BLUE SCHOOL NEW YORK, NEW YORK HEAD OF SCHOOL START DATE: JULY 2021 WWW.BLUESCHOOL.ORG Purpose Reimagine education for a changing world. Mission To develop and share an inquiry-based approach to education that fosters creativity, promotes academic excellence, nurtures human relationships, and inspires a growing passion for learning. Vision Communities of creative, joyful, compassionate learners who use courageous and innovative thinking to build a harmonious and sustainable world. OVERVIEW Reimagining education for a changing world, Blue School combines the best educational practices with the most current innovative approaches to learning that are steeped in human development and neuroscience. Blue School has created an educational program for students in Pre-primary (age 2) through 8th grade that dynamically balances academic mastery, self and social intelligence, and creative thinking—the three domains needed in education to help children develop to their fullest potential. This balanced approach empowers children to be capable, creative and courageous. Blue School focuses on the proficiency of academic skills through an inquiry-based approach, by inspiring passion for learning through creative thinking and problem-solving while fostering students’ ability to act and respond to the world around them with self and social understanding. Creative thinking is nurtured as students are encouraged to explore meaningful questions from many perspectives. Teachers listen to, support, and extend children’s questions, insights, and interests through academic initiatives that unleash curiosity and intellectual passions. Rooted in social justice values, the learning environment cultivates ways of thinking and encourages each student to collaboratively problem solve and take action within a trusting inclusive community. Serving as educational leader of the school, the next Head of School will be an experienced and dynamic educator with a steadfast commitment to Blue School’s forward-thinking mission. This is an outstanding opportunity for a school leader to provide vision and joyful enthusiasm for Blue School’s primary purpose of developing and sharing an inquiry-based approach to education that fosters creativity, promotes academic excellence, nurtures human relationships, and inspires a growing passion for learning. The Search Group | Carney, Sandoe & Associates 2 [email protected] | www.carneysandoe.com Fast Facts Total enrollment: 300 Students of color: 38% Total faculty and staff: 111 Faculty and staff of color: 30% Faculty holding advanced degrees: 90% Student/teacher ratio: 7:1 Students receiving financial aid: 33% Total aid awarded in 2019-20: $4.4 M SCHOOL HISTORY Blue School was created in 2006 by six artists, three of whom are the founders of Blue Man Group, the global theatrical phenomenon that was designed to inspire creativity in both audience and performer. Having grown and matured from a parent run playgroup into an established Pre-primary, Primary, and Middle School, Blue School has been recognized by multiple media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, WIRED Magazine, and more, as one of the most innovative schools in the world. It has also been recognized by current and highly respected thought leaders in education and human development who have joined the school’s Advisory Board, such as Sir Ken Robinson, PhD, Dr. Daniel Siegel, and Dr. Larry Cohen. The founders set out to build a learning environment where creativity is cherished and encouraged and where children fall in love with the joy of learning. They established a healthy, warm, safe, nurturing environment where community is paramount and where children’s interactions between periods is just as important as what happens during classes. Blue School draws from powerful influences, old and new, and recombines these influences with cutting-edge research to create an innovative approach to education. THE SCHOOL Blue School’s Balance Model is a comprehensive learning framework that is equal parts Academic Mastery, Self and Social Intelligence, and Creative Thinking. The Balance Model outlines the school’s priority to cultivate adaptable thinkers, collaborative problem-solvers, and irrepressible innovators. The Search Group | Carney, Sandoe & Associates 3 [email protected] | www.carneysandoe.com The school has assembled a team of inspired, masterful educators to help realize its vision. Faculty and staff are carefully chosen for their talent, humility, intelligence, humor, and capacity for learning. Teachers are deeply experienced practitioners; 80% have advanced degrees in their field, and all have chosen to be at Blue School to be part of a growing and thriving community with shared purpose. The school is committed to creating and maintaining a school culture that welcomes, recognizes, and celebrates diversity in all of its forms, and to providing a nurturing community that holds and cares deeply and authentically for its members. Students understand that action connected to their values is part of their responsibility as social beings, as it pertains to their families, classrooms, neighborhood, and the broader global and political sphere. Blue School strives to foster trust, empathy, and compassion through its pedagogy, operations, and activities, both inside the classroom and in the larger school community. Diversity, equity, and social justice work are priorities throughout Blue School’s pedagogy and community. From classroom curriculum, affinity groups, professional development for faculty and staff, committees, and mixed constituent work groups, this work is visible and palpable. The daily work of students, staff, and parents draws a direct line to its vision of a more equitable, diverse, harmonious, inclusive, and sustainable world. Community Meeting is one such example of this work. At weekly rituals, the community comes together to recognize one another and strengthen community bonds. In grades 4-8, students and teachers sit together in a circle and follow the same routine each week, beginning with a song that is often chosen by a student. Time is spent sharing out gratitudes and reflections, which is an opportunity for individual students to recognize and appreciate another person’s positive actions. In the 4/5s through the 3rd grade, students present year-long inquiry work, sing songs, and practice mindfulness exercises, accompanied by a parent or caretaker. A few times a year, Community Meeting takes other forms, such as Joke Day and Winter Celebration and, in recent years, it has The Search Group | Carney, Sandoe & Associates 4 [email protected] | www.carneysandoe.com been home to an annual Oratorical Festival to honor the oratory and activism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The parent community at Blue School is a group of warm, engaged parents who learn together, make connections, play together, and offer support in important ways that are an essential part of school life. The Families Association supports the mission and vision of the school and makes connections with Blue School’s vibrant community of adults. All Blue School parents are welcome to attend Families Association meetings and to collaborate on event planning. Family events include class potlucks, discussion groups, community gatherings, and meet-ups. Great value is also placed on adult learning, and parents are invited to join discussion groups, parent roundtables, cross-divisional affinity groups, and other events to continue learning about education and child development. ACADEMICS Pre-primary: Ages 2-4 Young children seek to understand, create, and connect with others and with the world around them. In the Pre-primary program, Blue School encourages this innate motivation to explore and learn by listening and responding to children’s questions and ideas, offering dynamic environments and inviting materials that allow children to engage all of their senses, and creating opportunities for collaboration, discussion, and meaningful relationships. In Pre-primary, young children experience school as a space that is created both for and by them, encouraging a sense of ownership and agency in relation to their immediate world. Students begin to deepen their awareness of themselves and learn to value being part of a community—considering The Search Group | Carney, Sandoe & Associates 5 [email protected] | www.carneysandoe.com other perspectives, building friendships, and developing a flexible, respectful and caring attitude towards others. They explore and expand their vision of what is possible in our world—through imagination, difference, even conflict. While goals for children from the 2s through the 4/5s remain consistent, an emergent project- based approach throughout the three years of the program is a progression that builds on previous experiences and skills and evolves along with children’s increasingly complex and robust capacity for expression, collaboration, and independence. Primary: Grades K-5 Primary children enter a stage of developmental integration in which they are organizing and combining various skills to accomplish increasingly complex tasks and to understand concepts. Children develop more fully into unique and curious individuals who comprehend and formulate questions and ideas about their immediate world. They are guided and challenged to reflect on their learning process, receive individual feedback, and vigorously revise work. The work carried out in this process mirrors the authentic and collaborative work of the real