Peninsula School
Peninsula School creates a space where children thrive and develop their full promise as confident contributors in the world. Here they learn about themselves and others, discovering their passions and growing intellectually in an inclusive community rich with choices, exploration, and play.
Get to Know this Liberatory School
The Peninsula School is dedicated to progressive education in service of justice. They work to achieve more equitable outcomes through the recruitment of diverse students and staff, an inclusive culture, meaningful academics, and authentic interactions.
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Size: <300
Demographics:
~30% Students of Color
Grade Band: PreK-8
Governance Structure: Private
Website: https://www.peninsulaschool.org/
Graduate Aims
Design Principles
Community minded
Considerate of others, collaborative, inclusive, appreciate diversity, outgoing, ability to compromise, know how to run a group and participate appropriately in one
Learners
Love learning, intrinsic motivation, curious, high self knowledge, self advocates, persevere, proactive, creative, out of the box, know how to learn, learn for its own sake
Individuals
Comfortable with self and being unique, grounded, fearless, define own success, being unique is OK, adaptable to change, mature
Comfort with adults
Overall, Peninsula graduates leave the school with many excellent skills that will serve them well in high school and in life beyond.
Grade-free learning
At Peninsula, we cultivate and celebrate intellectual curiosity and a love of learning. Our non-competitive environment supports student collaboration, positive risk taking, creativity, and intrinsic motivation. Students grow to see learning as a treasured opportunity and a lifelong, personal journey.
Multi-age groupings at the primary level
Children are placed into classrooms that focus on aligning their developmental and cognitive readiness with that of a particular peer group. Such multi-age groupings support children to see themselves as individual learners who are developing at their own pace.
Student voice and choice
In our classrooms, democratic learning is part of the curriculum. Students are active participants in their learning and able to see their school experience in relationship to the outside world. Student voice, choice, and democratic decision-making practices are embedded in Peninsula’s model. We recognize children as community members, decision-makers, and creators.
Social-emotional development is as important as intellectual development
Our all-school focus on social and emotional learning cultivates self-awareness, empathy, and capacity for collaboration. Additionally, students are provided time to reflect on their learning. The relationships built at Peninsula often become lifelong bonds that support children across their lifetime.
The natural setting is part of the school experience
Peninsula’s spacious campus, filled with native trees and plants, invites students to discover aspects of the natural world in a school setting. Children participate in relaxed and unstructured play, developing an awareness of nature that cultivates their sense of place and the value of environmental stewardship.
Featured Student Experiences
Play (Nursery, ages 3-4)
running, swinging, digging, or other activities. Play helps children learn to understand themselves and others. It also aids in the development of social skills such as making friends, dealing with conflict, recognizing and expressing feelings, working together with peers to build and create things, and experiencing the many aspects of community life. Much of the day is structured so that children make their own choices. Children choose the activities in which they will participate, whether outside or in, active or quiet, messy or clean.
Field Trips
Peninsula teachers take over 35 field trips each school year to support our students in gaining a broader understanding of the world beyond school. We tour over five local science museums including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, California Academy of Sciences, and the San Jose Discovery Museum. We participate in environmental and service learning at local parks, sustainable farms, and wildlife refuges.
Class Meetings
Daily class meetings may appear simple but a close study reveals children engaging in social democracy, finding their voice, learning how to resolve conflicts, and experiencing viscerally the balance of individuality, diversity and community. It is here, while sharing, discussing a disagreement on the playing field, choosing and planning class activities, producing a play, or sponsoring a carnival, that children learn to be confident contributors, ethical leaders and compassionate citizens.
Activities Program (Primary, ages 4-9 + Upper ages 10-14)
Activity period occurs for one hour each day. Beginning in K–1, children choose the activity they attend and choose what they will be doing in the activity. Activities include art, science activity, clay, woodshop, math activity, library activity, weaving, and art. There is not a curriculum set by teachers for children to follow. Rather, it is self guided as children are encouraged to follow their interests and passions and design their own projects. Specialists in each of these fields provide supervision and offer advice and guidance as needed. There is one Activities period each day for Primary and one each day for Upper School; hence, Activities classes consist of a mixed age of students, providing an expanded social pool and strengthening the bonds of community across grade levels in a natural way.
Choice Program (Upper ages 10-14)
Beginning in the fifth grade, a Choice Program is offered to students five times a year. Choice units are classes teachers have developed (along with the students) of specific interest that are conducted in an intensive and focused way. Choice units are 2–3 week sessions for an hour a day. Also, because children enroll in Choice classes based on interest rather than on age, the resulting mix enables them to experience learning outside their own classrooms and in a variety of situations and groups. Choice topics are wide ranging and may focus on history, writing, sciences, handcrafts, or any of the arts.
Camping
Camping trips begin with a 2nd grade overnight and extend up through 8th grade where they have a short trip in the fall, together with the whole upper school, and an 8-day trip in May. Through camping, students build a deeper awareness of nature, self, and others, growing in self-confidence and the ability to collaborate and problem-solve. Each class bonds more closely as they spend more time together and have more shared experiences. They get to know their teachers on a deeper level, and vise versa; they take responsibility for themselves, their belongings and each other; they learn more about their peers; and they grow socially and emotionally with each passing day.
Key School-Wide Practices
Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment
Learning at Peninsula is progressive, integrated curriculum allows children to learn and develop skills through a variety of approaches, allowing them to naturally construct meaning. Each stage of learning is designed to be developmentally appropriate and intentionally spirals skills over the years. For example, in the Upper School students take significantly more responsibility for their own intellectual development. They learn to set goals, meet deadlines, and evaluate results. All academic levels are non-graded and non-competitive academic program, so students can focus on self-evaluation and self-improvement, which forces them to assume more authorship of their own learning and provides them with the confidence to take academic risks and have an impact on the larger world. Read the program overview, and then click into the tabs for each school level to take a deeper look.
Community & Culture
The unique pedagogy at Peninsula School fosters a learning community that nurtures intellectual curiosity and where students develop the skills and confidence necessary to become creative and compassionate contributors in the world. Class sizes average 18-21 children and there is a 6:1 student to teacher ratio. Having an excellent teacher to student ratio enhances the opportunity for authentic academic and social-emotional growth to occur. Students at the school are deeply known and connected. The culture at Peninsula School champions diversity, equity, and inclusion by building a community rich with a range of experiences and perspectives. They strive to provide our students, staff, and families with resources to thrive in their community.
Schedule & Use
of Time
An integrated day allows children to learn and develop skills through a variety of approaches, allowing children to naturally construct meaning. In this way, learning becomes a part of children, fosters deep understanding, and connects children to the world around them.
Adult Roles & Learning
Teachers at Peninsula serves as facilitators - opening up space for students to take ownership and to guide them through becoming more agentic learners. Teachers are dedicated to the development of each child and are skillful practitioners of progressive education.
They are flexible, creative and attuned to student needs.
Our teachers place great emphasis on respect for individuals, for their similarities and for their differences, and on social consciousness.
They recognize individual learning needs and adapt lessons to provide multiple paths to learning.
They know how to engage students to be active participants in their learning and how to advocate for their needs.
They are practiced at asking questions that lead students to deeper understanding, to inquire, to experiment, to take a risk, to explore, and to think critically.
Peninsula teachers understand the essential role that joy and wonder play in learning.
Over $87,000 a year is dedicated to professional development, allowing teachers to access a broad range of learning and growth opportunities. These opportunities add up to approximately 3,000 collective hours of professional development for our teachers each year.
Family & Community Partnerships
A few of the many ways that Peninsula partners with families to support all community members is through their Families of Color Affinity Group, People of Peninsula (POP), Peninsula's Equity and Action Committee in Education (PEACe), and more.
Space &
Facilities
Peninsula School is located on 6.6 acres of wooded land in Menlo Park, California. The school exists in a natural and rustic setting, which provides a sense of seclusion, safety, and timelessness. There is no place on campus too precious for hand or footprints, so students feel at ease and have a sense of ownership.
Technology
Technology is integrated into the curriculum to deepen understanding through writing and organizing ideas for presentation to the class. Published hard copy sources supplement internet sources for research. Students are taught to selectively browse online sources, collect key information, and credit their sources.
Budget & Operations
Families pay tuition to attend Peninsula School. 14% of tuition is allocated to make Peninsula School more affordable to a diverse range of families. In the 2018-19 school year, 26% of families enrolled at a reduced tuition rate.
Communications
Peninsula School has a semi-annual magazine!
See It. Hear It. Feel It.
Take a student-led virtual tour of the Peninsula School grounds