Lower School
Where children get to be children
The elementary years are not a stepping stone. They are some of the most consequential years of a child's life. These are formative years of learning: how to read, write, count and manipulate numbers; how to be a friend and a member of a group.
These are the years when children learn what learning feels like.
We treat these years as the joyfully serious, seriously delightful years that they are — filled with fun and play and engagement with ideas and concepts that create a foundation that will be with a child for their entire life. Serious years, in other words, but at the pace and scale of real childhood.
Our Lower School holds children from PreK through fourth grade, from three-year-olds taking their first steps into school life, to nine- and ten-year-olds preparing for the next stage.
Across these years, what we protect is what makes great elementary learning possible: small groups, deep relationships, an unhurried rhythm, real time for play and outdoor life, and the steady company of teachers who know each child by name and temperament and what they need next.
A day in the Lower School.
The day has a steady, predictable rhythm: focused academic work in the morning when children are freshest, time to get outside, eat, move, and play, with quieter and more project-based work in the afternoon.
Time outside, every day.
Children are outside every day in nearly every kind of weather for about an hour between morning and lunch recess. Recess is where children invent games, negotiate rules, and run. Lunch is eaten outside except in cases of extreme weather. And the natural world is part of the curriculum: Fresh Pond and Black's Nook are minutes away, and children come to know them across the seasons.
The role of technology.
In the Lower School, childhood comes first and screens stay in the background. Young children learn by handling real materials, talking with real people, and making real things. Technology enters gradually and purposefully as children grow, always in service of the learning. Personal phones and smart watches have no place in the school day at these ages and are not allowed.
Daily rhythms.
From our youngest children to students who are headed towards middle school, each grade band gets its own schedule and rhythm, tailored to the developmental and educational stage.
Beyond the school day.
Extended Day is our after-school care program, open to all PreK–8 students from dismissal until 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday.
For families who need an earlier drop-off, Early Morning Care opens at 7:45 AM and runs until classrooms open at 8:15 PM. Students get thirty supervised minutes of free time with our specialists before the day begins.
Read more about Extended Day & Extracurriculars →
Signature Projects & Experiences
Below we highlight a few of the signature projects and experiences our Lower School students participate in.
