Pine Street School, A Green Ivy International School

I consider myself to be a global citizen, holding a world view. I spent the greater part of my professional career as a Senior Marketing Executive for a Fortune 100 corporation. I'm excited to share that Pine Street School is teaching my 3rd-grade son incredibly valuable and measurable skills that will help him both academically and in life. He is being coached and supported to build on his knowledge not only in reading, writing, and arithmetic but also in public speaking, deep critical thinking, intrinsic motivation, effective collaboration, and with varied cultural perspectives. ALL are needed for a bright future, and the school has exceeded our expectations in all of these areas. Through distance synchronous learning, I've witnessed firsthand how the school goes above and beyond its four walls. It's a caring community with everyone working hard to keep my son operating at his highest level in all disciplines: Math, English, STEAM (STEM), Spanish, earth consciousness, and respect (and appreciation) of varied perspectives. He was an academically strong student, to begin with, and his standardized test scores have seen a significant increase since we transferred him into the school mid last year. I am and will forever be grateful for the stewardship and partnership that my family and I have and continue to experience at Pine Street School!

Pine Street School has become part of our family fabric. We are an international family of four: two Spanish-speaking mothers plus two young boys enrolled in the Mandarin program. The inclusive and intuitive teaching approach at the school is just the beginning. Their strengths include the robust leadership of Eileen Barker who has extensive experience with IB curriculums around the world, Gretchen Phelps (Executive Assistant) and her refreshing optimism and constant communication with parents, the efficiency of enthusiastic teachers, the communicative admissions team, the inventive Mandarin curriculum, the school's ergonomic design and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the warm daily greeting of Malik (security guard) at the front door. The school is not just a school, it's a caring community of like minded individuals whose main goal is to provide children with an exceptional education. Their academic curriculum is not limited to just core subjects but also includes global consciousness, which is extremely relevant to this generation. Our children are excited to learn, they're becoming conscious global citizens and we could not be happier.

We are Brazilian and French and have always thought about the options for the education of our twin boys. They are born in NY and we searched a lot for a very international school with a multicultural approach. We found Dr. Jones and Pine Street School on a School Fair, and fell in love with the IB curriculum, Montessori method as best practice, and are founding family as our kids joined PSS in 2015 for Pre School 3 years and have been since. The school has state of the art facilities, a very modern curriculum with STEM, engineering, coding and robots, but also Arts and Music, and a great focus on sustainable development. It's also a warm and multicultural environment that translates into a great community. Teachers are really top-notch, and each when you think the school can't go further, Eillen Baker and her team manage to improve another several notches. This is a real gem of downtown NYC and we are enthusiasts of the project-centered, public speaking, empowerment approach that has clearly put our sons on their way to being great global citizens.

Years ago, we visited MANY schools before choosing Pine Street! Our son is now a first grade student in the Mandarin/English program and we couldn't be happier. The IB philosophy - a hands on and inquiry based approach to learning - has supported the development of our child's natural sense of curiosity. We do not speak Mandarin at home, but are in awe at how quickly our son and his peers have picked up the language! Beyond the approach and the school's strong academics - we are most impressed with how community oriented the school is! His peers and their families feel like an extension to our own AND the administration and his teachers genuinely make us feel as though they are in our "village." Without reservation, we recommend this school to families interested in languages, a forward-thinking approach to education and technology, service-learning AND an inviting community.

One of the biggest challenges of parenting is educating your children and better preparing them for the future. Choosing the right school is the key. Pine Street School/PSS provides the best education with individualized learning, advance use of STEM and totally future oriented. PSS offers the IB International Baccalaureate / PYP Primary Years Program - curriculum based in inquiry and project learning and dual language immersion Spanish or Mandarin. It is a school without walls where NYC is a rich resource of learning and interaction. The school focuses on sustainability, the environment and social projects. Our 6 years old twins are currently in Spanish First Grade and this is our fourth year at PSS. A strong partnership that makes us feel part of a family that shares the same principles, passion and desires for the future. I think of my children as global citizens and they must be multilingual, global thinkers with technological skills and committed with the planet. The "Parenting for the Future" forum and book club is a school initiative that helps to look at the future and its impacts on parents and children. This month`s topic is artificial intelligence and the reading is "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and The Future of Humanity" by Byron Reese.As a parent at Pine Street School I strongly recommend the school.

Weaving through the embarrassment of riches of excellent schools in New York City to find the right school for your child sometimes feels like a maze. Fortunately, for us, we found the maze`s center at Pine Street School.When we compare our experiences as parents of a Pine Street School Kindergartener to those of our friends at Kindergarten elsewhere, we feel so blessed that our child is able to attend Pine Street School. The low student-to-teacher ratio in our child`s class (significantly lower than other private schools in the city), means our child practically has an individualized learning experience available to them. The curriculum itself is clearly very modern and does away with much of the rote learning of more traditional school programs. In today`s internet and technology-connected world, we as parents believe that is a positive. Also, for children like ours who need to move, the more modern learning techniques, as opposed to being assigned a specific desk and left there, is a major advantage. But for us parents, more important than any particular aspect of the curriculum or specific learning, it is the intangible features of the school that stand out. Firstly, there is a focus on leadership for the students - with students driving many of the activities for instance by public speaking roles. Secondly, there is a real celebration of cultural differences and awareness of others, partly engendered by the wonderful language immersion courses. Within weeks of our child joining the Mandarin program, they were already singing Mandarin songs at their (very definitely non-Mandarin speaking) home. Thirdly, it is a very loving, down-to-earth and caring community. That is the richest resource itself.

In a city with a plethora of excellent schools, Pine Street School has significantly exceeded our expectations. Our child is fortunate to have an exceptionally low student-to-teacher ratio (significantly lower than other private schools in the city), so there is almost an individual learning experience. The learning itself is clearly very modern and does away with much of the rote learning of more traditional programs. For children like ours, who like to move, this is a big plus. Perhaps more important for us than the curriculum, are the intangibles. Firstly, there is a focus on leadership for the students. Secondly, there is a real celebration of cultural differences, partly engendered by the wonderful language immersion courses. Within weeks of our child joining the Mandarin program, they were already singing Mandarin songs at their (non-Mandarin speaking) home. Thirdly, it is a very loving community. We feel genuinely lucky to be part of it.

We couldn`t be more pleased with our experience thus far at Pine Street School. We have two children who began at Pine Street this year, our eldest in first grade taking Spanish immersion (1 English-speaking teacher, 1 Spanish-speaking teacher), and our youngest in kindergarten taking Mandarin immersion (1 English-speaking teacher, 1 Mandarin-speaking teacher). Although we had some concerns going into the school year regarding how our children would adapt to the foreign language immersion aspect of the curriculum, we have been pleased by the early results. For our youngest, in the Mandarin immersion, we have been incredibly impressed by his Mandarin teacher and the proficiency level our child has already achieved under her guidance, considering that he is not a native speaker. He enjoys this new language so much, that he frequently sings and speaks in Mandarin at home.All of their teachers (Spanish, Mandarin and English) are highly skilled, motivated and kind. We value that Pine Street offers individualized and personalized learning, where our boys can be taught at a pace and with context conducive to their understanding and learning needs. We are very pleased with our interactions with all of their teachers, as they give us frequent feedback and always take time to answer our questions, either in-person or over email. Additionally, we have been impressed with the school`s use of technology for many components of the curriculum, which will well-equip them for the future. For example, every child is given their own ipad, and the apps are carefully chosen for educational purposes only. The kids take their ipads home on weekdays, to practice their extended learning. Finally, we believe in the merits of the school`s IB/PYP method, which stresses inquiry and project-based learning, while valuing student empowerment, leadership and public speaking, all while trying to mold them into socially and environmentally-conscious, global citizens.

We are a kiwi family that recently relocated from Barcelona, Spain to New York. Since our children were already fluent in Spanish, finding a school that would help them continue to develop their language skills was key. We have been wonderfully surprised by the warm welcome that our children have received and support that we have all had in transitioning to a new country and environment. We have a daughter in Grade 5 and she has definitively told us that Pine Street School is her 1st choice for middle school. We agree with her choice since we have been so impressed with the quality of teachers, the advanced use of technology, as well as a curriculum that focuses on student empowerment, agency, voice, public speaking and leadership. If you want to prepare your child for the future, I highly recommend Pine Street School.

We are a founding family at Pine Street School and very proud of it. The Spanish immersion combined with PYP is beyond what we expected. Our son is now in 2nd grade and has been at PSS since he was 3 years old. The learning through project based learning is a game changer. We notice it most when he is around other children his age and his ability to converse with others and his sense of curiosity and passion for learning and figuring out how things work from his utilization of math skills, creative thinking and communication. Since he was 3 years old PSS has built his public speaking skills, confidence, communication, kindness. What mattered most to us as parents was that our son grows up to be a good citizen who understands the world around him and wants to make a positive impact on his environment and the world. I would highly recommend PSS to any family looking for an intimate international school with personalized learning.

For parents looking for a school that creates a real community I highly recommend Pine Street School. We have our 2 boys there (2 and 5) and are going on our 3rd year for the 5 (soon to be 6) year old. Small class sizes and mandarin immersion, plus the IB program is what sold us. They use New York city as the classroom with lots of learning trips and kids get immersed in appropriate technology early on. The staff and teachers are first rate and the variety of arts and sports programs keep the kids constantly engaged with new opportunities and ways to learn. The interactive reporting through apps and emails keep the parents close to what's going on at school as well.