• Message from the Principal
• Mission/Philosophy
• Faculty/Staff
• SRV in Brief
• Board of Directors
• School Environment
• Diversity
• Community Impact
• Directions
• SRV By the Numbers
• Symposium

The School in Rose Valley offers a strikingly different model of how young people should be educated. Emphasizing hands-on experience and connection to nature, Rose Valley's preschool through sixth grade program fosters independence, creativity, and deep commitment to community. The Rose Valley experience is both nurturing and rigorous–students are prepared for future academic success, meaningful relationships, and active citzenship.

Hands-on Experience

Children learn best through direct experience. At The School in Rose Valley, learning is doing. From preschoolers learning social skills through play, to older students learning advanced scientific principles by designing and conducting experiments, there is opportunity for children to master skills, construct understanding of concepts, and think and do for themselves. Teachers encourage and facilitate learning with their expertise and through the school's curricula. They present intriguing ideas, provide raw materials, ask leading questions, and plan lessons that respectfully support the students in the work of exploration and reflection. Risk taking is encouraged, and mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth.

Connection to Nature

Imagine an eight-acre classroom. Our unique grounds function as an outdoor learning laboratory. The wooded trails, Ridley Creek, the school's Organic Garden and Learning Center, sheep, and fields are part of the everyday learning environment. Our students become scientists and environmental stewards by measuring the health of the creek, restoring the watershed, engaging in resource conservation efforts, and helping to sustain the school lunch program through organic gardening. They appreciate time spent out of doors and enjoy sledding when it snows, fort-building, digging for hidden treasures in the sandboxes, or having a book group discussion under a tree.

Independence and Creativity

At The School in Rose Valley, students are encouraged to see themselves as capable, competent and independent people. Making informed decisions, persisting through difficult situations, following their own pathways of thinking, voicing their own opinions, and navigating novel academic and social situations with self assurance are part of children's daily work. This happens through everyday experiences in the classroom as well as through structured opportunities such as: mini-courses, a wide range of 'electives' children choose from several times a year; weekly work in the woodshop where children create whatever they choose, whether it takes one week or several years to complete; and camping and canoeing in the older grades.

Creativity in all arenas is encouraged as an avenue for individual self-expression and personal satisfaction. Thinking creatively gives children the power to see things from multiple perspectives and to collaborate with others, important skills to learn in a world that will expect them to be able to communicate with many different types of people in many different types of situations. Art, music, woodshop and technology are taught by teacher experts who integrate their disciplines with classroom work, empowering students to see connections, think critically and problem-solve creatively.

Nurturing and Rigorous

Our intimate classrooms provide a safe, nurturing and intimate environment for children to learn and take risks. Students are treated as meaning-makers with budding theories, provocative questions and assumptions that deserve exploration, challenge and support. The curriculum is rich and varied, including traditional academic subjects as well as a stellar science program, woodshop, technology and the arts. SRV's interdisciplinary, inquiry- based approach creates learning experiences that arouse and sustain students' curiosity, deepen their thinking, and respond to their questions in ways that are engaging and enduring. This rigorous approach helps children to master skills and become flexible, self-directed and disciplined learners.

Meaningful Relationships

Children are well known in this intentionally small school. Respect, trust and integrity are key values of our school relationships. Our teachers know each child in depth, academically, socially and emotionally. This fosters a bond that encourages risk-taking, exploration and authenticity between generations. Our students trust that their teachers care and have time to help them solve a problem and the expertise to guide their inquiries. In turn, our children are coached to be accepting, inclusive and sensitive to others' needs. They learn to listen to one another, respect differences and appreciate multiple points of view. Through multi-age classrooms and activities, older-younger child partnerships, and inter-generational and multicultural projects, partnerships, and experiences, the students gain perspective and empathy.

Active Citzenship

Our pedagogical approach challenges students to think about the world, their place in it, and their responsibility to it. The curricular content, skills, values, and habits of mind that we teach provide fertile ground for developing a child's social, environmental and global awareness. Students learn about democracy and social justice by being actively engaged in decision making and contributing to the stewardship of the school community through the debate of important issues, running morning meetings, operating our recycling and composting programs, and participating in the student council. They learn about service and partnership within authentic, real-world contexts. Picking up litter in the Saul Nature Preserve, helping to plant vegetables at Red Hill Farm, and harvesting food from the school's Organic Garden and Learning Center that they will eat for lunch, teach children about being part of a community and prepare them for the responsibilities of global citizenship.