A+ World Academy

A+ World Academy is the most unique boarding school in the world. We offer Advanced Placement courses in a fully accredited school that travels the world on the oldest fully-rigged sailing ship in the world. The ‘Sørlandet’, a 90-year-old Norwegian Tall Ship, has a long tradition of educational endeavors. In her 90-year history, the Sørlandet has welcomed more than 10,000 students, providing them with a complete maritime education; teaching them to be navigators, engineers, and mariners. Not only was she the first ship in the world to welcome women to co-ed maritime education, she was also the first sail ship to offer Advanced Placement courses, and the first Nordic training vessel to complete a circumnavigation in 2017. Sørlandet is a living legacy and a historic leader at the forefront of education.A+ World Academy offers a challenging, rigorous, unique program that develops students into global citizens and leaders with grit, resilience, and perseverance. Our students are pushed to their limits in every aspect from intellectual, social, physical, and cultural while learning to be proactive problem solvers with practical experience and a global perspective. While creating strong academic achievement in our students, we engage them in an extensive experiential education program of rigorous maritime endeavor, close-knit communal living, study in foreign lands, and personal mentoring that cultivates their self-knowledge, resilience, problem-solving, and leadership far beyond that of more traditional school setting. Our students don’t just worry about getting to class on time, they deal with real issues such as monitoring water consumption from a shared source, recycling’s impact on the environment and living in a socially conscious way to dramatically reduce pollution. They will take part in ship “watches” as part of the mariner crew and will participate in scrubbing, cleaning, and sharing the duties on board. Our students develop life skills such as leadership, resilience, grit, accountability, and team work…characteristics that will lead them to success in both university and in life. They overcome challenges on a daily basis that strengthen both their character and confidence. All of this occurs while attending a full load of AP and standard courses that prepares our students for the top universities around the world! What Harvard once called “the X Factor” of unique university applicants, we call the A+ Factor! Please do watch our film of life aboard The ‘Sørlandet: