Educational Philosophy
Berkwood Hedge School’s progressive educational philosophy is based on the understanding that children construct their knowledge of the world by engaging in hands-on, collaborative inquiry and exploration. This approach nurtures students’ natural curiosity and creativity, and fosters intrinsic motivation to learn and grow as individuals. The positive outcomes for students cut across academics, social-emotional skills, and cognitive capabilities.
Our experienced and talented teachers create lessons and activities that challenge and engage a range of students. Curriculum is built as a series of in-depth studies, and teachers use a variety of learning materials that respect the unique educational needs of each child. Our teachers are guided by each child’s abilities and interests to inspire purpose and passion for learning.
We value and encourage collaboration among children. Our interactive curriculum and diverse student body provide opportunities for students to engage with perspectives other than their own. Through independent and group work, children experiment, discuss, question, build, and invent, accessing a range of learning strategies and ways of sharing their thought processes.
Assessment informs how we teach. We understand that no individual tool can adequately assess what a child understands. Therefore, our teachers use multiple formal and informal assessments to evaluate learning, to identify a child’s strengths and areas for growth, to guide curriculum development, and to inform the data teachers share in progress reports.
We understand that academic excellence goes beyond numbers and metrics. Our teachers set clear standards for student accountability in ways appropriate for the individual child and the group, creating a setting that challenges students intellectually while fostering their social and emotional strengths. When children push beyond schoolbook basics to real-life understanding, they understand more deeply, care more, and take agency in their education, their communities, and their lives.
How We Learn
Project-Based Learning
Students learn by doing. Project-based learning is engaged, dynamic learning that builds upon student interests and nurtures varied skills. In project-based learning (PBL), a complex essential question, based on content standards and learning outcomes, is what drives the project. What is the moon and why does it change? Where does the food we eat come from? Students ask questions, find resources, and apply their knowledge. The purpose is sustained inquiry as learners ask ever deeper questions, build collaboration and problem solving skills, learn to give and receive feedback, and revise their work.
Outdoor Learning
Interaction with nature is prioritized. Starting in kindergarten, students enjoy regular opportunities to experience the natural world, whether they are studying the native plants found in our schoolyard habitat or nature journaling in Tilden Park. Many of our teachers are Forest School certified, and our Outdoor Education program is inquiry-based and hands-on. Students learn to ask “What do I notice,” and “What do I wonder,” looking at the world with an eye for patterns and details. Learn more about our Outdoor Education program.
Social Emotional Learning
Linked to academic growth and personal well being, social emotional learning (SEL) is threaded throughout the curriculum and an integral component in our classrooms and community. Students learn to value mistakes and hold a growth mindset. Through age-appropriate tools like the Toolbox Project, class meetings, small group dialogue and role-play, we work to build the self-awareness, empathy, and self-regulation necessary to function well as a community of learners and friends. Students understand themselves as part of a diverse community and develop skills like how to navigate conflict, apologize and repair wrongs, be an upstander, and self-advocate.
Community Learning
Community is the foundation of Berkwood Hedge School. We take pride in our long history as an inclusive environment where everyone is valued. We embrace our unique qualities across a spectrum of skin color, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, family structure, strengths, and challenges. Students explore and learn, with a sense of joy and discovery, the rich mix of cultures, traditions, values, and beliefs represented among us. Students learn that the ability to respect and celebrate our individual identities, while seeing the many ways our lives overlap, is what unites us as a healthy, vibrant community.
Service Learning
Service learning empowers students. Meaningful, active, and reflective community service is combined with classroom studies and learnings about current events. Students also have the space to develop their own service projects tied to academic learning. For example, second graders studied a pond ecosystem and, under the guidance of a trained naturalist, cleared the pond of invasive plants and debris. They then observed and reported on the beneficial change for the pond’s population of newts. One fourth grade class led a toiletry drive to benefit people experiencing homelessness.
Social Justice
Social justice is at the core of our curriculum. We encourage children to think critically, consider different viewpoints, listen, question, probe, and challenge. This leads to intellectual and emotional growth as children develop a sense of agency and an appreciation for their own perceptions. Our curriculum highlights social justice issues through the social studies program and interdisciplinary studies. From creating classroom agreements to the balance of power in friendships, subjects considered in the classroom often arise from our students’ day-to-day lives. Students learn to seek solutions to complicated problems and develop into empowered participants creating positive change in the world.
