This is Childhood Village School
M I S S I O N S TAT E M E N T WE ARE A VILLAGE OF STUDENTS, FAMILIES, AND EDUCATORS WITH A COMMON GOAL: TO CREATE A CHILDHOOD OF WONDER, JOY, AND CHALLENGE WHERE CHILDREN EXPAND THEIR MINDS AND HEARTS, FIND THEIR GREATER PURPOSE, AND PREPARE TO ENGAGE WITH THE WIDER WORLD.
Village School
strikes the perfect balance, providing
rigorous and inspired academics in a loving, home-like environment. Here, we celebrate the gifts and interests of each child. Here, our younger students skip through the gates—that’s how eager they are to start their days—and our older students say good morning, making eye contact and holding doors. Just like an actual village, we are a close-
Our Village raises kids who
knit community with time-honored traditions, where kids
know and care about the
can experience a true sense of childhood, exploring and
world, have high EQs, think
taking risks in a safe space. We also embrace innovation and
outside the box, exercise
diversity, keeping pace with a rapidly changing world. Once
good judgment, and cultivate
you join our village, you belong. Your voice is welcomed,
an instinct for self-reflection.
encouraged, and becomes an integral part of our every day
Village students make
and our future.
decisions with passion and integrity.
Childhood is Exploring Transitional Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and First Grade
Second, Third, and Fourth Grades
This is a magical time in the life of Village students. Our youngest learners occupy the lower level of campus in a space tailor-made for them that encourages inquiry and inventiveness. Here you’ll find our transitional kindergartners creating kingdoms out of giant foam blocks, kindergartners tooling down the “tricycle highway” during recess and traveling from one continent to another in global studies, and first graders spending Readers’ Workshop in their very own garden and learning to think beyond our school walls. Our one TK class and three Kindergarten classes average 14 students, each with a lead teacher and associate teacher. This class size allows for the needs of every learner to be addressed wherever they are on the path of literacy and numeracy development. The enthusiasm for learning and connections with friends and faculty lay the foundations for their Village journey. First graders transition into two classes of 20, each with two teachers. First grade is a year defined by growth: building skills as readers and writers and maximizing their natural curiosity about the numbers, shapes and mathematical concepts that surround them in their everyday lives.
In the middle grades, Village students grow to become fluent and mindful readers, transitioning from learning to read to reading to learn, creative mathematicians, writers with voice and passion, scientists who question, and historians who ponder. They gain critical thinking skills and are guided to become active participants in their learning and more independent in their academic and social lives. The middle grade years are marked by a thoughtful and age-appropriate move from a developmental to more traditional approach to learning.
Fifth and Sixth Grades
Fifth and sixth graders make up Village’s Upper Division where students receive instruction from content specialty teachers. This allows for a more in-depth exploration of fields of study as well as preparation for the structure of secondary school. Students learn valuable study and executive functioning skills as they travel as homerooms between classes. By creating a two-year experience to master the skills needed to navigate the world of middle school, Village students graduate more than ready for what lies ahead.
Childhood is Discovering All students from Transitional Kindergarten to sixth grade visit specialist classes on a regular basis. Library, science,
music, art, Spanish, physical education, technology, and Math Lab complement the academic program and introduce them to the hands-on learning that is a hallmark of Village. Many specialist classes include service learning components, such as partnerships with Musicians Without Borders and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,
encouraging students to see how they can make a positive impact. Extracurricular opportunities include athletics teams beginning in fourth grade and the Village Singers program, service learning, and enrichment classes for all grade levels. Our studio, athletics, and classroom space for specialist classes are all designed to inspire and engage, with state-of-theart equipment and resources. Newly built technology and science labs give Village students space to investigate the world around them and become deep thinkers, creative problem solvers and ingenious inventors with 3D printers, a video room complete with green screen, maker space materials, VR and AR elements, and robotics kits. Annual events such as Dia de los Muertos, the Winter Concert, and the STEAM Expo showcase our students’ creative spirt and bring our community together to celebrate their hard work.
Village School begins and ends with community. Once you join
our Village, you belong. Your voice is welcomed, encouraged, and becomes an integral part of our everyday and our future. Our greatest strength is our community. From small class sizes that nurture deep and meaningful connections between students and teachers to our buddy programs, pairing our oldest students with our youngest, to rites of passage and school traditions that help forge lifelong friendships among families, Village celebrates our connections to each other. At Village, we know that in order for students to excel they must first feel known and valued for who they are. This is why we structure our program to interweave the academic and social emotional realms. The Village Values—caring, courage, fairness, respect, responsibility and trust—provide a framework for the school’s approach to social learning and ethical development. These values guide students everyday to independently communicate and solve problems. Using our models of Community Circles and Family Circles, students connect across grade levels and are empowered to cultivate their voice, develop empathy, and internalize the values that support their growth and success. At Village School creating a sense of safety and belonging are core to how we approach teaching and learning. Focusing on the concept of having windows and mirrors in their
community experience develops students’ academic success by allowing them to both see themselves (mirrors) in the curriculum and to see beyond themselves (windows). This balance directly engages students in the rich diversity of their local and global communities and lays the groundwork for them to develop into empathetic, creative problem-solvers and change makers. Our curriculum is built to continually renew itself and become more inclusive in order to remain equitable, challenging, and forward thinking.
Childhood is Connecting
fast facts
5
team sports offered (grades 4–6)
26%
290
30%
35
of students identify as people of color of faculty identify as people of color
students in grades TK–6
2
complimentary bus routes serve neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles
service learning clubs
parent association volunteer committees
140+
parent volunteers each year
celebrating our
8
6:1
student to teacher ratio
• TK & K class size: 12–15 • grades 1–6 class size: 18–20
45th anniversary in 2022
35%
$1,000,000
Just under in tuition assistance distributed each year
of faculty are male families come from
33
different zip codes
good to know STUDENT RESOURCES
Math Specialist Educational Technology Specialist Director of Equity & Inclusion Librarian Learning Specialist School Nurse
CAMPUS AMMENITIES
Gymnasium Library (14,000 volume collection) Math Lab Art Studio DREAM Lab (Design, Research, Engineering, Art, & Making) Playing Field Science Lab Music Room Learning Garden
V I L L A G E A L U M N I C U R R E N T LY AT T E N D :
ARCHER SCHOOL FOR GIRLS BRENTWOOD SCHOOL CAMPBELL HALL SCHOOL CROSSROADS SCHOOL GEFFEN ACADEMY HARVARD-WESTLAKE SCHOOL MARLBOROUGH SCHOOL NEW ROADS SCHOOL PAUL REVERE CHARTER MIDDLE SCHOOL VIEWPOINT SCHOOL WILDWOOD SCHOOL WILLOWS COMMUNITY SCHOOL WINDWARD SCHOOL
VILLAGE VALUES: CARING COURAGE FAIRNESS RESPECT RESPONSIBILITY TRUST
Village School | 780 Swarthmore Avenue | Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 310-459-8411 | www.village-school.org
VILLAGE SCHOOL This is Childhood ACC RED I TAT I ON S & M E MBER SH I P S:
California Association of Independent Schools Western Association of Schools & Colleges National Association of Independent Schools Independent School Alliance for Minority Affairs Private School Village