Explore Claver Castle
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Solarium
Our bright fourth floor Solarium is the central nerve of our grade school. Throughout the day, you’ll find students engaged in movement, musical practice, and play rehearsals. Designed in the 1930s for airflow and sunshine, the solarium is a center of fresh energy. In the Springtime, you’ll even find the early childhood students traveling up the stairs, tending to their newly planted seedlings in the warmth of the sun.
Rooftop Apiary
This busy crown of our school hosts over a dozen flourishing bee colonies and a bee population of over 200,000 and growing. Tended lovingly by our beloved beekeepers, the apiary is a primary source to our teaching of botany, ecosystems and the work of a thriving community. Our grade-schoolers visit the bees routinely and can be found sitting amongst the variety of buzzing herbs and flowers, with a sketchbook in hand.
Terraces
We have five terraces on the school’s uppermost levels. These provide seamless and continuous connection to the outdoors throughout the school day. Two classrooms share a terrace by design, resulting in valuable relationship-building between children of different ages. Students can be found here enjoying snack, reading, or doing seasonal projects like 1st and 8th Grades’ traditional Fall pumpkin carving.
Lower School
Our Lower School classrooms are alive with color and discovery. Each classroom boasts a wall of ceiling-high windows, in view of an adjoining terrace, the city, and the sky. Plants and natural projects line the windowsills of this clear and open learning environment. Students spend most of their academic day in this imaginative, light-filled space, whether in Main Lesson, Mandarin, or Castellano.
Subject Classes
Mandarin, Castellano, and Social-Emotional Learning subject classes round out our rich core curriculum. You will find students grade 1-8 here on our bright 4th floor, enthusiastically immersed in their dynamic language study, or sitting in an SEL sharing circle with their class to sustain group and personal balance.
Middle School
Here you’ll find an astounding chalk drawing of a historical figure, a geographic region, or an astrological landscape. Students are hard at work, composing detailed handcrafted main lesson books that reflect their current learning block. Botany, chemistry, poetry, Mandarin, Castellano, mythology and astrology are just a few of the subjects you may hear discussed as you pass by these lively Middle School classrooms.
Early Childhood
Long before you reach an Early Childhood classroom, the first thing you’ll experience is the rich, full aroma of food being prepared. Children gather around a low family style table to chop ingredients, roll bread, and share their mealtimes. Our EC classrooms are thoughtful, warm spaces that encourage ritual, imagination, and ignite the first embers of the joy of responsibility. Intentionally uninstructive, the rooms are rich with textures and toys that allow child-led play and discovery.
Gymnasium
Our expansive gymnasium boasts extraordinarily high ceilings, a performance stage and a fully operational basketball court. Students gather here for Games and Movement, an important piece of their curriculum that unites the body and mind. This is where many class plays and assemblies take place, and you’ll find this space bursting with students and families alike during our raucous basketball season.
Parent Child Room
Our only classroom on the ground level, this welcoming room is a gentle entry-point to our community. Warm, neutral colors and quiet tones create a peaceful nest for families and very young children to gather. Bread is baking and a puppet show is underway.
Side Yard
We believe play is a young child’s only true occupation. They do it with enthusiasm, intention, and relentless spirit. By this standard, our “side-yard” is a joyful and productive place of work. Our youngest students push wheelbarrows, dig, build, gather under the grape arbor, and tend their garden. Rain, snow, or sun.
Backyard
Our grade-schoolers enjoy the recently renewed “backyard”, outfitted with climbing structures and a basketball hoop. This space is visited daily by our Lower and Middle school students for exercise, play and an always welcome “out-breath”.
Handwork Room
Found on the lower level, this creative hearth of our school is dripping with freshly dyed yarns and wools. Students travel here twice weekly to work quietly at their ongoing projects, whether knitting or sewing, preparing natural fibers or felting. Where head, hands, and heart unite, many students will tell you this is their most treasured time of day.
Orchestra & Music
In the morning, on the lower level, you may hear a train whistle blowing or strings being tuned by our Music and Orchestra teachers. This space is where all students grade 1-8 gather for Chorus and practice their levels of flute, and where students grade 3-8 rehearse with their orchestral instruments.
Lower Level
The always active footprint of our building is foundational to both the pedagogy and community culture of our school. Home to our handwork, woodwork, music classes and our kitchen, much of the life of the school builds up from this diverse space. Students rehearse plays, orchestra and song here, and families gather for planning and social events.
Woodworking
Situated in the Lower Level, the woodworking classroom is visited routinely by students beginning in 4th grade. The smell of sawdust lingers in the air and the walls are lined with creations in process such as spoons, bowls, and dollhouses. Like handwork, woodwork brings the whole being into focus and unites the student with the deep satisfaction of creating a practical artform.