A Look Inside Our Lower School (2020)

Oh, Boy(s) We know how to teach them, encourage them, and build them into men of character.

A LOOK INSIDE OUR LOWER SCHOOL

WE KNOW BOYS

Our teaching style has lots of wiggle room.

For more than a century, parents have chosen St. Christopher’s because we know boys.

As a global leader in understanding, engaging, and teaching boys effectively, we have found that boys learn best from active, hands-on experiences. Early education is critical in laying the foundation for your son’s lifelong success.

Our curriculum – like having PE and recess every day – is created to help develop and focus their physical, intellectual, and emotional energy. This allows them to become men who make a positive impact on the world.

LOWER SCHOOL WITH A HIGHER BAR

Our Lower School classrooms are filled with dynamic experiences that will spark your son’s curiosity. We understand how boys think, act, and learn, and our programs are designed to challenge and inspire them. Our youngest Saints enter middle school as more creative, more compassionate, and more confident thinkers – ready to lead and ready to learn.

WHY ST. CHRISTOPHER’S?

We are committed to educating the Whole Boy – in mind, body, and spirit. There are three key areas that set St. Christopher’s apart.

(1) We are the best at teaching boys (2) We provide a values-based education (3) We foster an atmosphere of academic excellence In our recent accreditation with the Virginia Association of Independent Schools (VAIS), they assessed that,

“ With research and outreach nationally and internationally to understand and promote boys’ learning, the visiting team believes the school has become a model for how to effectively educate boys.”

OUR FACULTY IS PASSIONATE ABOUT TEACHING BOYS

We love boys for who they are, so we are committed to bringing out the best in each of our students – academically, artistically, and spiritually. Our teachers will get to know your son individually, so that they can learn his unique qualities and help him grow the confidence and life skills he needs to be successful.

WE PROVIDE A VALUES-BASED EDUCATION

We believe in boys.

To our core.

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We love and understand boys.

We take pride in our Whole Boy approach to education.

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We are committed to academic excellence and preparing boys for both college and life.

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We recognize that we are part of something greater than ourselves.

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We value the power of relationships and community.

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We believe that every boy has both the capacity and responsibility to have a positive impact on the world around him.

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We care most about developing young men who possess character and integrity.

Start early to finish strong.

90% of a child’s brain development happens by age 5,* which means that the years leading up to and including Kindergarten are crucial for your son’s development. These are the prime years to help your child learn life skills like problem-solving and communication. That is why we have designed our Junior Kindergarten (JK) and Kindergarten (K) programs to nurture creativity and encourage curiosity while setting a positive tone for the rest of your son’s schooling.

We promote choosing the hard right over the easy wrong because men of character begin as boys with values.

SERVICE LEARNING

LEADERSHIP

We teach our boys that there is something bigger than themselves through our Service Learning projects.

Each Lower School grade partners with a local charitable organization so your son will learn ways in which he can give back to his community.

At St. Christopher’s, leadership is taught from day one. Whether it is Junior Kindergartners taking on the job of a line leader or Kindergartners practicing firm handshakes and eye contact, we believe leadership skills are essential in raising the next generation of men.

* https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/

Junior Kindergarten At this age, boys learn so much through play, so our Junior Kindergarten program is designed to teach them valuable skills in a fun, hands-on environment. Your son will practice independence, develop self-confidence, and prepare for Kindergarten, making lifelong friends along the way.

SERVICE LEARNING Our youngest Saints partner with the Ronald McDonald House to learn how they can make an impact for others by gathering supplies for families in need.

FIELD TRIPS Your son will learn hands-on at a pumpkin patch, explore the Children’s Museum, and view a play at a local theater to complement his in-class lessons.

FAMILY & FRIENDS Families are so important to us at St. Christopher’s, so we provide three opportunities for parent conferences and in-class activities that allow you to play and learn along with your son.

Making Learning Fun In JK, we focus on empathy — what can we do to make someone else smile? This value is exemplified through our Service Learning activities, our lessons, and our daily discussions.

JK

Kindergarten We have found that boys who are actively engaged in their learning get the most out of it. That is why in Kindergarten, we help your son develop his enthusiasm for school by teaching math, science, reading, and more through immersive activities that make learning fun.

SERVICE LEARNING Kindergarteners partner with Celebrate RVA to help give disadvantaged children a memorable birthday celebration.

FIELD TRIPS Your son will take several field trips in the community that support the study of urban, suburban, and rural communities.

FAMILY & FRIENDS From pumpkin carving at Halloween to stocking sewing at Christmas and reading in the classroom, you will have many chances to participate in your son’s Kindergarten experience.

Making Learning Fun Our Kindergartners love activities like 75 minutes of Spanish each week, learning about life cycles by hatching chicks, taking virtual field trips through Nearpod, and wearing pajamas to school on Hibernation Day.

K

BUILDING BLOCKS FOR SUCCESS

Setting the foundation for his future The time spent in First through Fifth Grades is a foundation that will set the tone for the rest of your son’s academic and personal life.

Our curriculum is designed to build year after year. Always putting boy-centered fun at the heart of classrooms, we help our boys develop and strengthen the unique qualities that will set each of them on their path toward success.

First Grade

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st SERVICE LEARNING

Your son’s First Grade experience will build on his JK & K foundation so that he continues to discover and express his individual strengths in an environment that is enhanced by physical activity and movement.

First-Graders work with local animal shelters like the SPCA and Sanctuary Rescue to build values like empathy and responsibility.

FIELD TRIPS Other First Grade field trips include the Richmond Metro Zoo, the Valentine Museum, and The Children’s Theater.

FAMILY & FRIENDS Our special partnership with St. Catherine’s School gives your son access to the best elements of a coed experience through shared activities like creating dog toys for the SPCA.

Making Learning Fun In First Grade, the environment is increasingly challenging, but always fun.

Boys do everything from writing their own fairy tales to trying to set Guinness World Records.

Second Grade

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As they grow, we encourage our boys to learn through investigation.

This helps them digest complex concepts and connect their lessons to the world around them.

SERVICE LEARNING Second-Graders work with the James River Association and the World Wildlife Fund to learn the importance of preserving our ecosystem.

FIELD TRIPS Adventure awaits your son with field trips to Pony Pasture, Maymont, Tredegar Iron Works, the Maggie Walker House, Henricus Historical Park, and the James River.

FAMILY & FRIENDS Boys learn the value of mentorship by building leprechaun traps with Kindergartners and creating catapults with their middle school buddies.

Making Learning Fun Our focus on rivers includes real soil sampling on the James River and River Night, when boys transform their rooms into a famous river, adopt an endangered animal to protect, and taste food from around the world.

Third Grade

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rd SERVICE LEARNING

Using technology to support his learning experience, your son will work collaboratively and independently to build skills like reading comprehension, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, Spanish, PE, music, and art.

At Shalom Farms, the boys will learn about farm-to-table by actually harvesting crops, which go directly to the Food Bank.

FIELD TRIPS Field trips include Colonial Williamsburg, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Virginia Historical Society, St. John’s Church, and the State Capitol, giving our growing Saints a holistic look at our city’s history and culture.

FAMILY & FRIENDS Voices of Colonial Virginia Day is a special Third Grade tradition with our friends at St. Catherine’s. The boys and girls go back in time to experience bead making, creating African masks, playing colonial games, and cooking Brunswick stew.

Making Learning Fun Through LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Robotics, we teach core computer programming logic and reasoning skills. Your son will also get to be the school’s weatherboy for a day and present the weather in front of a real green screen.

Fourth Grade

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As your son grows, we build his independence and guide him and his classmates as they absorb new and complex concepts. All the while, he is becoming more aware of his strengths and how they will help him make a positive impact in the world.

SERVICE LEARNING Service Learning lets the boys participate in a feeding ministry at Shepherd’s Way, where they serve breakfast to Richmond’s homeless community.

FIELD TRIPS Field trips for our Fourth-Grade Saints include Shalom Farms, Shepherd’s Way, and Work Site Visits for Business Seminars.

FAMILY & FRIENDS Classes create goods and services to sell to the Lower School at our Entrepreneur Expo.

Through this experience, Business Seminars, and a Work Site Visit Day, boys learn about the world of business.

Making Learning Fun Boys learn about force and motion with a roller coaster experiment, light up Christmas ornaments with a circuit, research historical figures who chose the hard right over the easy wrong, and learn to express themselves through dance with our Minds in Motion partnership.

Fifth Grade

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As our Fifth-Graders prepare for Middle School, our curriculum invites them to take bigger intellectual risks and find solutions to challenging problems. From Day 1 to Graduation, our Lower School boys experience learning hands-on in and out of the classroom.

SERVICE LEARNING Boys partner with CARITAS Furniture Bank and build furniture for people exiting homelessness so they can have the resources they need to be successful.

FIELD TRIPS Field trips continue to open their eyes to the world around them through visits to the Richmond Symphony, a Naturalization Ceremony, the Chesapeake Bay, the VMFA, and Montpelier.

FAMILY & FRIENDS Our Dads Read program invites Fifth-Graders to partner with their Dad or a male mentor to read three books over the fall semester and culminates with a friendly competition.

Making Learning Fun Our Fifth-Grade boys practice their leadership skills through the Chapel Team, Leader of the Lower School, Leaders of the Grays and Reds, Student Council Association, and through the Library Club, in which they review advance copies of new books and send their feedback to the publisher.

BUILD PROGRAM

We foster an atmosphere of academic excellence.

Our Boys Using Innovation to Learn and Design (BUILD) program begins in Junior Kindergarten, where boys start coding with Code-A-Pillars.

The goal of BUILD is to provide the framework for our Saints to tinker and find innovative solutions to increasingly challenging problems.

BUILD takes the best of STEM/STEAM approaches and combines them with a broad, skills-based, project-centered focus. For example, in Kindergarten, our boys design and build igloos. Our middle-schoolers use simulations to conceptualize and construct bridges. And our upper-school boys create prototypes using high-tech tools such as 3D printers and Arduinos (microcontrollers).

ST. CHRISTOPHER’S SCHOOL TRADITIONS

Literary Society: Through this biannual poetry recitation, boys get to participate in a friendly oratorical competition as they develop the skills of rhetoric and confidence through public speaking.

Lower School Musical: A highlight of our Lower School experience, this annual musical production brings together every Saint from K through Fifth Grade as they learn every aspect of a dramatic production, including makeup, costumes, and how a play comes together.

Battle of the Books: Our Saints from Third through Fifth Grade can compete in the ultimate book challenge! This exciting quiz-style competition inspires their love for reading.

We’ve got his back so he can keep looking forward.

INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION

LEARNING THROUGH MOTION

JK, K, and First-Grade have two full-time teachers per room so your son gets plenty of 1:1 time.

Boys need to move.

That’s why we have three PE teachers on staff for our Lower School Saints.

A FOCUS ON WELLNESS We provide our Lower School boys with a nurse, a counselor, and full access to the doctor on staff.

OTHER SUPPORT FEATURES Our boys have their own chaplain and Academic Support team, which includes a math specialist and two reading specialists to ensure a holistic education.

JUST LIKE OUR BOYS, WE ARE ALWAYS LEARNING

The Center for the Study of Boys, our research and professional development center, helps train our staff in best practices to engage and teach boys. The success of this program has allowed us to share our findings with other educators in the area so that we are building strong men even outside our doors. educatingboys.com

We’re excited to meet your son.

Call our Admissions team to get started today.

(804) 282.3185 ext. 2390

LOWER SCHOOL ADMISSIONS & FINANCIAL AID TEAM

Hamill Jones

Gail Douthat

Director of Admissions & Financial Aid jonesh@stcva.org

Administrative Assistant to the Admissions & Financial Aid Office douthatg@stcva.org

Anne Wesley Gehring Director of Lower School Admissions gehringa@stcva.org

Ed Cowell Director of Community & Inclusion cowelle@stcva.org

Nikki Jones Administrative Assistant to the Admissions & Financial Aid Office jonesn@stcva.org