Thomas Heyward Academy is a private school located in Ridgeland, South Carolina. The school, founded as a segregation academy in 1970, was named after Thomas Heyward Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation who was a native of Ridgeland. The schools nickname is The Rebels. It offers pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade. The school is a member of the South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA), which was founded in 1965 to provide resources for segregation academies.