Private School for Girls in San Francisco

Hamlin School, San Francisco:
For over 140 years, The Hamlin School has provided girls in the San Francisco Bay Area with the finest education possible. Parents who seek a challenging contemporary education for their daughters should consider Hamlin, which provides a sound scholastic environment for qualified students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Most of our families live in San Francisco, although we have a significant number commuting from the North Bay and some from the East and South Bay. At Hamlin, girls are taught to step forward with their ideas, questions, and opinions and to use their critical thinking skills to make the world better. We expect our girls to recognize and treasure their interdependence while celebrating their individuality and diverse backgrounds. We are accredited by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), National Coalition of Girls Schools (NCGS), California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

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Our educational mission, inspired by Sarah Dix Hamlin’s leadership in 1896 and still infused by her pioneering spirit today, compels our talented faculty to prepare young girls to meet the challenges of their time. At Hamlin, girls are taught to step forward with their ideas, questions, and opinions and to use their critical and creative thinking skills to make the world better. We expect our girls to recognize and treasure their interdependence while celebrating their individuality and diverse backgrounds, and we encourage them to keep the school’s creed at the heart of their behavior and decision-making: Be Respectul. Be Responsible. Be Honest. Be Caring. Be Positive.

Hamlin is committed to be an inclusive community where diversity is a component of excellence and all members of the community are respected. We welcome and benefit from the perspectives that emerge from a diversity of ethnicity, culture, religion, socioeconomic status, learning style, sexual orientation, and family structure. The participation of all is important to the health of the community.

Teachers at Hamlin use creative and engaging learning strategies--reader response, journals, presentations, models, cooperative learning strategies, essays, demonstrations, debates and reports, problem-solving challenges --to inspire students to develop a developmentally appropriate mastery of a topic or subject. Cooperative learning is also a cornerstone of Hamlin pedagogy, and teachers promote collaborative, active, and experiential approaches to teaching and learning. The Hamlin mission underscores the importance of an innovative and thoughtful curriculum as well as the importance of self-discipline, time management, and learning how to learn.

It is our mission to be an inclusive community where "diversity is a component of excellence and all members of the community are respected. We welcome and benefit from the perspectives that emerge from a diversity of ethnicity, culture, religion, socioeconomic status, learning style, sexual orientation, and family structure." The school seeks to promote student understanding of a multicultural society through professional development of the faculty, personnel, curriculum, programs, assemblies, and displays that underscore the diversity of our culture and the inclusiveness of our community.

Kindergarten through eight grade programs for girls; Lower School Program; Middle School Program; Athletics Program; Arts Program; Afterschool Program; Extended Day Program; Summer Camps. Our sttudents become readers, writers, mathematicians and athletes. They explore the world of science, the arts and learn about their world.

The teaching faculty at Hamlin dedicates itself to the important structural questions of each discipline that require students to understand the critical thinking and performances that, for example, historians or scientists or mathematicians or writers need. Additionally, the teaching faculty embraces the performance view of understanding that requires a student to demonstrate true understanding of a concept by being able to teach it to someone else or to apply it in a novel situation. In order for a student to do this, a teacher must assess what a student knows and ascertain the right challenge for the student’s growth, utilizing Vygotsky’s definition of “the zone of proximal development.”

Hamlin cultivates leadership skills in every young woman and promotes the importance of service to others, both within and beyond our community. Through mutual respect, honesty, and kindness, we impress upon our students the importance of personal integrity and ethical decision-making.

Hamlin offers a challenging academic program in an environment of encouragement and support. Students master the skills that provide a foundation for life-long learning as well as the habits of speculation, inquiry, and critical thinking. Our methods are both experiential and collaborative, promoting engagement and creativity. Hamlin students graduate knowing how to learn, appreciating the value of industry, and possessing a love of knowledge.

Hamlin’s Extended Day Program is a community within the school for girls across all grade levels. The program’s overarching goals are to:
· Provide quality extended day programming for Hamlin’s working families
· Create an environment where community and youth development are emphasized
· Offer a balance of structured and independent activity choices

The objective of the after-school sports program is to enable the girls to compete, increase their sports skills, and to learn to work as a team toward a common goal. It is the intent of the program that each student will learn through discussions, instruction, active participation, scrimmages and game situations. In this way, the girls will gain confidence and self esteem, and learn good sportsmanship and the meaning of teamwork. It is our belief that the experience of participation in team sports, regardless of the team’s competitive record, will build character and help in the personal growth of the students.