The New School of Berkeley

New School is a preschool and day care center for children 2 through 12 years of age. We are open Monday through Friday from 7:15 am to 6:00 pm. The school welcomes students of all races, colors, religions, national or ethnic origins.

The preschool classes, in three groups spanning the ages 2 to 5 1/2, run from 9AM to 1 Pm, with day care before and after.

We also have a school age program offering before and after school care for children in elementary schools. Our school age component is housed in Fellowship Hall on the corner of Cedar and Bonita immediately adjacent to the main facility. This program is a wonderful way of extending our New School community and provides an opportunity for a secure transition to the larger school world.

Most of the preschool children are here full time. While we offer a variety of scheduling options so that families can choose a schedule best suited to there needs, all our programs are for five days a week. Options include extended full time, beginning at 7:15, full time beginning at 9, morning session, morning session with partial day care hours, afternoon day care only. Our program is set up to accommodate working and student parents as well as those whose schedules permit participation in the morning sessions.

We find parent participation (one morning a week in the classroom) to be valuable. Participating parents enrich the children's experience when they share their own talents and interests in art, music, science, travel, drama, and more. The teachers encourage the participating parents to plan their projects in advance and expect them to spend their participation time at school being involved with and responsive to the students.

New School is structured to allow a maximum amount of freedom for each child within the limits of responsibility. This means that the children are allowed to choose among activities and move between the outside space and inside at will. The notion of responsibility means that the children may not hurt themselves or others and implies that the school is run on a contract of trust between teachers and students. The school is team taught and based on the concept of an open classroom. The staff has been working together for many years.

New School activities concentrate on music, art, arts and crafts, dramatic play, and movement. It is called New School because its intent is to be just that--a new kind of school...open, responsive, loving...a place where children are happy and relaxed, where there is freedom to play, to be, to learn, to grow. Within the school there are many interesting things to do: cooking, carpentry, music lessons, painting, working with clay, crafts of every variety, soccer and other games, stories and much more. We also feel that the community offers a wide world of knowledge; trips are an integral part of the school experience. There is Kindergym once a week for each group. The children go to, various parks and museums, libraries and on walking trips in the neighborhood. Children have the opportunity to take yoga, dance and capoeira. Spanish is an integral part of the preschool program.

Learning about nature and the environment has always been a part of New School. The children tend a garden (shown here) that thrives in a plot reclaimed from sandy soil. Worm composting has become a fascinating fact of school life. The children care for our rabbits and observe the life and development of butterflies, frogs and a myriad of insects.

One of the most important tasks for preschool children is forming peer relationships. This occurs in a sensitive and supportive atmosphere. The staff is involved, consistent, and caring. By having the child participate in a great number of creative activities, we are able to help each to develop strong feelings of self-confidence and self-worth. Through careful intervention between children in conflict situations we facilitate the socialization process so that children learn the importance of sharing, compassion, and honesty, and learn to recognize their feelings and verbalize them. The comment heard so frequently about our graduates is, "New School children are so full of confidence." Children are happy at New School. They are very energetic and are extremely interested in many kinds of activities. The children climb, they jump, they sing, they shout, they dance.

The warmth and respect shown by the staff to the children combined with the unleashing of their creative powers and the learning of specific skills are powerful ingredients in the development of a happy and productive personality. We want our children to feel empowered by their experiences here and begin the process for a lifelong to the struggle for peace and social justice.

We have a definite and strict food policy. We serve whole grains and food with no sugar, now preservatives, no artificial colorings or flavorings. We do not serve meat so that vegetarian children can partake freely. We ask that parents, when sending snack or lunch, follow our guidelines and send only wholesome food.

There is a snack at 10:30 and at 3:30. Parents contribute to the morning snack by bringing in fruit, veggies, cheese, raisins, nuts, etc. once a week. The afternoon snack is provided by the school and is a hearty one; for example, brown rice and tofu or green noodles and salad.

Each year there is a family outing over Memorial Day weekend to the Mendocino Woodlands Campgrounds. This is a lovely old campground with redwood cabins and stone fireplaces, just perfect for a family trip. We have a great time!

There are also family potluck, holiday parties, and lots of live music.

Parent meetings, special projects, parent-teacher conferences all supplement our communication network. Parent input is very important to us.

Because we believe that the best education is one in which a variety of points of view may flourish, and this environment requires a racially, socially and economically mixed group of children, we maintain a scholarship program. The scholarships are subsidized by several fundraising events during the year. We depend on parent energy and organizing skills for the success of our annual bazaars.

We encourage families to visit the school and to talk with teachers and parents...to watch children growing in self-awareness, self-esteem, and the acceptance of others, while their intellectual curiosity is stimulated and their readiness to learn is allowed to develop naturally and spontaneously