The Essence School (IS 311) - A School for Citizens of a Global Community The school is based on three major beliefs: children will be immersed in an interactive learning community that develops and expands all of their human potential, school is a place for the entire family, and all students have the potential to learn in an integrative model for general, special, and limited English proficient populations. Curriculum will be designed and implemented by instructional teams. The key program components will be: literacy of empowered learning, interactive curriculum exploration, an advisory program, technology as a learning tool, families as learning partners, and traditional and non-traditional assessment.