The Neighborhood School is a community School District 1 (CSD 1) School of Choice.
We are located at 121 East Third Street and share the building with P.S. 63. The Neighborhood School was founded in September 1991, designed to meet an expressed need for a progressive approach to educating the children of our community.
The Neighborhood School provides a lively and diverse educational community. We see our diversity as one of our great strengths. In our mixed age, heterogeneous classroom, children of many different backgrounds learn to become part of a community that fosters not only tolerance but also true respect for all people.
The spirit of our founding by teachers, the director and parents is an important theme for everything that we do. Family involvement is vital and we encourage you to contribute to the school in any number of ways and share your opinions about the school decisions.
Our school has 13 classes spanning pre-kindergarten to 5th grade. Our classes are grouped in multi-age configurations to allow each child to develop both academic and leadership skills. (See section on Class Placement for more about multi-age grouping) This also allows the children and teachers to know each other and work together over a longer period of time. We have physical education, science and Spanish instruction for all children. Arts collaborations includes the PTA supported Studio in a School, the Partners@3rd program of the Third Street Music School and dance with Notes in Motion.
We believe that children learn by making sense of their world and their experiences. We have seen that they learn best through first-hand experiences with people, materials and places. Trips are an important part of the curriculum, along with the use of concrete materials, dramatizations and simulations as ways for children to recreate the themes and concepts they are studying.
Children explore and make hypotheses and discoveries of their own. Teachers provide a program rich in relevant, meaningful and functional experiences. In-depth studies of themes integrate language arts, thinking, science, social studies, mathematics, physical education, and the arts. Classroom work is conducted collaboratively so that children learn to work with others cooperatively in social groupings.
We help children to develop good habits of mind, to think creatively and analytically. We want our students to develop fully as individuals, and also as cooperative, responsible members of a group.