninth through twelfth grade who are supervised by a qualified staff member from the English department. The JA Chronicle staff prepares opinion pieces, feature and entertainment stories, and reports on other happenings in the JA community and surrounding areas. A print version of the JA Chronicle is published and distributed at intervals throughout the school year. 

Yearbook

Each year Jackson Academy Upper School students collaborate to create the Reflections yearbook. The Reflections staff is responsible for the publication of the 272-page album. The staff spends the year photographing and gathering information on activities at JA. With three deadlines throughout the year, each staff member is responsible for their own pages and editing for publication.  Each year the design is updated as new students add their unique touches of creativity to the yearbook’s production.