PreK-Grade 8
INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE WORLD SCHOOL
Inspiring Brave Learners to Shape the Future for Over 20 Years
At La Scuola, we believe that to inspire brave learners to shape the future, we must believe
that:
Our role as a community is to nurture the child intellectually, physically, emotionally, and to always do so with joy.
Children are innately intelligent and curious.
Children learn through meaningful experiences and exploration of the world, and doing so in a beautiful environment leads to a love of learning for life.
The challenging questions they ask ignite a process of arriving at answers with peers and teachers, not an opportunity for us to tell them the answer.
Being open to the world across languages, cultures, and subjects increases their ability to learn while finding beauty in life.
THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE AND BEING AN IB WORLD SCHOOL
INQUIRY The IB program began as an academically challenging program for high school students and has evolved into a curriculum framework used by over 5,000 schools worldwide in K-12 that encourages critical and creative thinking, expression of knowledge in various modalities, global perspective, and foreign language acquisition. IB students are known for having a growth mindset, developing strong cognitive skills, high executive function, and are generally psyched to learn new things and solve problems.
REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH—FROM PRESCHOOL TO AGE 99
The Reggio approach nurtures collaboration, inquiry, experiential learning, and a Hundred Languages® to express themselves. We believe this approach is valid throughout a student’s educational journey. The Art, Music, Garden, Design, and Digital Light Lab Ateliers are places where theories are put to the test and students create a better understanding of the world around them.
LANGUAGE IMMERSION
Your child does not need to speak Italian! We aim for our students to be bilingual (though many are multilingual). By learning English and Italian simultaneously, they develop better attention, decision making, and planning skills than monolingual students. Italian especially benefits students with a strong foundation in Latin word roots and imparts an increased appreciation for art, music, food, and history. Speaking another language develops a child’s empathy and connectivity to the world. The school is recognized by the Italian Ministry of Education as a Scuola Paritaria.
We use the Montreal Model of Immersion, which looks like this:
Preschool: 10% English – 90% Italian
Grades K - 1: 20% English – 80% Italian
Grade 2: 30% English – 70% Italian
Grades 3 - 5: 50% English – 50% Italian
Grades 6 - 8: 70% English – 30% Italian
Specialist subjects are taught in English and Italian.
Children are not required to speak Italian to enroll in Preschool, Kindergarten, Grade 1, or Middle School. Students applying to Grades 2–5 are evaluated for language proficiency as part of the admissions process. In Middle School, language classes are categorized as beginner or advanced.
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP: OPEN TO THE WORLD
Our students are open to the world. They understand the global and local context. They engage with people that are different from them to form their values and they know that great ideas come from collaborating with different perspectives.
RIGHT TO BEAUTY AND JOY
The environment is the third teacher. We believe that students who come to learn in a space that is beautiful and joyful will forever associate learning with beauty and love.
PEDAGOGY OF RELATIONSHIP
We prioritize trusting and loving relationships between teachers and students. This approach helps secure the child’s emotional wellbeing and leads to more successful learning. Feeling supported, seen, and heard are so important in creating the nurturing and empowering environment that helps children grow and flourish. There will be a lot of empathy, respect, and hugs!
Faculty to Student Ratio
Preschool.............. 1:6 to 1:8
Grades K - 2......... 1:12
Grades 3 - 8......... 1:16 to 1:20
Dogpatch Campus Preschool
728 20th Street San Francisco, CA 94107
415-558-9006
Mission Campus Grades K - 8
3250 18th Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415-551-0000
Silicon Valley Campus Preschool - Grade 2
2086 Clarke Avenue East Palo Alto, CA 94303
650-800-9650
www.lascuolasf.org