About Our School

Alconbury Elementary School (AES) is a pre-kindergarten through fifth grade school of approximately 200 students located on Royal Air Force Alconbury within Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. Alconbury is in the center of numerous historical sites and an hour's train ride from London.  Alconbury Elementary is part of the Europe West District of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) educating the children of the United States Air Force service members as well as Department of Defense contractors and civilians stationed at RAF Alconbury and Molesworth bases.  The student sponsor population of Alconbury Elementary is unique compared to other DoDEA schools.  Our stakeholder population is made up of 73% military members and 27% government contractors and civilians.  Our stakeholders are well educated and have very high expectations of our school and their children.  Our stakeholders serve the 423rd Air Base Group squadrons as well as the Joint Analysis Center, NATO Intelligence Fusion Center, and AFRICOM J2-M.

Alconbury Elementary has one administrator, twenty-two educators, six paraprofessionals, and four support staff to ensure our students receive an exemplary education while their families are stationed overseas.  The Alconbury staff is highly educated, having earned a cumulative total of eight Associates, 28 Bachelors, 22 Masters, and two Doctoral degrees.  Our staff is eager to improve their craft, attending quarterly DoDEA professional development and seeking professional conference opportunities.

As a small school, Alconbury Elementary adopted the theme “We are all in this together.”  We maximize our staff to support students.  Our large group specialists teach three separate sessions daily to enrich and enhance our students via Host Nation, Physical Education, Art, Music, Library, and STEAM.  A highly efficient master schedule maximizes our specialists when not teaching their content areas to support designated general education classrooms during the Literacy, Math, or Science blocks.  This creatively uses our human capital to work with individual students or flexible small groups to meet the diverse needs of our student population.

Alconbury Elementary is continually working on implementing our Positive Behavioral Intervention Support program. Green Dragons are given to students who have demonstrated the Alconbury Elementary vision of “Be Kind, Be Smart, Be Safe” throughout the school day.  Alconbury Elementary celebrates random students who have earned Green Dragons during our “Fun Friday” lunchtime ceremony.  Green Dragons are a vital piece of the make-up of our school with students fully understanding the expected behavior needed to earn a Green Dragon and the positive recognition that goes along with earning one.

Alconbury Elementary is one of the few DoDEA schools that has a chapter of the National Elementary Honor Society. Alconbury Elementary School also has a chapter of Anchored4Life.  These groups provide leadership opportunities for our fourth and fifth grade students. These distinguished groups also support our community on and off base.  Recently, they collected over 1000 children’s books that will be donated to schools in Africa.

Focused Collaboration is fully implemented with highly functioning teams.  Short term SMART goals are created based on common assessments, interventions are implemented to support both the striving and advanced students, and data is monitored to determine growth.  These practices are fully executed to include our paraprofessionals in their own Focused Collaboration group supporting our School Action Plan.

Educating and developing the whole child is a hallmark of Alconbury Elementary.  Brain breaks, Morning Meetings, and Behavioral Social Emotional Learning are implemented throughout the week.  A weekly “Radar Kid” meeting allows the school psychologist, counselor, and principal to discuss students that may be struggling behaviorally, socially, or academically.  Based on these weekly discussions, cases are triaged for the Student Support Team to meet with parents, discuss, and implement interventions to support the student. Alconbury Elementary also has a Military Family Life Consultant that supports our students and families.

Alconbury Elementary has a vibrant Parent Teacher Association (PTA) that supports our school and community with numerous school events such as Skate Bashes, Pastries for Parents, trivia nights, and a fall carnival.  To celebrate the Month of the Military Child, our PTA sponsors the Cambridge Science Museum to come to Alconbury, a spring carnival, and a receiving line to celebrate our military-connected students.  They support the school with memorable and enriching opportunities for our students and stakeholders.

Alconbury Elementary School was awarded the 2024 United Staes Department of Education National Blue Ribbon Award. Alconbury Elementary was also recognized with this honor in 2018 making it the only DoDEA school to earn the award in back-to-back five-year eligibility cycles.  Our school celebrates these distinctions and displays them proudly upon entering the building.  Due to having a unique and highly educated stakeholder population, a National Blue Ribbon School conveys to our community the excellence that exists within our building and the high expectations that our staff requires. Families have a choice to utilize the British school system or Alconbury Elementary.  Being a Blue Ribbon School has leveraged families to choose Alconbury Elementary due to being a nationally recognized institution in the top one percent of the schools in the nation.