How We Run Our School

With full measures of love, respect, rigorous academic challenge, music, community and fresh air, the New Village School cultivates an atmosphere in which children can remain inquisitive and are allowed to become deeply capable and responsible. Their renewable inner resources will help them thrive in a profoundly changing world.

What Is the New Village?

We have created a new extended family: the new village. This is a place in which parents feel safe in the knowledge that everyone feels responsible for everyone’s well-being. Our neighborhoods as we once knew them have changed and our school addresses the need for community. In that way our school is a portable neighborhood and our children are raised in a community of caring individuals.

In the classroom, we have created a natural extended family. We do not always separate the children artificially by grades. Indeed, all the children interact with each other at various points throughout the day.

We believe in long-term relationships. Children respond with feelings of camaraderie, commitment, and a profound sense of trust. Teachers benefit from the time and ability to deeply understand and come to know the children, as well as how best to help them develop their abilities.

Finally, the New Village is a community of learners – children and adults – who never give up trying to discover even more about ourselves. Because of this, we strive to create an atmosphere in which everyone feels safe to be vulnerable, honest and authentic.

How Is the New Village School Governed?

The basic premise is that everyone in the community feels responsible for the well-being of, above all, the children but also of one another and the school.

The school is seen as a living organism that is growing and changing. “Form follows function” underscores any governance structure chosen for a given phase of the school’s development.

The New Village School has a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of elected community members, parents, and representatives of the Management Team, which is responsible for the legal and fiscal health of the school. The school is managed by its Management Team which is made up of all full-time teachers. All teachers engaged with the children belong to the Teaching Team.

The Board includes:

We are grateful to all of our board members who have supported our school.

All teachers who work with the school are part of our Teaching Team. In our school, the teachers see themselves as a team of adults who are there to provide absolute solidarity, warmth, love and care for the children. We create an atmosphere in which children can feel safe to be who they are.

We are here to help them uncover and discover who they are. We believe that helping children develop a strong inner sense of self and to develop the ability to love themselves is absolutely critical.

The teachers are committed to supporting each other in all aspects of their work and to model how human beings can be with each other in the best possible way. We observe the children as they move through their day and through continual conversation, try and make sure that each child feels seen and acknowledged.