About SailAway Learning & Academy

Hope. Solutions. Freedom.

SailAway offers students, families, and educators …the hope to catapult to new heights of educational achievement…solutions to mold purposeful, life-long learners…and the freedom to enjoy a full, satisfying life.

SailAway Learning & Academy is a private, faith-based educational services provider delivering proven learning solutions for students, parents, and educators. SailAway’s primary services include: Full-Time Academy, Homeschool Programs, and Diagnostic and Academic Assessments. SailAway also offers Educational Consultations, Cognitive Enhancement, ACT Prep Workshops in collaboration with Roane State Community College, and training, workshops, and seminars for public, private, and home educators.

The keystone of SailAway is its innovative, proprietary language arts approach for grades K through 12. Developed in the Academy over 10 plus years, SailAway Literacy is used by schools, tutoring services, and homeschools nationwide.

SailAway’s full-time academy and homeschool programs serve students from Pre-K through 12th grade. SailAway offers full-service educational solutions and an academy with a low student:teacher ration of ten or fewer.

SailAway Academy is a Category IV church-related school located in Kingston, TN and is a member in good standing of the Tennessee Association of Non-Public Academic Schools (TANAS). The Tennessee State Department of Education and the Tennessee Board of Education have recognized TANAS as an approved accrediting agency since March 1989. To learn more, please visit the TANAS website at www.tanasonline.org.

Our Mission

It is the mission of SailAway Learning & Academy to ignite academic and social achievement in every student by understanding how each one is unique. SailAway strives to become the most trusted, and sought-after trainer in the fields of literacy, critical thinking, and tutorial services in both traditional and non-traditional learning environments.

SailAway shall stand shoulder-to-shoulder, and hand-in-hand with students, their families, and educators, until they are confident in their own ability to learn and achieve any goal they set.

Therefore, SailAway Learning & Academy seeks to raise up a generation of learners who will:

  • read well, write well, speak well;
  • think critically, creatively, and wisely; and
  • display a thirst for knowledge and its benefits

What’s in Our Name

SailAway began with a simple desire: help a few kids learn to read. After months of doing just that, a name dropped into her awareness as founder Brenda Murphy drove the family’s big blue 8-passenger Dodge Ram van down I-40 shortly after creating a highly innovative approach to penmanship for a struggling student. With its nautical references, “SailAway” was the perfect name for her newly-developing literacy curriculum and tutorial service. The name fit as students and educators found Brenda’s curriculum and instructional methods made learning a breeze.

Many years later, a discussion about subliminal meanings in organizational and product names caused her to think about “SailAway.” Did the inspirational flash that created it have a deeper meaning? Early the next day, Thanksgiving morning, she received an answer to the first part of her prayer: “Sail” stood for “serve all in love.” That struck a chord; “serving all in love” had been the unspoken, unwritten motivational theme and heart-felt goal behind every operation and activity of the organization from its inception. The first quick inkling of understanding the message behind the name identified only the first word. What was the meaning of the second word? As an educational organization, the first “a” in “Away” refers to the services offered: “academic.” Because understanding and wisdom are bedrock organizational beliefs, the “w” represents “wisdom.” The second “a,” for “and,” would join something to the other letters in “Away.” “What could the “y” stand for?” That called for dictionary research that uncovered the ideal word, “yare.” “Yare” is a nautical term (what else!) meaning “quick, agile, lively; quick to the helm and easily maneuverable,” which affirms a SailAway educator’s steady, sure leadership in all situations.

So, SailAway’s motivation is to Serve All In Love; use solid, reliable Academic Wisdom when we teach and share with others; And Yare so we remain quick, agile, and lively in our leadership, direction, and response to all those we serve.