The Lower School

Kindergarten - Fifth Grades

The Lower School at Bay Ridge Prep employs a developmentally responsive curriculum that addresses the intellectual, social, and emotional needs of each child. We organize our teaching and learning around topics and activities that are meaningful, interesting, and relevant to children at each stage of their development.  We foster a safe and warm environment where children are expected to take risks, ask questions, pursue interests, and think critically.

We strive to meet the needs of every child. This is facilitated by our highly trained teachers and very low student/ teacher ratio.  Teachers continuously prepare individual lesson plans for students based on special talents, interests, or weaknesses. From the first day of school children are taught to embrace their varied strengths and talents and address areas of difficulty. Our classrooms celebrate multiple intelligences, which makes the acceleration and remediation of curriculum possible.

The children enjoy the family atmosphere established by the lower school. All lower school children eat lunch together with teachers. Weekly Lower School classroom meetings encourage children to see themselves as important members of the school community and the broader society. Integrated school-wide projects promote cooperation and problem solving skills and give older children leadership opportunities by mentoring younger children.

The rich and rigorous experiences children have at the Lower School fully prepare them for the academic and social challenges of middle school.