The Primary School
Get to Know this Liberatory School
The Primary School is committed to anti-racism in tandem with the community. They relentlessly pursue equitable outcomes, strengthen staff practices, elevate all voices, and hold themselves active and accountable.
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Size: <300
Demographics:
71% Latinx
12% Asian/Pacific Islander
9% African American
7% Two or More Races
1% White
Grade Band: PreK-5
Governance Structure: Private
Website: https://www.theprimaryschool.org/
Mission
"We believe that raising a child is a team effort. With a strong team supporting them, every child can learn, be well, and thrive.
Our comprehensive model brings together all of the adults in a child’s life, including parents, educators, and medical and mental health providers, starting from a very early age. This multidisciplinary approach helps close the achievement gap, ensuring that children and families living in underserved communities receive the support they need to be well, learn, and thrive.
Our vision is to build a model that can be effectively implemented in diverse communities and sustained on public funding. Over the long term, we seek to have permanent, large-scale, and transformative impact by influencing the policies and public systems that serve children and families."
Graduate Aims
Design Principles
COGNITIVE OUTCOMES
Children have age-appropriate (expressive and receptive) language and executive functioning skills.
ACADEMIC OUTCOMES
Children express curiosity about learning. Children are at or above grade level in literacy, math, writing, and science.
SOUL OUTCOMES
Children show social skills in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships, and interactions. Children demonstrate responsible decision-making. Children have a sense of belonging and identity, and value civic engagement.
HEALTH OUTCOMES
Children have a medical and dental home and are up to date on preventative care. Children have healthy behaviors related to oral health, sleep, physical activity, nutrition, and media use. Chronic physical health needs have been identified and addressed. Mental health needs have been identified and addressed.
LONG-TERM OUTCOMES
Children are prepared to live productive, happy, and healthy lives. In the future, as adolescents and adults, these same learners will experience secondary and post-secondary success, economic freedom and career options.
COMMUNITY
Act as one community. Work together to urgently tackle issues of access and equity by leveraging the unique capacities of all school-wide stakeholders. Re-build community with students and families in this new phase of learning.
SOUL
Soul is bringing one’s whole self to the work. Create avenues for student-led sharing, creative expression, and enriching extracurricular activities. Ensure that all students feel respected, seen and heard. Provide all students and families access to materials that develop SOUL and promote healthy behaviors.
COURAGE
Set bold goals, take big risks, celebrate successes, and learn from failures. Work thoughtfully through programming constraints to maintain similarly ambitious goals for student outcomes and courageously adapt to changing realities with innovative approaches and tools.
EXCELLENCE
Create a culture where every child can succeed. Maximize instructional inputs by focusing on high leverage teacher practices (conferring, small group instruction, family partnership) and evidenced-based online learning platforms.
GROWTH
Always engage in learning and evolving, as a community and as individuals. Analyze and act on data aligned to priority outcomes. Respond urgently to stakeholder feedback in order to maximize program accessibility, sustainability, and effectiveness.
Featured Student Experiences
BIRTH TO THREE PROGRAM
For new parents, we offer social emotional development playgroups, preschool readiness programs, developmental screenings, and parent-only group sessions to strengthen their capacity and help them identify and support their child’s developmental needs. We reach children at a critical stage in their development by working with families with children as young as 18 months and providing full-time school starting at age three. Across all of our outcome areas, we focus on promotion and prevention by providing robust universal services, like screenings, which help to identify and address needs early. In addition, we connect families to early intervention services to reduce the need for more intensive interventions later on.
PARENT PROGRAM
Throughout their experience at our school, every parent and caregiver works individually with a parent coach and participates in monthly group sessions to grow their social support network, learn how to support their child’s development, and achieve their goals. We believe that when parents thrive, children thrive, so we support the wellness and growth of parents alongside the growth of their children. We collaborate with parents in the work of achieving positive child outcomes by sharing new knowledge and skills to engage in their child’s development, health, and education. Families set goals related to both parent and child growth, and we support them in achieving their goals through coaching, information, and linkages to community resources.
TRAUMA-INFORMED AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
Our work with children and families is informed by an understanding of what trauma can do to the brain and a child’s ability to learn. We promote resilience and mitigate the effects of trauma throughout our child and family programming. We also provide support services that directly address trauma. We value the cultural and community identities of all of our students, families, and staff, and we promote an anti-racist approach to combat historical narratives and a deficit mindset. Our curricula and programming provide opportunities for children and families to learn about other cultures and ways of thinking, and to explore and share their own cultural identity.
HEALTH CARE PARTNERSHIP
We partner with existing health care providers to coordinate medical care for children, complemented by our own health promotion work in school and family programs. Our unique model unites health, education, and family support, building a multi-disciplinary team and holistic system of care to address a child’s full set of needs. We leverage experts, partner with community-based organizations, and use data to ensure families receive the personalized support and services they need.
WHOLE-CHILD MODEL
We take a whole child approach to education, holding ourselves accountable to academic, health, and social-emotional outcomes. Children begin full-time school at age three and can continue their educational experience with us through adolescence.
Key School-Wide Practices
Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment
The Primary School focuses intentionally on early language and literacy development to ensure that its diverse body of learners are reading to learn by the third grade. Their efforts begin in the birth and early learning programs with an emphasis on preschool learning foundations, their Sesame Workshop partnership, Expeditionary Learning, and continual monitoring of each child’s development as they acquire early literacy skills.
Community & Culture
The Primary School takes a whole child approach to education, holding themselves accountable to academic, health, and social-emotional outcomes. Their school program is trauma-informed to promote resilience and mitigate the effects of trauma. They are also culturally responsive to promote an anti-racist approach to combat historical narratives and a deficit mindset. Their curricula and programming provide opportunities for children and families to learn about other cultures and ways of thinking, and to explore and share their own cultural identity.
Adult Roles & Learning
Teachers at The Primary School receive coaching from both the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) and Behavioral and Emotional Supports Team (BEST). The ILT team supports teachers to implement Tier 1 instructional practices. The BEST team supports teachers to implement Culture and SOUL practices. Both teams also provide additional, targeted coaching support for Tier 2 Academic and SOUL support plans.
Family & Community Partnerships
The Primary School believes that when parents thrive, children thrive. Every parent and caregiver works individually with a parent coach and participates in monthly group sessions to grow their social support network, learn how to support their child’s development, and achieve their goals. They collaborate with parents in the work of achieving positive child outcomes by sharing new knowledge and skills to engage in their child’s development, health, and education.
The Primary School partners with health care providers and community-based organizations to coordinate medical care for children. Their model unites health, education, and family support, building a multi-disciplinary team and holistic system of care to address a child’s full set of needs.
Space &
Facilities
The Primary School has two locations - one in East Palo Alto and one in Hayward.
Budget & Operations
The Primary School is a private, tuition-free school developed in partnership with community organizations and health care providers. We receive public funding from the California State Preschool Program for our preschool grades, and we also receive public funding for our food program. The other costs of the program are covered by a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and we are growing our support with other donors and partners who care about this community and this model.
Communications
Check out the lengthy 'News' tab to learn all about the internal and external press focused on the Primary School!
See It. Hear It. Feel It.
About the Parent Program
About the Birth to Three Program