About St. Stephen's
Welcome!
We are an interdenominational school, serving up to 240 students of all faiths in nursery through Kindergarten classes. We are located at 3900 Mechanicsville Road in Whitehall, Pennsylvania. The Day School is a mission of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. We encourage children to develop a positive self-image and a love of learning from which cognitive growth naturally follows.
Mission Statement
St. Stephen’s School is dedicated to providing an environment where children are taught traditional Christian values. It is a place where children can develop physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually through educationally sound practices and developmentally appropriate activities.
Philosophy
The early childhood program at St. Stephen’s School is child-centered and provides a safe, healthy learning environment so that each child can discover, learn, and grow in an individual way. Our program strives to advance physical and intellectual competence as well as to support social and emotional development in an atmosphere of acceptance and positive guidance.
As a Church related school, we encourage the moral development of the children as an essential part of their character formation. Our community emphasizes the value of God’s love and the fruits of a relationship with Jesus Christ – love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The school is a comfortable place where opportunities are provided for the children to play, to make discoveries, to be creative and to make decisions. Our school program offers a learning environment for each child to develop the behaviors and skills that are important for successfully entering kindergarten and the world beyond with a solid moral foundation and a true excitement for learning.
History
The first session of St. Stephen's School began on September 8, 1975, with an enrollment of 30 children, one teacher, and one assistant. Over the years, we have seen additional classes added and new staff members join our team. In 1992, the new education wing opened with several new classrooms which enabled us to expand our enrollment to 141 students and grow our staff with four new teachers and four new aides.
That same year, we introduced the Extended Care service, providing care for children both before and after normal school hours. We continue to offer this program as we have found it to be a wonderful addition to our school and a great asset to families of St. Stephen's students and Whitehall-Coplay School District Kindergarteners.
The 2001-2002 session saw the addition of our full day Kindergarten. The initial kindergarten class had an enrollment of 12 students. Five years later, our enrollment increased to up to 18 students, which remains the class size today. In 2007, we were excited to introduce our Kindergarten fitness program where a gym instructor visits the class on a weekly basis.
Our summer camp program began in 2011 and has been something we look forward to every year since. Students participate in exciting summer activities that revolve around fun, imaginative themes which change from week to week.
We have also recently added our "Lunch and Learn" activity during which students get a chance to have some fun, extra social time and engage in a variety of extra-curricular activities on weekly-themed basis.
Today, St. Stephen's School remains a fantastic place to be, as we continue to grow and seek out new opportunities to better serve our students and their families.