Private Preschool & K-8 School in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia School:
Located in central Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, eastern Pennsylvania, The Philadelphia School is a private co-educational school for boys and girls in preschool through 8th grade. Theme-based learning is one of the principle tools we as progressive educators use to help students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills and to encourage them to make complex connections across disciplines. The goals of our curricular sequence are to achieve greater thematic coherence and to broaden multicultural awareness through in-depth studies of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Programs from Preschool through 8th Grade: 

Preschool:
Preschool at The Philadelphia School is a vibrant, engaging and fun place for four-year-olds. Our early childhood program provides an environment that nurtures each child’s physical, social and emotional, and cognitive development.

Our approach to teaching and learning is built on the belief that four-year-olds learn best through play and by “doing.” When children are at play, they are learning and making meaning, exploring the world around them on their own terms, solving problems, making choices, expressing their feelings and thoughts, discovering their creative abilities, and developing language and social skills.

Kindergarten:
Kindergarten children at The Philadelphia School take a big step from preschool into the wider school community. Their world expands from self and family into a more complex world of peers, groups, and school. This builds the foundation for social maturity and academic learning while remaining responsive to the here-and-now of the young child's experience.

Learning is at its best for kindergarteners when it is both structured and exploratory: structured through a clear and predictable schedule, exploratory through carefully constructed areas of interest where children can initiate their own wonderings, follow their own hunches, and create their own activities.

Primary Unit (1st and 2nd Grade):
First and second graders are in a stage of rapid physical and cognitive growth that brings great bursts of energy, developing skills, and newfound confidence. This builds a growing foundation for social maturity and academic learning away from the classroom and into a broader community of influence and experiences.

Junior Unit (3rd-5th Grade):
In this mixed-aged unit, our fourth and fifth graders are moving toward becoming more comfortable and confident learners. Increasingly more solid in their basic skills as readers, writers, and mathematicians, students are ready for the challenges of longer, more complex project work.

Middle School (6th-8th Grade):
The Middle School program supports their desire for autonomy with opportunities for independent work across the curriculum. The social needs of young adolescents are responded to with flexible groupings that include both grade-level and mixed-grade meeting opportunities.

The thematic curriculum in the Middle School focuses on the complexities of citizenship in a global community by looking at intercultural awareness through a study of Africa in sixth grade, the interdependence of communities through a study of Europe and the Americas in seventh grade, and the challenges and responsibilities of American citizenship in a global context in eighth grade.

There are many opportunities for extended project time, integrating science, theme, language arts, and mathematics in more depth.The integration of media literacy skills is an integral part of the curriculum. Extended morning meeting times and dialogue circles promote our affective curricular goals.

For a period of three and a half weeks in late winter, Middle School students choose from a variety of mini-course offerings that reflect their interests, such as anthropology, current events, dissection, environmental action, and origami. Students also work on a project intensively, such as performing a Shakespeare play or producing a poetry anthology.

Early Risers:
The Philadelphia School has a new morning program called "Early Risers," which runs from 7:30 to 8 a.m. Children may be dropped off in the Front Office during that time; at 8 a.m. they will join their friends in the school yard.

Auxilary Programming / Afterschool Program:
The Philadelphia School offers a wide range of Auxiliary Programs, both before and after regular school hours. TPS students have many new opportunities after school for exploring brand-new subjects or for delving deeper into special areas of personal interest.

Summer Camps:
The Philadelphia School offers several different summer camp experiences each summer, some at the school and one at Shelly Ridge.