The Chestnut Hill School has great teachers Dynamic classrooms are filled with children who engage students in every aspect of their of diverse cultures and backgrounds. In the development while inspiring them to reach for the younger years and under the care of expert highest possible academic standards. Often this teachers, children yearn to improve their social involves coordinated cross-disciplinary study, and understandings and to broaden their intellectual it always results in meaningful exploration of self horizons. Our distinctive approach provides and others. Here at CHS our goal is to develop skills, opportunities for self-awareness, self-discipline, both academic and non-academic, to encourage and self-respect. We actively encourage the individuality, to spur creativity, and to cultivate refinement of empathy. leadership. Educating. Engaging. Inspiring. othing advances learning so much as trusting relationships Nbetween student and teacher—a CHS hallmark. Thanks to a constantly self-renewing culture of high aspiration, CHS students are confident to take risks and push themselves outside of their initial comfort zones. Because they feel both challenged and supported by their teachers, they are as easily able to share their thoughts eloquently in Open Circle as to drill down on those activities that do not necessarily come naturally for them. CHALLENGING ACADEMICS, WHOLE-HEARTED SUPPORT ur educational philosophy is O most fully showcased in a diverse, inclusive, and nurturing community where learning is infused with meaning, purpose, and joy. We offer a rigorous, multi-dimensional curriculum that develops the whole child and provides a range of opportunities for students to engage in active learning. We believe students do their best both when they feel a sense of belonging and when they develop close personal relationships with adults and peers. We recognize the importance of family involvement in a child’s education and value a cooperative home/school partnership. In pursuing academic excellence, we support the growth of competent, caring, well- rounded students who think critically, creatively, and conceptually. Our students stand out not only because they exhibit curiosity and show initiative, but equally because they embrace challenge and show flexibility and perseverance in problem-solving. TEACHING THROUGH A DEVELOPMENTAL LENS RICH TAPESTRY OF STORIES ith great respect for the importance mastering core skills, both as students and ur mission finds expression in the curricular focus on multicultural similarities W of addressing children’s needs in a citizens, while maintaining a creative, hands-on, O celebration of individual difference and and differences, students participate regularly developmentally appropriate manner, we base and richly interdisciplinary approach. In the unique identity, and our students are encouraged and creatively in a broad variety of mission- all educational practice on the assumption that upper elementary classroom students have to embrace multiple perspectives both in the enhancing special activities. These include children are continuously progressing from one enhanced opportunities to apply those skills, classroom and in community life. Trained all-school musical recitals, multidisciplinary stage of development to the next. In the early engaging in complex interdisciplinary projects extensively in diversity, equity, and inclusion research projects, grade-specific theatrical years, a careful balance of play and structured that foster organizational growth, time issues, our teachers are intentional in the ways productions, and content rich field trips activity supports students’ personal, social, management, long-term planning, and self- they help students to gain understandings and overnight programs designed to bring and cognitive growth. In the primary grades, reflection. These are the very habits of mind from literature, art, social studies, and everyday curriculum to life. our program places an increased emphasis on that are so necessary for success in life. experience. In addition to a carefully-coordinated SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING rogramming robots, collaborating with problems. In addition, our technology resources— Ppartners, analyzing and adjusting code, equipment as well as teacher expertise—enhance designing real-time solutions to challenges learning in all subject areas, both through associated with friction and gravity, building curricular integration and through platforms bridges out of everyday materials, constructing for digital documentation, communication, wooden race cars: These are just some of and archiving. All students learn important the ways our students explore the Science, woodworking skills in the process of building Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math numerous individual products, and the art studio (STEAM) curriculum through our innovative provides a sanctuary for visual and creative Building and Engineering program. expression. Whether constructing objects for real-life application—pendulums, catapults— From the earliest grades, our science curriculum asking open-ended questions, or devising affords opportunities for children to explore experiments to test for determining variables, materials, devise hypotheses, imagine possible children utilize mathematical thinking in activities outcomes, collect and analyze data, draw as varied as the writing of detailed lab reports conclusions, and work cooperatively with to the presentation of STEAM Fair results. partners in attempting to solve real-world MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING ingapore Math—the cornerstone of our math S program—uses research-based multi-sensory strategies to enhance mathematical reasoning. In STEAM emphasizing depth and conceptual understanding over breadth, the program reinforces foundational skills as well as multi-step problem-solving abilities. Moving from concrete to pictorial to abstract, the curriculum follows a linear progression and emphasizes real-world scenarios. Working with math manipulatives, such as cubes, rods, or pattern blocks, gives children in the younger grades an opportunity to cultivate number sense and a strong foundation for becoming competent and confident math learners. In the Middle Grades they are challenged to write number sentences, utilize visual problem- solving strategies, and eventually to develop and implement computational algorithms. Children in the Upper Grades reflect on their own learning by planning step-by-step solutions and articulating alternative strategies. This meta-cognitive approach—thinking about thinking—sharpens higher-order understanding while also stimulating creative problem-solving. he development of flexible and T self-enriching language fluency— reading, writing, researching—forms the core of our Language Arts program. Our goals are twofold: to develop confident readers able to gain information from texts of all genres and to train effective writers who are equally comfortable expressing themselves in creative and expository realms. With opportunities for sharing and for working independently at all levels, reading for pleasure stands out EN ESPAÑOL both as the strongest hook for early eginning with our three-year-old literacy and as the richest reward B students, Spanish instruction for higher-level achievement. In the is embedded into our program younger grades reading instruction across the grades. Emphasizing is delivered in small, fluid, skill-based conversational skills as well as groups, utilizing the assistance of a cultural fluency, the program literacy specialist and tailoring incorporates physical props, helpful instruction to the needs of each technologies, and dramatic tools to group. In the Upper Grades the reinforce vocabulary development curriculum focuses on deepening and conversational confidence. comprehension—both literal and Thanks to our dual focus on inferential—and on exposing students language and cultural fluency, the to an increasingly wide range of Spanish program opens windows of genres, including non-fiction, realistic discovery for many other aspects of fiction, historical and fantasy fiction, our curriculum: field trips to the local poetry, biography, and memoir. supermarket, songs and traditions Our youngest students begin their from Spanish-speaking communities journeys as writers through dictating around the world, windows of insight stories, illustrating their thoughts, into the everyday lives of children in and experimenting with invented different cultures, cross-disciplinary spelling. From the primary grades on, connections to numerous social a meaningful synergy exists between studies themes, and a Fifth-Grade genres in reading and writing. overnight “Spanish Immersion” trip Throughout the grades and at to Thompson Island in the Boston increasingly complex levels, students Harbor, where students engage in engage in a workshop model that simulated archaeology, cultural emphasizes all aspects of the writing discovery, and real-world process, from drafting to publishing. conversational practice. VISUAL ARTS isual self-expression and active V engagement with diverse media are among our core values. In exploring the breadth of activities associated with the studio—drawing, painting, ceramics, collage, fiber and digital arts—and in experimenting with materials, tools, techniques, MUSICAL EXPRESSIONS project planning, and exhibition, our students take delight in their emerging usic appreciation and musical creativity while building confidence, performance are strong M competence, and self-expression.