Admissions Viewbook

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Through experiential

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Whole Child

We strive to create an environment where each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. This approach helps prepare the child for today and tomorrow.

Student Voice

We help to raise risk-takers and change-makers. With freedom to act on their curiosity, students joyfully arrive each day ready to ask bold questions.

Progressive by design, by experience.

Citizenship & Stewardship

Our students are active, aware, and engaged citizens. Even our youngest learners are taught leadership skills including standing up for what they believe in.

Active Engagement

Our students are motivated to learn because they have a lot of questions, and they have joy in finding the answers. Students also play a vital role in designing the curriculum.

Community

Building meaningful relationships among students, teachers, families, and the wider community is the foundation from which our children grow.

Social Justice

We are committed to achieving a diverse student body that reflects and respects ethnic, religious, and social differences.

Progressive design, joyful experience.

Academic Mastery

Skills are not mastered just to check a box. They’re mastered as tools. We learn to read in order to answer questions or for pleasure; we write, we paint, and we compose music.

Integrated Thematic Learning

We use a thematic approach to teaching and learning, enabling students to experience interrelated disciplines, and to see how these disciplines apply to their world.

We believe learning happens everywhere— in the city, the country, and the classroom.

Our classroom is everywhere.

Our outdoor education program incorporates science, math, exploration, discovery, art, and writing, among other academic opportunities. Outdoor lessons often build on concepts introduced in the classroom, and observations and data are brought back to school for further reflection. Each week in the spring and fall, our students in preschool through eighth grade spend time in our “country classroom,” in green spaces across Philadelphia, providing them the space to explore and learn.

The great outdoors makes a great classroom.

everywhere.

Our name isn’t The Philadelphia School by accident.

As our founders intended, Philadelphia is more than our location; it’s an extension of our classrooms and an inspiration for civic engagement. In the early grades, our students take walking tours of the neighborhood, sharpening language skills by interviewing the local florist, applying math skills at the neighborhood grocery, and learning about simple

machines at the bicycle shop around the corner. As our older children consider such complex ideas as fairness, sustainability, and the role of the arts in society, they meet city officials, social workers, scientists, journalists, architects, artists, actors, and musicians—all working in our city.

Preschool to 8th by design.

Lifelong learning starts here.

TPS has been purposeful in creating an educational experience that starts in preschool and ends in eighth grade, where we graduate confident and self-aware leaders. All the while, TPS students feel completely comfortable just being children.

We believe wonder and joy are essential ingredients in every classroom, and we honor children by allowing them to be who they are right now. By putting these foundational years at the center of everything we do, our students gain a deep and lasting understanding of who they are as learners and excitement to explore what’s ahead.

Younger longer. Leaders sooner.

Leadership takes many forms throughout the years at TPS. In a preschool to eighth grade-setting, Students experience age-appropriate activities and events without the influence and pressure of older students; they can be themselves, often remaining “younger” a bit longer.

From the beginning, children share expertise, rely on each other as classmates, and show great care towards one another. Over time, students learn to build confidence and leadership skills and know how to advocate for themselves and others.

Open minds. Open hearts. Open arms.

Our pursuit of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice is a natural extension of our mission to educate children for a future that is impossible to know but not impossible to shape.

Culturally Responsive Instruction

We teach students to approach history with an eye on equity, seeking the truth by exploring diverse and historically underrepresented perspectives. We do not shy away from unpacking the history of racism, systems of oppression, and examples of inequity and injustice across the world.

Student Affinity Groups

We design affinity groups to help students develop a positive racial and gender identity, feel a sense of pride in their difference, and speak to their experiences. Student affinity groups meet in three-week rotations and are embedded in the weekly schedule for students in grades 6-8. We currently offer affinity groups based on race, gender, sexual-orientation, and neurodiversity.

Faculty of Color 36% Students of Color

Family Diversity Committee

The Family Diversity Committee (FDC) is a parent-led group that promotes an inclusive and diverse school community for all students and their families. We support outreach efforts to ensure all families at The Philadelphia School feel welcomed and experience belonging in the life of the school.

Staff of Color 28%

%

The Philadelphia School is dedicated to cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community where all members experience belonging.

We’re in this together.

STUDENT COUNCIL

Not only does the student council offer leadership opportunities to its members, but it also sponsors activities that promote mixed-age collaboration and friendship. Middle School leaders meet weekly and plan several schoolwide activities, run a school store, lead monthly full-council meetings (representatives from grades 1 through 8), and address student concerns.

The Student Council plays a significant role in school life.

Our community is built upon close and meaningful relationships that help us all listen and learn.

CROSS-GRADE COLLABORATION

Older children and younger children develop friendships and support one another in their academic and socialemotional growth. One way we foster this connection is through cross-grade sharing and collaboration. From 8th graders sharing their herbarium projects with Primary students studying trees, to preschoolers presenting their expertise on Spotted Lanternflies with Junior Unit students learning about invasive species, we model our belief that everyone has something to teach and something to learn.

FAMILY GROUPS

Ask any TPS student or alumnus what their favorite TPS tradition is, and Family Groups is bound to be on the short list. At the start of the school year, each Middle School student (grades 6-8) becomes a Family Group leader and is assigned a small group of younger students across multiple grades to work with and mentor throughout the year. Our students relish the opportunity to get to know peers from all grades and build community across the entire school.

We pride ourselves on our close-knit student community.

Our students make strong connections through purposeful programming.

Where school is home.

Parents (TPSA)

Meaningful relationships—between students, teachers, families, and the wider community—are the necessary building blocks upon which children feel seen, known, and loved. Each TPS family is welcomed into the community and is automatically a member of The Philadelphia School Association (TPSA, pronounced “tip-sa”). TPSA connects families by organizing educational parent programs, community events, service opportunities, and facultyappreciation initiatives. We know that it takes a village to raise a child, and for families at TPS, that village is TPSA.

Teachers get to know their students intimately and partner with families to better understand their child’s learning and social-emotional needs and how we can support them.

Students and families establish strong relationships where they often have the same teacher for multiple years and remain connected even as they move on to upper grades.

Community is evident in the reciprocal home and school partnership.

“From

to emails updating us on progress, we always feel well-informed about how our daughters are doing in school.

even seven years in, we’re still surprised by just how well their teachers know them and what they need emotionally and academically to both support and challenge them.”

PARENT

Powered by wonder.

Students come to us filled with curiosity and joy. We make sure to keep it that way.

wonder.

MASTERFUL FACILITATORS

Students to Teachers

%

Faculty & Staff with Advanced Degrees

The role of our teachers is critical in balancing the pursuit of academic excellence and the social and emotional growth of each child. Teachers are the intentional guides to this discovery and exploration. As a community working together, teachers understand the progression that is possible in each child, and they know exactly the right time to pose the next question or offer the right nudge forward. We know that when children and teachers are partners in their learning, it brings a deeper understanding, appreciation, and spirit to their studies.

TEAM-TEACHING MODEL

Our team-teaching model is another example of how relationships help to foster collaboration and a strong sense of community at TPS. Each classroom from preschool to 5th grade has at least two lead teachers who work together to prepare lessons, support the individual learning needs of students, and provide a model of what a successful collaborative working relationship can look like.

We have an extraordinary team of educators and administrators who step up every day to elevate the wonder and joy of students.

A TYPICAL DAY IN

Every day, students are invited to engage with new materials and activities that will arouse their curiosity. Imaginative play and teacher-facilitated research intertwine as students become experts and enthusiasts on everything from Spotted Lanternflies to electricity.

Early Childhood

Whether in our garden space, our bright, airy classrooms, the neighborhood, or sites further afield, Early Childhood students’ learning is driven by their own questions.

Self-Guided Play & Learning

With teachers close at hand, children move freely & explore different activities.

Morning Meeting & Circle Times

These are opportunities to build community as well as to model new concepts and skills.

Small Groups

Students participate in 1-2 teacher-led group activities on a range of topics.

Morning Snack & Lunch

Time to eat and socialize is also time to learn about being together in community.

Quiet Time

Daily quiet time to rest & recharge is built into our schedule in the early afternoon.

Outdoor Play & Learning

Each class spends significant time each day in our garden and loose parts playground, explores the neighborhood or plays at Schuylkill River Park, and participates in weekly outdoor education days off-site.

Specialist Classes

Children participate weekly in music, movement, Spanish, and art classes.

A TYPICAL DAY IN

Primary & Third

From the moment they transition to the Lombard Building as wide-eyed first graders we foster the social, cognitive, and physical growth of our early elementary learners in carefully scaffolded ways.

Our Primary (1-2) classrooms are vertically grouped to support the broad developmental range that characterizes this stage of learning, and to intentionally build our children’s capacity to both lead and follow.

Then, in third grade, students reassemble as a single grade, consolidate their skills, and begin to employ all they’ve learned to better understand the wider world around them.

Activity Time

Exploration leads to rich learning, so there is still some time for play in the classroom. This is formally included in Primary schedules and folded in more informally in third grade.

Morning & Closing Meeting

Students build community and self-awareness as they preview and reflect on their days.

Small & Whole Group Lessons

Students participate in 3-4 teacher-led activities on a range of topics (literacy, math, science, and theme). In Primary, math instruction is generally grouped by grade level.

Outdoor Play, Learning, & Exploration

Students spend time each day in our yard, neighborhood, or at Markward playground, and they participate in weekly outdoor education days connected to their studies.

Independent & Collaborative Work Time

Time to reflect, problem-solve, experiment, read, write, and synthesize at one’s own pace is an essential part of each day. Student voice and choice during these times allows children to incorporate their personal interests and make the learning their own.

Specialist Classes

Students participate twice weekly in music, physical education, Spanish, and art classes. Intensive units with our STEAM teachers are also incorporated across the year.

Junior Unit

Student voice and student choice is paramount to the TPS experience and continues to be a large part of work with students in the Junior Unit. With freedom to act on their curiosity, students ask bold questions, explore, build, test, and pursue answers.

Learning in community is at the heart of the TPS experience. Students at TPS explore ideas together. They develop the courage to speak, the compassion to listen, and the empathy to understand. Students in our Junior Unit are given many opportunities to learn in community as they experience their 4th & 5th grade years in vertically grouped classrooms.

Morning and Closing Meeting

Students build community and practice leadership and facilitation skills, as they preview and reflect on their days.

Flexible Groupings

On any given day, children in Junior Unit work alongside a variety of their peers. Teachers are able to nimbly respond to the needs of their students by flexibly grouping children based on anything from grade level, to skill work, to interest.

Thematic Study

A rotating, thematic study provides a focus for learning, giving purpose and meaning to the educational experience.

Junior Unit students dive deep into the study of ancient civilizations through essential questions such as, “How is power kept, gained, and resisted?” A thematic approach to learning offers possibilities for understanding material through a wide variety of pathways, from traditional academic disciplines to singing, dancing, painting, building, acting, and composing.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Mathematics

In addition to twice weekly study in music, physical education, Spanish, and art classes, fourth & fifth grade students participate in our STEAM program, working in small groups on weekly challenges.

Outdoor Learning and Play

Whether in the city, country, or the classroom, there are things to be learned in every environment. Students spend time each day in our neighborhood or at Markward playground, and they participate in weekly outdoor education days connected to their studies.

We focus on where students are now, so they’ll know where to go next.

Advisory

Our teachers have a keen understanding of the unique nature of adolescence and understand the benefit of developing spaces for children to feel heard, seen, and cared for. Middle School students begin and end each day in their Advisory, a space for these types of meaningful connections to be built and maintained.

Connecting Curriculum

Through projects like Choconomics, Rock Band, and Seeds of Change, every day at TPS, science meets art and robotics meets history. Yesterday’s headline becomes today’s lesson. Teachers are creatively nimble in connecting concepts in the classroom with the world outside of it.

The culminating 8th grade year provides an opportunity for self-reflection, reinvention, and a voice to determine what’s next. Kids graduate TPS with a love of learning, and they are fully prepared to excel socially and academically in the transition to high school.

Robotics and Engineering

Through the modalities of project-based learning, invention-based literacy, and the engineering-design process, the Middle School STEAM program aims to prepare students for an unknowable future by fostering critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, and computational thinking.

Middle School at TPS is marked by many experiences that provide students the skills to navigate newness and help develop self-advocacy, clarity, and compassion.

A TYPICAL DAY IN Middle School

Travel

Travel in Middle School is designed to capitalize on the tremendous growth in capability and independence that happens in these years. Trips build students’ self-confidence, citizenship skills, responsibility, and comfort being away from home; they include camping excursions, wilderness-survival training, and team-building exercises.

Affinity & Ally Groups

We work to ensure that all students feel a sense of belonging in our TPS community and one component of this is participation in affinity & allyship groups. An affinity or ally group is a gathering of people who all share a similar identity. These groups enhance cross-cultural communication, provide a space for reflection, dialogue, and support, and facilitate positive identity exploration and development.

Minicourses & Intensives

These elective classes provide an opportunity for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students in mixed-age groups to deeply explore an area of interest or a topic to which they might otherwise have limited or no previous exposure. Led by middle school teachers or guest instructors, these classes have ranged from a deep dive into strategy games around the world to a master class in legislative lobbying.

The Classroom is Everywhere

From visiting with experts in their field, to engaging in multi-day backpacking trips, students are regularly engaged in service-learning, interdisciplinary projects, real-world experiences, and meaningful problem solving.

Music

MUSIC IS INTEGRAL TO THE CULTURE OF TPS.

The music program aims to enable all students to develop a positive connection to their innate musical ability. It balances creativity with discipline, ensemble with solo activities, and making music with active listening. Students learn the elements of music through song, instrument playing, movement, and listening to music.

Visual Arts

THE WONDER, THE BEAUTY, AND THE LEARNING IN ART ALL COME FROM THE PROCESS OF CREATION.

We value that time of discovery. Experience with processes and materials comes first, and then skills, ideas, and historical links develop. Through a variety of projects, students develop skills to express their artistic individuality. We encourage each student to learn about art and learn through art. Art study does not only take place in the studio. The Art Department takes advantage of Philadelphia’s vibrant art scene, arranging trips for art classes on a regular basis – even at a moment’s notice.

LEARN TO BE ACTIVE FOR A LIFETIME.

Our younger learners take part in movement classes, focusing on developing locomotor movement patterns, gross motor skills, fundamental sports skills, and spatial awareness. Our older students work towards mastering their skills, implementing strategies and tactics across a variety of games and sports, building and creating personal-fitness plans, and exhibiting responsible personal and social behavior. Other major themes across the PE curriculum include accountability, sportsmanship, communication, and collaboration. In Middle School, students are offered the opportunity to participate in interscholastic sports.

Physical Education Spanish

LANGUAGE & GLOBAL OUTLOOK.

TPS has a long-standing commitment to teaching Spanish to all students because of its importance as the second most-commonlyspoken language in the U.S. By opening doors to other cultures, language study helps children develop respect for people who speak languages and practice customs other than their own.

Letting kids be kids. Imagine that.

80%of students participate in after-school programming at TPS

that.

MUSIC

Private after-school music lessons are taught at The Philadelphia School by Philadelphia-area musicians. The After School Music Program holds several recitals throughout the school year; all students, regardless of whether they take music lessons at or outside of school, may participate.

AFTER SCHOOL ENRICHMENT PROGRAM (ASEP)

Students choose from a variety of options including theme-related art, science projects, building in our construction zone, make-believe in our imagination station or the ASEP book corner.

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL EXTENDED DAY PROGRAM (MSED)

Middle School students can have a snack, work on homework, or play after dismissal or after other afterschool activities, such as clubs, sports, or music lessons.

CLUBS

For those interested in pursuing a particular hobby, sport, or academic topic, our club offerings are among the largest and most diverse in the region— from our award-winning chess club, to yoga, to ceramics, basketball, and technology offerings.

ATHLETICS

Middle School students have the opportunity to play on interscholastic athletics teams. This program prepares student athletes for the next level by teaching foundational sport skills, tactics, strategies, while fostering the development of commitment, teamwork, responsibility, leadership & goal setting.

When you love school as much as our students do, staying after dismissal is something to look forward to.

When you learn everywhere, you can go anywhere.

It’s impossible for parents to predict the best high school for a young child. By 8th grade, having come to know themselves deeply as learners while at TPS, students are able to be active participants in the process of selecting the high school that will best allow their passions and dreams to thrive. At TPS, high school choice is a team effort.

Our Middle School Dean of Students works in partnership with families and their children to find a high school “match” that honors the student’s unique gifts and achievements. TPS knows the schools and knows your student and can help to guide the exploration and decision-making process. TPS’s students are sought after as high school students because they are wellprepared, self-assured, well-rounded, and strong moral citizens.

Graduates of The Philadelphia School emerge as confident leaders with a true sense of self and confidence to take on what’s next. They attend many of the area’s highly regarded public and independent schools.

After TPS, students have gone on to attend...

CRITERIA-BASED PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Academy at Palumbo

Central High School

Constitution High School

The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA)

Franklin Learning Center George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science

Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP) Girls High School Hill-Freedman World Academy

Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School

Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School Parkway Center City High School

Science Leadership Academy (SLA)

Science Leadership Academy at Beeber

Walter B. Saul High School

William W. Bodine High School for International Affairs

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

Academy in Manayunk (AIM)

Abington Friends School

Agnes Irwin School

Cristo Rey Phila. High School Friends' Central School

Friends Select School

George School

Germantown Friends School

Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy

LaSalle College High School Merion Mercy Academy

Mount Saint Joseph Academy Revolution School

Sacred Heart Academy Bryn Mawr St. Joseph’s Preparatory School

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy

The Baldwin School

The City School

The Crefeld School

The Episcopal Academy The Haverford School

The Shipley School

Westtown School

William Penn Charter School