The Campus School kindergarten through sixth grade program is designed to give students a foundation and act as a launching pad. The foundation is set in the early grades, where students learn the concepts, skills, and habits of mind that enable them to understand themselves and the world in which we live. Our curriculum is grounded in mathematics, science, social studies and language arts. This core curriculum is enhanced by art, music, physical education, technology, and Spanish, giving our students a well-rounded and challenging school experience. Students can also study violin and cello in 1st and 2nd grade and trumpet, flute, and clarinet in 3rd - 6th grade and then perform in our orchestra. In addition, students in 4th - 6th grade can join our chorus.

Our teachers work collaboratively with our two learning specialists, the consulting psychologist, teacher aides, administrators, and student teachers to ensure the curriculum is taught in a holistic and dynamic manner. As students progress through the grades they master more complex content and concepts. We help students become critical and creative thinkers, understand multiple perspectives, and connect their learning to other subjects and the world outside of school. This makes learning meaningful and relevant.

Expectations for learning are set for each student, recognizing that each child is unique and that developmental norms can vary. We both challenge and support our students, finding the right balance for each child, which maximizes their growth and development as students and people.

When our students graduate from our school they are well prepared and ready to be launched into new successes and growth.

The makerspace at Campus School provides students and teachers with space and materials needed to give form to ideas they have. Ideas flow from curricular work in classrooms and other places where students interact with the school, including our various after-school offerings. Project-based learning, design-thinking, engineering, and arts and crafts activities are all linked to the maker-centered learning that happens in our makerspace.

Here, the center of learning naturally shifts from the teacher to the students. Students gain agency in their learning as they figure out how to solve problems they encounter as they bring form to ideas. They learn how something is constructed by taking it apart- and can then figure out how to repair it. They collaborate as they share thinking and make things together, and they revise ideas to push thinking forward. As they shift from a d.i.y mindset to a d.i.t mindset (do it together!), students in the makespace engage in collaborative knowledge-building, a central aspect of learning at Campus School.

Often, student-makers seek to learn how to do something they’ve never done before- sewing or attaching cardboard without adhesives, for example, in order to make their ideas. This “just-in-time learning” brings meaning and purpose to acquiring new skills. Teachers, parents, and fellow students can all serve to facilitate this learning.

In the makerspace, everything old is new again. Making by means of recycling, upcycling, repairing, and revising, our students evolve both objects and ideas. 

Read more about Design Thinking & Engineering at the Campus School.