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Our school is small, diverse, and relationship-oriented, with outstanding academics, project-based learning, outdoor and indoor play, small group enrichment classes, and weekly trips throughout the city and state. We also use an individualized approach with our families, providing them with high levels of attention, communication, and support.
The Croft School: Providence is located in the heart of Wayland Square on the East Side of Providence. Our lower school facility (179 Wayland Avenue) houses our Kindergarten and Grade 1 programming. The 7,000 square-foot facility is bright and modern, with beautiful classrooms, an indoor play space, and an enrichment classroom. Across the street from our lower school, we opened (in Spring 2023) a brand new outdoor, turf-based play space, located at 144 Medway Street. Our upper school facility (144 Wayland Avenue), which opened in September 2022, is currently home to our Grade 2-6 classrooms, and will serve as the long-term home for Grades 2-8. The first phase of our facility renovation was completed in summer 2022. Remaining phases will be completed through 2025.
Rigor and Spark. We hope that boredom is the antithesis
of the Croft student experience. Our goal at Croft is not simply to
sustain the curiosity that many young children naturally possess
when entering school. It is to brighten each child's spark even
further and enhance a child's love for learning more and more as
they grow older. To do so, we utilize teaching strategies that
ensure that each child's academic work is on the edge of their
knowledge and skill level, we over-invest in connecting lessons and
projects to the interests of our students, and we hire teachers who
bring a natural and contagious zeal to a profession they love. We
never shy away from challenging our students, helping them
strengthen their core skills while also broadening and deepening
their knowledge. In doing so, we are creating pathways for our
children to soar academically, both within and beyond The Croft
School's classrooms.
Student-Centeredness. The Croft School is anything but "one
size fits all." We know that learning is stickier when it is
relevant and connected to one's personal experiences and interests.
While we always encourage students to reach beyond the familiar and
their own comfort zone, our program creates opportunities for
students to dive deeply into what matters most to them. In math and
literacy, for example, we leverage small, flexible groupings to
ensure that each child is receiving the right lesson at just the
right time. This allows students who are able to accelerate into
advanced skills to do so, while affording students extra time and
support, as needed, to master grade-level fundamentals.
Balance. We know schools that are obsessive about testing and
standards. We know other schools that choose to forego explicit
teaching of critical literacy, math, and other foundational skills.
We pride ourselves on being thoughtful about balance: the right
dose of core academic focus mixed with the right dose of other
types of progressive learning, discovery, creation, and fun! We're
often asked: Are you Montessori? Are you Waldorf? Are you
traditional "Direct Instruction?" Our answer: We respect all of
these program types, and employ our favorite features from each of
them. But ultimately, we are a new type of educational model that
transcends traditional labels. We offer a balance between
structured academic time and choice-based purposeful play; a
balance between academics and social-emotional learning; a balance
of both active and quiet time; and a balance of both in-school and
out-of-school learning.
Strong Relationships. The Croft School is a small school. To
us, small is a beautiful thing. Small allows school to be personal
for each child, where individual students become known personally
and form the nexus of each decision that our teachers make. Small
ensures that students never get "lost in the crowd" and get
individual attention every day. Small allows students' social
development and friendships and the parent community to be
thoughtfully built over time. Most importantly, perhaps, small
means excellence. By focusing on the quality of our program rather
than its size, we can consistently deliver on the promises we make
and the high expectations we hope that families
hold.Relationships matter in education between teachers and
students and between teachers and parents. We are passionate about
building deep, caring, and trustful relationships with our students
and parents, and then working in partnership to customize the
program to fit each child's interests and needs. We hope that the
bonds that are built at Croft will last a lifetime.
Outstanding Teachers, Collaborative Improvement. At Croft, we
make a resolute commitment to providing our students the very best:
we aspire to hire and retain the best teachers in the field. That
means teachers who are caring and empathetic, experienced yet
innovative, and who bring a natural and contagious zeal to a
profession they love. It means teachers who come from a wide range
of backgrounds and reflect the diversity of our communities and
student body. And it means teachers who our children will
remember, vividly, for the rest of their lives. Further, we aim to
be a school where teachers are excited to remain in our classrooms
for tens of years. For most outstanding teachers, this
excitement flourishes when they are part of a collaborative team
focused on whole-school improvement and individual growth. We
have worked hard to establish this type of professional
culture.
Diverse, Inclusive, Anti-Racist Community. At The Croft
School we deeply value diversity, equity and social justice as we
believe in the humanity of all people. We are committed to being an
anti-racist and anti-bias school. We explore and affirm identity
including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion,
socioeconomics, social class and family structures. We, the
students, educators, and families of The Croft School, hold
ourselves accountable to the daily work of working towards an
inclusive and liberated society.
In this article we explore three popular approaches to early childhood education: Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Waldorf. It provides parents of toddlers with essential information about each method, helping them make informed decisions about their child's early education.
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