The San Francisco School Brochure

Fulfilling the Promise in Students since 1966

An Education Built for 21st Century Learners

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Thank you for taking the time to learn about and consider The San Francisco School. One of the oldest independent, coeducational day schools in San Francisco, we have strived to fulfill the promise in students since 1966.

When one enters the front gates of The San Francisco School, there is a sense of intellectual curiosity, imagination, playfulness and diversity that is immediately palpable.

Students are engaged, asking questions and sharing their ideas in the classroom. Music cascades throughout the courtyard and art decorates every corner of the campus.

Students of all ages are climbing trees, digging in the dirt and building with their hands. It does not take long to notice that they love being at school.

The San Francisco School is a supportive and rigorous academic environment that is committed to developing the full and unique potential of our students.

Our faculty works tirelessly in challenging students to try on the perspectives that historians and writers, mathematicians and linguists, scientists and artists, and athletes and musicians bring to their disciplines.

Upon graduation, our goal is for all students to know who they are as learners. Please visit our campus and spend time on our website, sfschool.org, to further explore the many possibilities and opportunities that exist for your child and your family.

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PRESC H O O L

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K I N D ERGARTEN

We Promote Self-Direction and A Lifelong Love of Learning

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For more than 45 years The San Francisco School has provided students from diverse family backgrounds a safe and wondrous place to discover themselves intellectually, physically and socially.

In our Montessori-inspired classrooms, children are observed by their teachers and learning activities are introduced to individual students based on their developmental progress, not based on a cookie-cutter template for their age.

Our teachers nurture the preschoolers’ hunger to learn while challenging our kindergartners and ensuring their readiness for elementary school. The educational program provides an increasingly rigorous and challenging intellectual experience that is guided by a spiral method.

Ideas and concepts fundamental to understanding topics such as algebra and scientific inquiry are introduced to our preschoolers and then revisited with more depth and complexity as the children mature. Ultimately, children are provided with experiences and activities that foster inquiry, challenge the mind and build personal confidence.

Children work and play in spacious classrooms and delightful adjoining playgrounds and gardens. Teachers guide children to learn from the rich array of educational materials, from each other, and in small groups with an adult. Children often can choose how and where to work, with the latitude to freely move about the classroom and even choose whether to work indoors or outside.

We provide students the freedom to choose and work at an individual pace. Through an integrated, multicultural program of early academics, art, music, movement and play, SFS provides a supportive social and intellectual environment crucial to the growth, development and education of the young child— fundamental experiences that serve as their foundation for the future.

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MATH Math permeates The San Francisco School culture.

At The San Francisco School, math is considered a powerful tool to decipher the patterns that abound in our world.

By combining factual

From cooking to dancing, hard work to pleasure, life is full

knowledge, procedural

of values we use to describe our physical and social worlds.

facility, and conceptual

Because of this, students learn mathematics not only

understanding, students

in rigorous math classes, but also in classes such as art,

develop a rich foundation

science, music and physical education.

from which they can develop mathematical insight and creativity while also appreciating the inherent beauty of mathematics itself.

Our teachers believe that all students can learn challenging math concepts. Our teachers do not simply impart facts, they are keen observers, sympathetic listeners and skilled math facilitators who ensure that each student is challenged. They create a positive learning environment, conveying confidence in students’ capabilities. Maintaining high academic standards, they create a mathematics environment where imaginative thinking is the norm. They strive to find a balance between conceptual and procedural knowledge. They construct new ideas by moving from specific examples to general principles. Students must justify their reasoning by explaining to the teacher and peers what approaches they tried, what worked, and what did not. Our students are active in their learning of math and confident in their ability to ask questions, tackle problems and explore ideas. They persevere when tasks are challenging and are able to explain their thinking in oral or written form in collaboration with peers.

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“Rhythm and harmony penetrate deeply into the mind…if education is good, they impart grace and beauty.“ — Plato

MUSIC

Our internationally acclaimed Orff Schulwerk program starts from this premise—every child is musical and naturally loves to play, sing and dance.

Children who enter at three years old bursting with musical enthusiasm leave at 14 with their confidence intact, now armed with refined techniques, theoretical understandings and a repertoire of hundreds of songs, scores of dances and dozens of pieces mastered on the Orff instruments (specially designed xylophones played in ensemble). They know how to work together, to listen, to contribute their ideas, to improvise, compose and choreograph. Over three decades of an ongoing program have proven our premise—every child is indeed musical.

Orff Schulwerk emphasizes a communal approach which has affirmed another premise—music can transform a school community. Music is everywhere in the school—the sounds of Duke Ellington, Mozart or gamelan played on Orff instruments come spilling out of the music room, staff can be found humming the songs the chorus sings, and our faculty open the year with a “singing tunnel” through which the children pass and then introduce themselves by dancing.

Music is present in every school gathering, bringing color and life to each event. We have “a song for every occasion.”

The San Francisco School Orff music program is also impacting music education around the world. Our music faculty directs the largest Orff training summer course in North America, held on the school campus and attracting teachers from over 25 countries.

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F I RST

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F I F TH G R A DE The physical, emotional and academic growth of first through fifth graders is a phenomenon like no other. From young 6-year-olds to pre-adolescents, the elementary school helps nurture and guide the students’ ability to learn, create and discover.

Strong academics with an integrated arts and music program is the hallmark of our elementary program.

The elementary academic program provides engaging and comprehensive curricula in reading, writing, science, mathematics, foreign language, spelling and social studies appropriate for each grade level. Students gain essential understandings in each field while kindling their passion for learning. They do so by honoring their own interests and talents through special interest projects and activities.

All subjects in the elementary program are united across grade levels and subject matter by the following characteristics: hands-on learning, minds-on learning, student-centered approach, integrated curriculum, infusion of traditions, building classroom community, field trips, equity awareness and environmental stewardship.

Our learning atmosphere allows each child to nurture their passions, excel at academic fundamentals, and be exposed to a multicultural community through the classroom, arts, music and language and provides an excellent framework for future learning and life itself.

These are the outcome of giving students the freedom to choose and work at an individual pace. Through an integrated, multicultural program of early academics, art, music, movement and play, SFS provides a supportive social and intellectual environment crucial to the growth, development and education of the young child – fundamental experiences that serve as their foundation for the future.

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Our Classrooms Extend Far Beyond Our Walls

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SPANISH The San Francisco School Spanish program exemplifies the school’s commitment to interdisciplinary learning.

A key goal is to produce life-long learners of Spanish who have the skills and interest to use the language to enrich their own lives and, in potential humanitarian efforts, the lives of others.

Research shows that children acquire a second language more efficiently if exposed to that language as much as possible before the age of eight. Therefore, Spanish language instruction begins at age three and progresses through middle school where multiple levels of Spanish are offered— novice, intermediate and advanced/fluent.

The program provides a myriad of opportunities for students to develop listening comprehension, as well as speaking, reading and writing proficiency. Our goal is to deepen cultural understanding; and to expand the skills and interest necessary to continue fruitful studies in Spanish. In addition to direct instruction, teachers use engaging, contextual activities as a vehicle to promote learning. The program is committed to multiculturalism and academic excellence, with an emphasis on multi-subject collaboration. Spanish can often be heard being taught in music and other subjects across the curriculum.

Differentiated instruction addresses a variety of learning styles and levels of proficiency, ranging from novice to heritage speakers. Re-entry of previously introduced and learned material maintains long-term memory, as do Spanish notebooks both at home and in class. Cultural traditions and values are often the vehicle to stimulate learning and promote lifelong interest in language development.

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ART While children focus on specific projects in the art room, their art is everywhere in the school.

They are surrounded by their own creations.

Every discipline has an artistic component and every day the children show what they know, deepen what they know and discover what they do not yet know, through the pleasure of making art. Most importantly art gives meaning and order to the children’s lives.

The art curriculum is project-based. Students build on skills and concepts in a refreshing variety of mediums.

In age-appropriate ways, the historical and cultural context of their studio work is brought into play.

Cultural studies come alive as children make art inspired by artifacts, techniques and approaches

CHILDREN GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY. They explore with chalk, paint and clay. They splash out bold colors. They hammer out whimsical sculptures. They weave with precision as they play their way into understanding fundamental art concepts and techniques. Combining the fantastic world of their imagination with increased control of materials, they learn to speak art like a first language.

from those cultures.

Children use thinking and problem solving skills developed in art class across the curriculum.

For example, building with clay or cardboard provides a real life, hands-on opportunity to use the principles of physics. The exploration of patterns in art class enhances the study of mathematics and music.

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Middle school years are a time of transition: searching out one’s identity and role in society, defining one’s personal value system amid the pulls of the peer group, and developing and refining one’s academic skills.

The goal of the middle school is to offer a balanced program that teaches, solidifies and refines academic and study skills; strengthens critical thinking and problemsolving abilities; and builds global community as well as self-awareness and advocacy. SFS middle school students learn accountability in an atmosphere that continually asks them to make decisions and to reflect on the wisdom of their choices. The middle school community meets weekly to celebrate students’ passions and achievements and to discuss topics of importance to our community.

The advisory program supports the social and emotional development of students and offers a structure in which to practice healthy decision-making. Students are also given opportunities to become involved in activities that matter to them through participation in student government and the service learning program. This includes school policy-making, school and neighborhood improvement projects, and social activism.

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SI XT H

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EI G H TH G R A D E

As students enter adolescence in the SFS middle school program, the goal is to create a stimulating environment that is safe and comfortable, while also challenging each individual to grow intellectually and emotionally. The SFS middle school program – with its caring network of adults who understand the particular needs of adolescents—

A Place to Take Risks

is specifically designed to nurture and guide students on their journey to becoming responsible, thoughtful and actively engaged adults.

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SCIENCE HOW DO I INFLUENCE THE EARTH? How does the earth influence who I am?

With SFS’ commitment to cultivating humanitarian promise, science is taught with purpose and ethics in mind. Science helps us understand our world, but it also allows humankind to control our impact. The study of science is also fertile ground for developing service learning projects that meld science and social action.

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The science program at The San Francisco School is based on the premise that learning to think and work like a scientist is the most important curricular goal of the program.

The big overarching principle for the entire 11 year career at SFS is a deep understanding of the scientific method.

At the preschool level, the focus is on observation and questioning. At the lower elementary, the focus moves to data collection and close observation, and in the upper elementary onto asking provocative questions, forming good hypotheses and designing experiments. In middle school, attention turns to carefully controlling variables, challenging apparent results and rigorous analysis.

No matter what the topic, from looking at a fish in the preschool to global warming in middle school, students are learning to think and act like scientists.

HUMANITIES STUDENTS KEEP JOURNALS, WRITE POEMS, ACT IN PLAYS AND CREATE SHORT STORIES.

The San Francisco School humanities program builds skills and understanding in the critical areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

At The San Francisco School,

school, a more focused and direct approach is taken with

students write critical essays

these disciplines in preschool and elementary levels.

and learn to edit their own

A student’s literacy journey begins in preschool where he

work. They read widely

or she encounters a curriculum full of books, reading aloud

and exchange ideas about

and early literacy activities, and it concludes with a critical

books, authors and the world

reading of Shakespeare during the eighth grade year.

around them. Through these

At every grade level each student is encouraged to read at his

and other activities, students

or her individual reading level and is given much instruction

learn and practice their skills

and support to progress to the next level. The focus of the

in both reading and writing.

reading program in the upper elementary grades and in middle

While these subjects are seamlessly melded in middle

school is on critical thinking and interaction with literature.

Writing is carefully and appropriately linked to reading.

Instruction begins in the preschool years, where students develop their fine motor skills and are encouraged to discuss stories they hear. As their critical skills develop, students learn to evaluate the writing of well-known authors, as well as their peers.

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PH YSI C A L E D U C ATI ON & ATHLETICS

Student athletes unite with their peers and provide inspiration through their competitive spirit. It is an experience where diversity meets common ground, where individuals come together for common purpose.

Together they celebrate victories, together they console losses, and together they endure with resiliency the challenges that come their way.

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The physical education and athletics program is designed for each student to experience joy and success while engaging in physical activity.

The curriculum is based on age and developmentally appropriate goals and objectives. Additionally, there is an emphasis on critical thinking and problem solving through the various individual and group activities.

SFS provides a variety of competitive athletic opportunities, which allow our students to learn lifelong lessons beyond the classroom. By participating in our athletics program, student athletes acquire an appreciation for teamwork, sportsmanship, physical fitness and wellness. Additionally, our student athletes develop physically, socially and mentally to prepare them for their next stages in life.

The School currently offers four interscholastic sports for our middle school students: Cross Country and Volleyball (Fall), Basketball (Winter) and Futsal Soccer (Spring).

We also offer intramural and skill-building opportunities through our Extended Day program. Break dancing and hip-hop, fencing, golf, chess, flag football and tumbling

We Strive for Collaboration and Teamwork

are examples of past offerings.

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PREPAR I N G

FOR

H I G H SCHOOL

In addition to their rigorous academic life, SFS eighth graders work through the demanding high school application process.

The role of the high school placement counselor at The San Francisco School is to gently guide both students and their families through the application process by providing timely and relevant information, as well as individual counseling to help identify the best fit for each student. The placement process begins with an informational meeting with students and their parents/guardians in the spring of seventh grade. In the eighth grade year families attend additional high school meetings and also meet individually with the counselor to discuss their child and the various high school options. Throughout the high school season, both the students and their families are provided with necessary information, guidance and support.

Our middle school graduates are consistently accepted into top independent, parochial and public schools and almost all are accepted into one of their top choices for high school.

The feedback we receive from both families and the high schools is that San Francisco School graduates are well-prepared, confident and excited about learning.

Below is a sample of high schools our graduates currently attend: • Andover •

Archbishop Riordan

•

The Bay School

•

Drew School

•

International High School

• Lick-Wilmerding

High School •

Lowell High School

•

The Menlo School

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•

Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory

•

Saint Ignatius College Preparatory

•

School of the Arts

•

Stuart Hall High School

•

University High School

•

The Urban School

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The San Francisco School cultivates and celebrates the intellectual, imaginative and humanitarian promise of each student in a community that practices mutual respect, embraces diversity, and inspires a passion for learning.

300 Gaven Street, San Francisco, CA 94134 sfschool.org

p: 415 239 5065 f: 415 239 4833

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@sfschool