Fostering Curiosity, Creativity, and Community in the Lower School

Above the desk in my home office is an excerpt from a poem entitled Fire by Judy Brown. I came across this poem just over a year ago as I was grappling with the major transition of leaving behind my role as a Head of Lower School in Atlanta to move back to the Northeast and be closer to family. Rather than immediately securing another leadership role, I decided to become a student again. I spent the following year pursuing studies in coaching and organizational development, a topic that had become of great interest to me over the years. 

Solving problems is central to the Lower School mathematics curriculum. We emphasize deep understanding of core concepts alongside mastery of essential skills at each grade level. Students connect real world experiences to mathematical thinking as they learn to approach complex problems with confidence and clarity. Our program draws on the Singapore Mathematics approach, using models and visual tools to link concrete understanding with symbolic reasoning. Through carefully sequenced topics and meaningful applications, students build fluency, expand their strategies, and develop a strong foundation that prepares them for advanced study in later grades.

The Lower School literacy program values how we teach as much as what we teach, with community at the center. Classrooms are built on high expectations, strong relationships, and respect for diverse learners. Guided by the Teachers College workshop model, students read, write, and share ideas together, seeing literacy as a meaningful, shared process. Teachers provide targeted support through small group instruction, helping students build skills in reading, writing, and expression. Over time, students grow as confident, thoughtful readers and writers who appreciate language and engage with increasingly complex ideas.

The social studies curriculum is organized around “big ideas” that students encounter with increasing complexity as they move through the Lower School. How communities allocate resources can guide a 1st grade study of houses and homes, and similarly focus a 4th grade study of World Peace Games. By organizing units around questions first and then skills and content, we communicate to students that learning about the past is inquiry-based: by asking and exploring good questions, we delve deeper into the topic. 

Lower School students begin studying Spanish in our early childhood program. The focus of language instruction is meaningful and purposeful communication; thus language classes are conducted primarily in Spanish with opportunities for students to understand and speak it. Students are exposed to Spanish-speaking culture from around the world, past and present. Simulations such as ordering in a restaurant, asking for directions, and describing the weather promote a comfort level with speaking and a willingness to take risks as students learn a new language.

A well-rounded education includes extensive exposure to art and music, which helps children to make connections across disciplines, to develop interests and skills in a number of subjects and to build a rich, expansive world view. Faculty trained in art and music education provide an integrated, vertical curriculum and teach in spaces specifically designed for these subjects. The time and space given to art and music reflect the high value we place on these curricular areas as part of the Lower School experience and helps children learn to express themselves outside of their classroom work. In fifth grade the art and music curriculum culminates in a year-long, integrated “Creating Original Opera” program in which students write, compose, design and perform their own opera. 

Health and Wellness classes provide a time for students to be active, to learn to problem-solve, to collaborate and to develop motor and planning skills in the setting of traditional and nontraditional games. There is always an emphasis on having fun and learning good sportsmanship.