Barnhart School Prepares an Adventuresome Curriculum that Blends Academics with Interactive and Travel-Related Experiences

Barnhart School is preparing for the year ahead with an engaging and adventuresome curriculum. The school is celebrating six decades of service to local families.

“Barnhart is just a beautiful place filled with all kinds of excitement and energy this year,” said Tonya Beilstein, Head of School. “We continue in our 61st year of providing a balanced education to students. We have a very strong academic program, but we recognize that our students are often more than their academic selves.”

There is an element of wanderlust in the curriculum as trips are centered around a learning opportunity, like studying about Henry Dana, Jr. and a related trip to Dana Point.

“We’re really focusing on helping to build some amazingly beautiful humans to go out and make a difference in the world,” Beilstein said. “Our mission is that we grow difference-makers, and we believe we do that by connecting with our students in a really wonderful way and by focusing on the social, emotional development of our students in addition to their academic growth.”

A New Assistant Head of School

Barnhart announced the hiring of new Assistant Head of School, Miriam Singer.

“She brings a wealth of experience in independent schools and learning in the upper elementary and middle school years,” Beilstein said. “And she certainly has a passion for elementary age as well.”

Beilstein said the school works to “make sure that the teachers have what they need so that we, in turn, can make sure our students have what they need to be successful every day.”

Interactive and Travel experiences

“We start even in kindergarten with just day trips or short explorations so that students can really start developing those independent skills,” she said, adding the object is to have experiences “outside the four walls of a classroom” that relate to the learning.

“By fourth grade, the students will take a one-night overnight and then in fifth grade we expand that,” Beilstein said. “They’ll be gone for a couple more nights. Our fourth graders go down to Dana point and stay overnight.

Fifth graders go to Catalina Island, sixth and seventh graders are going to Yosemite, and eighth graders go to Washington DC she said.

Admissions and School Tours

Beilstein added that it’s time now to consider your educational options for the 2020-21 school year.

“Our admissions season is in full swing, and we believe in demonstrating to prospective families an authentic view of Barnhart and who we are, which is a community that values its personal connections,” she said. “So we do small group tours that allow us to personalize the admissions process. Tours are starting in mid-October, but actually we’ve even completed a few tours already because folks are interested.”

The school is conducting tours and invites parents to inquire.

For more information see the Barnhart Website.