Our Families

NS families represent a diversity of parenting styles, cultural backgrounds, and value systems. What we share is a willingness to learn how to care for each other. Together, we learn to care for children’s learning differences, caregivers’ needs, and our broader community’s rights.

NS families feel cared for because…

  • "There is an ethos of service that is deeply spiritual but is successfully expressed in a secular way."

  • "I felt that NS had reached out and held all of us as parents by the hands and hearts as if to say: you don't have to do this alone. We will do this together. We will not shy away from the big, scary, essential work of being a child and raising a child in this world today. Because the kids don't have a choice, and they need us. And there is so much to celebrate and be grateful for, and so much wisdom to draw on to guide us."

  • "NS offers a level of humanity that I would want for any child's education."

  • "The slow pace. The (large) amount of time for lunch, recess, for individual tasks, and just generally for "processing" is so important for the developing mind. This is one of the most unique things about NS. Our child's focus has improved so much and his anxiety levels are way down now that he is not being jerked around from activity to activity as he was at his prior school."

  • "A small school that emphasizes hands-on teaching in small class sizes with plenty of attention for individual students and plenty of room to grow emotionally and as community members."

  • "I had wanted my child to be the best and the brightest, but somewhere along the way that shifted to wanting his whole class to thrive."

  • "I always value the rich and exciting curriculum, heart strengthening relationship and community building, and the unfailing way in which teachers treat children with respect, care and kindness."

  • "We love the teachers so much; their commitment; their care for the students; and their effort to build caring communities among the students."

NS families care for our school by…

NS families offer their skills, cultural knowledge, passion, and interests to students. They connect classrooms with their work in our broader community and provide chances for hands-on learning.

NS families are invited into classrooms to witness learning processes and celebrate milestones. They are some of our best editors and research subjects. Caregivers celebrate not only their own children, but all the students, and watch them develop through the years.

NS families have fun with us! From playing games with us at recess and marching in parades with us… We enjoy each other and build lasting community.

NS families make art together. They sew costumes, perform at Winter Concert, choreograph for our plays, compose original songs… they are a talented bunch!

“Care is hard work because it requires a kind of genuine sacrifice and solidarity far beyond what is demanded by charity or kindness… But this deep orientation toward care is frequently unlearned over time, replaced by ways of being that are traditionally rewarded in schools: competition over cooperation, individualism over collectivism, independence over interdependence. ”
— Carla Shalaby, progressive education researcher