Start Curious. Stay Curious.
The Lower School at RPS is where curiosity, creativity and confidence grow. The early childhood and elementary years are the best time to lay a foundation for a lifelong love of learning through engaging academics, the encouragement of curiosity, and the celebration of creativity.
Our expert educators provide a hands-on, minds-on approach to learning from Pre-Kindergarten to Fifth Grade. Lower School students explore and discover; they ask questions and solve problems; they collaborate with peers; and they think critically about their world.
Small class sizes and individualized attention help develop students’ reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies competencies. Exciting projects keep students engaged and loving coming to school each day.
It All Starts Here
We realize that the first years of a child's academic life are crucial in establishing a positive attitude towards learning. Beginning in Pre-Kindergarten we nurture the young child’s adjustment to school routines and readiness for learning. The goals of the early childhood program are fostering self-help, listening, and organizational skills, as well as developing a love for learning in each and every student. Students achieve these goals with the guidance of dedicated professionals who plan and provide innovative, high-interest activities within an encouraging and caring environment.
Early childhood students are offered fine and gross motor activities, book selections, pre-math and pre-reading instruction, music, and dramatic play that encourage learning around a letter of the week or an exciting theme such as the rain forest or Antarctica. As a school that continues through 12th grade, we are able to broaden our youngest students’ scope of instruction with expert specialist teachers in subjects such as art, library, physical education, music, and Spanish.
Learning Through Leading
During their time in the Lower School, through responsibility at every level. Fifth Grade students are challenged to be role models for younger students and deepen their capacity for empathy and understanding of others, a key component of effective guidance. They also participate in a retreat at Stony Acres filled with physical, skilled verbal, and group dynamic challenges allowing students to become closer to one another and begin to cohere as a group.