Our mission is to prepare the whole child with the tools they need to construct their own future.

Prepare the Whole Child…

Academics are important, though simply focusing on reading, writing, and arithmetic completely ignores what it is to be human. In enabling a young person to reach their full potential, all of their developmental needs must be addressed. In addition to a rigorous yet developmentally appropriate approach to academics, Upstone also explicitly focuses on children’s skills and abilities in the physical, social-emotional, interpersonal, and cognitive domains. By focusing on all of these areas, we acknowledge the interconnectedness and interdependence of a child’s—of a human’s—inner workings. Ultimately, students are then better prepared for school, and also, they have a strong foundation that pervades different aspects of their lives and stays with them beyond their time at Upstone.

…with The Tools they Need…

Preparation of the whole child entails providing children with opportunities to acquire tools that will help them both in and out of the classroom, from a broad array of domains, and over three very important years of development. These include basic skills that they will use immediately, like caring for themselves; skills that they will use in school, like understanding mathematical operations or deriving meaning from text; or skills that will help them to navigate social situations, like solving a problem with a peer, or advocating for themselves. Most importantly, however, Upstone provides students the opportunity to confront and overcome challenges presented to them, which builds in them the confidence to take on future challenges, gives them a deep understanding of the importance of persistence, and develops their habit of mind to stay with something even when it’s difficult.

…To Construct Their Own Future.

We place a lot of trust in our students; they are given a lot of freedom, within clearly defined limits. This allows for two things. The first is that when given the freedom to act in accordance with their own nature, children reveal themselves. They show us who they are, and what their needs are. With diligent observation, our guides notice students’ individual intricacies, and then accommodate them to personalize their experiences while under our care.

Giving students freedom in class also accustoms them to acting on behalf of themselves. A student’s future is highly undefined, now more than ever. Young people must be prepared for a world that does not yet exist, and it is paramount that they are able to take on what comes their way. They must have experience making independent choices. They must be able to assess and navigate novel situations. In preparing students to take on such uncertainty, they must be given ownership over their own decision making, and this includes their learning. Both within the classroom and without, we expect our students to be active participants in creating their own future.