Lower School Expansion and Renovation Case Booklet

Moses Brown School

Reimagined Lower School

Coming Full Circle Back to MB’s Youngest Learners As we move through the final year of the MB Believes Campaign (ending summer 2020), it’s fitting that we focus our attention on the transformation of our Lower School. The strategic vision that has come to life on our campus in recent years was initially grounded in our hopes and dreams for MB’s youngest children. Back in 2011, Head of School Matt Glendinning asked the community to consider the following: The three-year-olds who entered our Nursery this year will graduate from college in the year 2030 (for today’s Nursery students that is 2038!). The careers they’ll aspire to and the challenges they’ll face may not exist yet. So how does a 230-year-old school remain true to its time-tested philosophy while also creating a culture of innovation, one that will prepare these students for the changing world of the future?

Our community has emphatically answered this question with $56 million of unprecedented investments in the learning, people and places of Moses Brown. We’ve stayed true to our Quaker values with an increased emphasis on ethical leadership and global engagement, as we’ve added myriad programs and facilities that provide experiences and develop skills essential for success in the volatile, ever-changing world our youngest students will face.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

As the world gets increasingly complex, neuro and educational research also continues to show the critical nature of early childhood learning to long-term intellectual and ethical growth and development. Thanks to MB Believes our Lower Schoolers experience an increasingly vibrant program; they use tools like Code-a-Pillar and Creatoverse to learn the basics of coding and sequencing, gain confidence and build community as they embark on overnight educational trips, understand their place in the world through participation in the highly complex World Peace Game, learn collaborative problemsolving and the basics of engineering in the Y-Lab, and they showcase their creativity performing in the Woodman Center.

Now, as we share our plans for a new, state-of-the-art Lower School facility, we remain focused on fostering the inner promise of each child. We seek to create a nurturing and inspiring space, one where a young person can discover the things that ignite their Inner Light and use it as a beacon around which they build their education, values, a love of learning, and place as MB community members and global citizens. It’s inspiring to come full circle, back to thinking about the needs of our three-year-olds in Nursery.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

A New Facility

Elevating a Leading-Edge Educational Philosophy

For nearly 115 years, families have chosen Moses Brown as the school for their youngest children, because of our challenging and responsive program, our caring coteaching model and the deep integration of Quaker values in the day-to-day educational experience. With the renovations of the entire Lower School building and the expansion into the old heating plant, the new Lower School facility will reflect a vibrant, thriving community of learners, ages three through ten, allowing for the kinds of collaboration and shared experiences that define our Lower School program.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

Lower School teachers create academically stimulating environments that nurture a passion for learning. In the classrooms and lab, teachers introduce students to independent thinking, cooperation and decision making, while also emphasizing the importance of being responsible citizens, caring for others and the world around them. These lofty goals require flexible space and learning zones, the opportunity to gather students in a circle, to have them work in pods, to let them explore in a lab and research and report.

Connecting different learning spaces and bringing satellite functions back into one building allow teachers to collaborate on cross-disciplinary projects, communicating more easily about the student experience as well as the academic program.

And most importantly, the Lower School project reflects our Quaker values, providing opportunities for gathering in community, celebrating individuality and sharing voices and ideas. These are values that children live out in their elementary school years, and ones that will carry them forward to rich, fulfilling lives.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

LOWER LEVEL FLOOR PLAN Built in 1975, MB’s current Lower School has helped generations of children begin their journey of learning. In a top-to-bottom renovation and expansion, key features such as the abundance of natural light, flexible teaching spaces, and easy access to the outdoors will be preserved. New elements include a well-designed entrance plaza with enhanced security, larger spaces for early childhood grades (N-1st), an imaginative play area, administrative offices and The Commons serving as a library, public gathering spot and home for foreign language learning.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

UPPER LEVEL FLOOR PLAN Older students (2nd-4th) will be located on the completely renovated upper level, featuring larger and reimagined classrooms, a music studio, a STEM hub called the Wonder Lab and a flexible suite of rooms designed for individual learning support and small group breakout sessions. Fully ADA-accessible, MB’s new Lower School will provide our students with a bright, safe, state-of-the-art facility in which to explore, learn, grow and thrive.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

NEW ENTRY PLAZA Welcome to the reimagined and transformed Lower School! Every inch of existing

space will be renovated and we’re adding 2,000 sq. ft. It all starts with a new entrance and outdoor community space and a covered walkway linking the Lower School to The Commons. While much is changing, students will still start every day with a handshake and warm greeting. Just inside the secure entrance is the administrative suite, faculty room and a re-made, self-contained early childhood center (N-1st grade).

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

THE COMMONS The Commons will be the new heart of Lower School. Creatively re-purposing a

historic building from the 1940s, The Commons will provide a place to gather, browse, read, present, perform and learn. Stepped seating and flexible furniture allows the entire Lower School to gather, collaborate and celebrate. With formal teaching spaces and a variety of cozy nooks, students’ love of reading and research will flourish. Not shown here, students can also study foreign language in a classroom on the upper level.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

THE PLAY STUDIO Using all five senses, MB’s youngest students learn by playing and doing! Whether building a castle in the sandbox, painting a masterpiece, investigating liquids at the water table, designing bridges with blocks or dressing in costume in the make-believe loft, the 850-sq.-ft. Play Studio invites beginning learners to let their imaginations run wild. Immediately adjacent to the early childhood classrooms, this inviting new shared space includes a cooking and nutrition lab and a dedicated nurse’s station nearby.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

REIMAGINED CLASSROOMS Every classroom space in the Lower School will be enlarged and reimagined. Drawing

on research and experience about how children learn best, our classrooms can be quickly and efficiently configured into a variety of learning zones to meet multiple purposes and pedagogical needs (discussion, research, construction/making, reading, collaboration, problem-solving, presentation, community time and more!). A reflection of our teachers’ innovative practices, such adaptable physical spaces support student-centered learning and empower children to find their voice and take ownership of their learning.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

WONDER LAB MB students use scientific methods and technological tools to explore the world

and imagine ways to make it a better place. Part science lab (shown here), part makerspace, and part tech studio (through a sliding door), the Wonder Lab inspires students to ask big questions, hypothesize, gather and analyze data, draw conclusions and propose solutions. It’s a place for studying coding, circuitry, robotics and engineering, where hands-on experience and real-world applications help students develop creativity, resilience and collaborative problem-solving.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

Frequently Asked Questions When will construction begin?

Construction is slated to begin in January 2021. This timeline is dependent on the successful completion of fundraising; having received a $3 million lead gift, we have a high degree of confidence we will reach our $5.6 million goal.

When do you expect the project to be completed?

Construction is expected to be completed in about 8 months (during the second semester of the 2020-21 school year and the summer of 2021). The plan is for the new Lower School to be ready for the start of the 2021-22 school year. After a mere half-year hiatus from their current space, our students will return in the fall of 2021 to a completely new Lower School.

Where will Lower School students be during construction?

There will be NO mobile or trailer classrooms necessary—our entire Lower School program will be housed in existing MB spaces during construction. The likelihood is that the Lower School will be housed in several separate locations (younger learners in one space; older students in another).

We are currently finalizing these relocation details and will be able to provide complete plans in January 2020. We’ll then have a full year to thoughtfully work with students, teachers and parents on a transition plan that ensures the ongoing excellence of our educational program.

What criteria are you using to select temporary space?

Key criteria we are considering are safety and security; nurturing environment (including the relative privacy of the spaces); access to outdoor play space; adaptability of spaces for elementary education; access to restrooms; ease of parent drop-off and pick-up; and spaces appropriate for extended day programming.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

Fifth grade becomes part of MB’s middle school In the fall of 2021, MB’s fifth grade will also become part of the middle school. We began considering this move as a way to enrich the experience of our 10-11 year-olds, who are developmentally and academically eager for greater challenges and opportunities. As part of the middle school, fifth graders will benefit from a doubling of instructional time in science and gain access to expanded world language opportunities. They will enjoy increased curricular offerings in performing and visual arts, as well as co-curricular competition in athletics, math and robotics. The new curriculum will combine signature elements of the current fifth grade, such as the Math Arcade design project and the civil rights trip to Washington, D.C., with new opportunities for research, writing and public speaking. We look forward to knowing and working with students for four years in grades 5-8 as we prepare them for high school and beyond.

Moses Brown School | Reimagined Lower School

MB Believes A CAMPAIGN FOR LEARNING, PEOPLE, AND PLACE

Moses Brown School Providence, RI 02906 401.831.7350

For more information, contact Perry Buroker at 401.831.7350 x289 or pburoker@mosesbrown.org