One hundred eighty students, kindergarten through eighth grade, on fourteen acres at the edge of Elmbrook. Classes of fifteen. Project mornings, outdoor Fridays, and one adult whose job is to know your child.
Most school websites promise everything. We would rather tell you the three commitments that shape the whole day, in plain language, and let you judge them for yourself on a tour morning.
Every grade spends the first two hours of the day on one question that lasts six weeks: how does a river move a town, what makes a vote fair, why do bridges hold. Reading, writing and math are taught inside the project and assessed outside it, so nobody mistakes a good poster for a good understanding.
Every Friday, kindergarten through eighth grade spends the day outside, on the fourteen acres behind the school or at Miller Creek, in whatever the weather is doing. It is not a break from the curriculum. The science, the field journals and most of the arguments about fairness happen out there.
Each student has an advisor who stays with them for at least three years and calls home before anything lands on a report card. From third grade up, the child leads the parent conference, with the advisor there to keep them honest and to fill in what they leave out.
Fridays are different: the whole day moves outside, and the timeline with it. See how we teach.
Doors open. The eighth graders walk the kindergarteners in.
Fifteen minutes, whole class, one question on the board.
Two hours on the six-week question. Reading and writing live here.
Recess in every weather. Boots stay by the door all year.
Grouped by where each child is, not by how old they are.
Family style at tables of eight, adults included, no trays.
Music, Spanish, art, shop. Two each afternoon, all four each week.
Journals, then a book. Quiet, on purpose, for everyone.
After-care runs to 5:45 for families who need it.
We take about thirty new students a year, most of them into kindergarten. The dates below are firm. Everything else about the process is meant to be easy.
| When | What | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sat, Oct 17, 2026 | Open house | 9:30 to 11:30. Families welcome, no RSVP needed. Children too. |
| Oct 6 to Jan 14 | Tour mornings | Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30. Six families per tour. Book by email below. |
| Sat, Nov 14, 2026 | Open house | Same morning, same coffee, different teachers on hand. |
| Fri, Jan 15, 2027 | Application deadline | Also the deadline for flexible tuition. One form covers both. |
| Jan 19 to Feb 12 | Visit days | A morning in a classroom for every applicant. Playgroup for kindergarten, shadow day for grades 1 to 8. |
| Fri, Mar 5, 2027 | Decisions | Sent by email at 9:00, followed by a phone call from the Head of School to every family. |
| Fri, Mar 19, 2027 | Enrollment contracts due | With a $1,500 deposit, credited against tuition. |
| After Mar 19 | Rolling admission | Remaining seats are filled as applications arrive. |
A tour morning or an open house. Bring your child; we would rather meet them than read about them.
A short online form, a note from your child's current teacher, and a morning with us in a classroom. There is no test.
Every family gets a phone call, not just an email. If the answer is no, we tell you why.
There is no entrance exam and no cut-off. We read what the teacher writes, we watch your child spend a morning with us, and we ask one question: will this child be known here, and stretched here? Siblings and faculty children have priority. Nobody else does.
Thirty-eight percent of families pay less than the full figure. Awards range from ten to eighty-five percent of tuition, and the median award this year is $8,900.
Your finances go to an outside service. Nobody on the faculty sees them, and the admissions committee decides on your child before it knows what you can pay. Apply for flexible tuition on the same form as admission, by January 15.
We have never run out of aid before we ran out of seats, and we do not intend to start.
Most of them came here from bigger schools and stayed because the classes are fifteen and the door to the Head's office is open. They are the reason the ratio on this page means anything.
Nineteen years in the same room, and a drawer that holds every class's first self-portrait, in order.
Runs outdoor Fridays and has never once cancelled one for weather. Owns more tarps than the school does.
Every teacher knows every child's name by the end of October. We check, and you can too, at an open house.
Tour mornings run October 6 through January 14 at 8:30. Forty-five minutes, six families at most, led by the Head of School and two eighth graders. Coffee in the front hall. Bring your child; the eighth graders are better with them than we are.
40 Orchard Hill Road
Elmbrook
Open in Maps
Parking is behind the gym. The front lot is for the bus.