A Look Inside Our Lower School

Oh, Boy(s)

We know how to teach

A LOOK INSIDE OUR LOWER SCHOOL

Our teaching style has lots of wiggle room.

For more than St. Christopher’s because we know boys.

As a global leader in understanding, engaging and teaching boys effectively, we have found that boys learn best from active, hands-on experiences. Early education is critical in laying the foundation for your son’s lifelong success. Our curriculum — like having PE multiple times a week and recess every day — is created to help develop and focus their physical, intellectual and emotional energy. This allows them to become men who make a positive impact on the world.

LOWER SCHOOL WITH A HIGHER BAR

Our Lower School classrooms are filled with dynamic experiences that will spark your son’s curiosity. We understand how boys think, act and learn, and our programs are designed to challenge and inspire them. Our youngest Saints enter middle school as more creative, more compassionate and more confident thinkers — ready to lead and ready to learn.

WHY ST. CHRISTOPHER’S?

We are committed to educating the whole boy — in mind, body and spirit. There are three key areas that set St. Christopher’s apart.

(1) We are the best at teaching boys

(2) We provide a values-based education

(3) We foster an atmosphere of academic excellence

In our accreditation with the Virginia Association of Independent Schools (VAIS), they assessed:

OUR FACULTY IS PASSIONATE ABOUT TEACHING BOYS

We love boys for who they are, so we are committed to bringing out the best in each of our students — academically, artistically and spiritually. Our teachers will get to know your son individually so that they can learn his unique qualities and help him grow the confidence and life skills he needs to be successful.

“ With research and outreach nationally and internationally to understand and promote boys’ learning, the visiting team believes the school has become a model for how to effectively educate boys.”

We believe in boys. To our core.

01. We love and understand boys.

02. We take pride in our whole boy approach to education.

03.

We are committed to academic excellence and preparing boys for both college and life.

04.

We recognize that we are part of something greater than ourselves.

05. We value the power of relationships and community.

06.

We believe that every boy has both the capacity and responsibility to have a positive impact on the world around him.

07.

We care most about developing young men who possess character and integrity.

Start early to finish strong.

90% of a child’s brain development happens by age 5, * which means that the years leading up to and including Kindergarten are crucial for your son’s development. These are the prime years to help your child learn life skills like problem-solving and communication. That is why we have designed our Junior Kindergarten (JK) and Kindergarten (K) programs to nurture creativity and encourage curiosity while setting a positive tone for the rest of your son’s schooling.

SERVICE LEARNING LEADERSHIP

We teach our boys that there is something bigger than themselves through our service learning projects. Each Lower School grade partners with a local nonprofit organization, so your son will learn ways in which he can give back to his community.

At St. Christopher’s, leadership is taught from day one. Whether it is Junior Kindergartners taking on the job of a line leader or Kindergartners practicing firm handshakes and eye contact, we believe leadership skills are essential in raising the next generation of men.

* https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/

We promote choosing the hard right over the easy wrong because men of character begin as boys with values.

Junior Kindergarten JK

At this age, boys learn so much through play, so our Junior Kindergarten program is designed to teach them valuable skills in a fun, hands-on environment. Your son will practice independence, develop self-confidence and prepare for Kindergarten, making lifelong friends along the way.

SERVICE LEARNING

Our youngest Saints partner with Angel Tree to learn how they can make an impact on others by gathering Christmas gifts for families in need.

FIELD TRIPS

Your son will learn hands on at the pumpkin patch, explore Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and experience the arts at Virginia Repertory Theatre to complement his in-class lessons.

FAMILY & FRIENDS

Families are important to us at St. Christopher’s, so we provide opportunities for activities such as sewing projects and flower planting to play and learn along with your son.

Making Learning Fun

In JK, we focus on empathy — what can we do to make someone else smile? This value is exemplified through our service learning activities, our lessons and our daily discussions.

Kindergarten

We have found that boys who are actively engaged in their learning get the most out of it. That is why in Kindergarten, we help your son develop his enthusiasm for school by teaching math, science, reading and more through immersive activities that make learning fun.

SERVICE LEARNING

Our Kindergarten theme is kids helping kids. Students will partner with The Children’s Hospital to provide art goody bags for young patients.

FIELD TRIPS

Your son will get out of the classroom and into the community with field trips to the Virginia Repertory Theatre and the pumpkin patch.

FAMILY & FRIENDS

From Halloween pumpkin carving to Christmas stocking sewing to reading in the classroom, you will have many chances to participate in your son’s Kindergarten experience. Plus, the boys will have a buddy at St. Catherine’s with whom they can share traditions such as our Valentine’s Day Tea.

Making Learning Fun

Our Kindergartners love activities like 75 minutes of Spanish each week, learning about life cycles by hatching chicks, connecting with their Senior buddies and wearing pajamas to school on Hibernation Day.

Setting the foundation for his future

The time spent in First through Fifth Grades is a foundation that will set the tone for the rest of your son’s academic and personal life.

Our curriculum is designed to build year after year. Always putting boy-centered fun at the heart of classrooms, we help our boys develop and strengthen the unique qualities that will set each of them on their path toward success.

BUILDING BLOCKS FOR SUCCESS

First Grade

Your son’s First Grade experience will build on his JK & K foundation so that he continues to discover and express his individual strengths in an environment that is enhanced by physical activity and movement.

SERVICE LEARNING

First Graders work with local animal shelters like Richmond Animal Care and Control and Sanctuary Rescue to learn empathy and responsibility.

FIELD TRIPS

First Grade field trips include the Richmond Metro Zoo, the Valentine Museum and Virginia Repertory Theatre.

FAMILY & FRIENDS

Our special partnership with St. Catherine’s School gives your son access to the best elements of a coed experience through shared activities like building candy houses in December.

Making Learning Fun

In First Grade, the environment is increasingly challenging but always fun. Boys do everything from learning the history of St. Christopher’s to writing their own fairy tales.

Second Grade 2nd

SERVICE LEARNING

As they grow, we encourage our boys to learn through investigation. This helps them digest complex concepts and connect their lessons to the world around them.

Second Graders work with the James River Association and the World Wildlife Fund to learn the importance of preserving our ecosystem.

FIELD TRIPS

Adventure awaits your son with field trips to Pony Pasture, Maymont, Tredegar Iron Works, Henricus Historical Park and Brown’s Island.

FAMILY & FRIENDS

Boys learn the value of mentorship and collaboration by creating quilts with their Middle School buddies. Second Graders practice their new cursive skills by writing letters to their pen pals at St. Catherine’s.

Making Learning Fun

Our focus on rivers includes real soil sampling on the James River and River Night when boys transform their rooms into a famous river and adopt an endangered animal to protect.

Third Grade 3rd

Using technology to support his learning experience, your son will work collaboratively and independently to build skills like reading comprehension, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, Spanish, PE, music and art.

SERVICE LEARNING

To accompany the Third Grade lesson on natural disasters, students will partner with the Red Cross and complete service projects that focus on disaster preparedness, blood donation services and fundraising.

FIELD TRIPS

Field trips include visiting Monticello, St. John’s Church and the State Capitol, and cruising Richmond’s historic Canal Walk, giving our growing Saints a holistic look at our state’s and city’s history and culture.

FAMILY & FRIENDS

Each boy has a St. Catherine’s buddy, and they participate in several activities — Math Day, where they practice math concepts and skills together, and a grade-level kickball game.

Making Learning Fun

In Third Grade, your son will get to be the School’s weather boy for a day and present the weather report in front of a green screen.

As your son grows, we build his independence and guide him and his classmates as they absorb new and complex concepts. All the while, he is becoming more aware of his strengths and how they will help him make a positive impact in the world.

SERVICE LEARNING

At Shalom Farms, the boys will learn about farm-to-table by actually harvesting crops, which go directly to the Food Bank.

FIELD TRIPS

Our Fourth Grade Saints take a trip to Kings Dominion, where the roller coasters are a hands-on experience of force and motion.

FAMILY & FRIENDS

Classes create goods and services to sell to the Lower School at our Entrepreneur Expo. Through this experience and Business Seminars, boys learn about the world of business.

Making Learning Fun

Fourth Grade students learn early concepts of the physics of matter and the periodic table of elements by making and launching tall hot-air balloons made out of paper.

Fifth Grade 5th

As our Fifth Graders prepare for Middle School, the curriculum invites them to take bigger intellectual risks and find solutions to challenging problems. They also have many leadership opportunities through the Chapel Team, Leader of the Lower School, Leaders of our Literary Societies and the Student Council Association.

SERVICE LEARNING

Boys partner with CARITAS Furniture Bank and build furniture for people exiting homelessness so they can have the resources they need to be successful.

FIELD TRIPS

Field trips continue to open their eyes to the world around them through visits to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, a naturalization ceremony, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Montpelier.

FAMILY & FRIENDS

Our Dads Read program invites Fifth Graders to partner with their dad or a male mentor to read three books over the fall semester, which culminates with a friendly competition.

Making Learning Fun

Fifth Graders head west to the mountains of Virginia for an overnight trip before leaving the Lower School. This outdoor experience enhances the boys’ learning and health through individual growth, team building and the acquisition of practical outdoor skills.

We foster an atmosphere of academic excellence.

Our Boys Using Innovation to Learn and Design (BUILD) program begins in Junior Kindergarten, where boys start coding with Code-A-Pillars.

The goal of BUILD is to provide the framework for our Saints to tinker and find innovative solutions to increasingly challenging problems. BUILD takes the best of STEM/STEAM approaches and combines them with a broad, skillsbased, project-centered focus.

Lower School Musical: A highlight of our Lower School experience, this annual musical production brings together every Saint from K through Fifth Grade as they learn every aspect of a dramatic production, including makeup, costumes and how a play comes together.

Literary Society: Through this biannual poetry recitation, boys get to participate in a friendly oratorical competition as they develop the skills of rhetoric and confidence through public speaking.

Battle of the Books: Our Saints from Third through Fifth Grades can compete in the ultimate book challenge! This exciting quiz-style competition inspires their love for reading.

Spiritual Life: St. Christopher’s embraces the Episcopal tradition that sees each person as a child of God and values inclusion and spiritual growth. The Lower School gathers for chapel each week. Chapel is a time not only for prayer, singing and worship but to be spiritually fed by messages from the chaplain and guest speakers. Every student is a member of the Missionary Society, a charge for students to live out their highest calling — service to others.

JUST LIKE OUR BOYS, WE ARE ALWAYS LEARNING

The Center for the Study of Boys, our research and professional development center, helps train our staff in best practices to engage and teach boys.

The success of this program has allowed us to share our findings with other educators in the area so that we are building strong men even outside our doors.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

We’ve got his back so he can keep looking forward.

INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION

JK, K and First Grade have two full-time teachers per room so your son gets plenty of 1:1 time.

A FOCUS ON WELLNESS

We provide our Lower School boys with a nurse, a counselor and full access to the doctor on staff.

LEARNING THROUGH MOTION

Boys need to move. That’s why we have three PE teachers on staff for our Lower School Saints.

OTHER SUPPORT FEATURES

Our boys have their own chaplain and academic support team, which includes a math specialist and two reading specialists to ensure a holistic education.

Practicing positive traits through our Core Values

The Lower School has a set of Core Values, which includes empathy, honor, courage and gratitude.

Every month, Lower School boys focus on a specific character trait in an age-appropriate way. Integrated into the classroom, library, chapel and even on the playground, the boys learn what each of these traits means and why they are important.

After-school options for our families

Our robust Extended Day program — available to students in JK through Eighth Grade at St. Christopher’s and St. Catherine’s — serves many distinct needs. With flexible options, your son can extend the school day until 6 p.m. up to five days per week. Extended Day also provides care from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on some School holidays.

Extended Day is designed to have the right balance of structure and fun in a safe and loving environment. With over 400 boys and girls enrolled in Extended Day on an annual basis, the program is robust and serves a majority of Saints families from JK through Eighth Grade.

Special Activities

A hallmark of Extended Day is the supervised study hall time that provides continuity to our regular academic day. The goal is to help our Saints complete most, if not all, of their homework during Extended Day, freeing up the evenings for family time.

Students in Extended Day can take advantage of age-appropriate fun, including playtime, free choice, outdoor games, art or cheering on a Saints sports team.

SUPERVISED STUDY HALL