Pine Street School
Pine Street School is New York City’s premier International Baccalaureate (IB) World School located in the heart of the financial district, providing both Mandarin and Spanish dual language immersion starting with Nursery Ones (12 months of age) and continuing through Grade 8.
At Pine Street School, we believe that every child is born a perfect learner – with enthusiastic curiosity, a tireless desire to problem solve, and a fearless interest in new experiences. As educators, our goal is to nourish these innate qualities by keeping stride with resources, opportunities, models and challenges that encourage their instinctive desire to understand, grow, and contribute. We give all our students the opportunity to experience a unique international education and to acquire the personal attributes, outlook and knowledge that will equip them to play an active role in the construction of tomorrow’s world.
Dual Language Immersion
Dual language Immersion is not merely about learning a second language, it's about immersing students in an environment where both their native language and a target language, Spanish or Mandarin Chinese, are integrated into daily learning.
In addition to being an essential skill, multilingualism enhances the brain’s function and has a direct impact on academic achievement. Multilinguals have stronger executive functions, such as managing time, paying attention, multitasking, planning and organizing, remembering details, and critical thinking.
We believe multilingualism and cultural agility will be essential for future changemakers. Every one of our school leaders is fluent in at least 3 languages. 95% of our teaching faculty speak at least two languages. We don’t just teach multilingualism. We live it and model it every day.
Inquiry
Our inquiry-based approach honors the complex work of active learning. It prioritizes the knowledge and experience that students bring to the classroom and it promotes active problem solving, communication, and the shared construction of new ideas. Pine Street School teachers are expertly trained to facilitate an inquiry-based curriculum, and deeply focused on digital citizenship, sustainability, community engagement and, most of all, supporting student voice and agency.
Here, inquiry is nurtured as early as our Nursery Ones program and cultivated into increasingly advanced processes year by year. Typically by 1st or 2nd Grade, our students are self-sufficient in developing their own complex inquiries and demonstrating impressive skills in self-management and critical thinking.
Technology
We see technology as any tool that empowers the learner to broaden the expression of an idea (often artistically), innovate, solve a problem, learn something new, verify what they think they know, communicate and collaborate with others, and so much more.
As an Apple Distinguished School, our educational technology approach encompasses the use of a wide range of digital tools, media and learning environments for teaching, learning and assessing. It provides opportunities for the transformation of teaching and learning and enables students to investigate, create, communicate, collaborate, organize and be responsible for their own learning and actions. It allows students to make connections and reach a deeper understanding of its relevance and applicability to their everyday lives. Through the use of technology, learners develop and apply strategies for critical and creative thinking, engage in inquiry, make connections, and apply new understandings and skills in different contexts.
Sustainability
We are a future-forward oriented school. We feel it is a school’s responsibility to look forward, to forecast and gauge the opportunities and challenges its graduates will face. In this vein, we believe it is time for greater accountability by schools on the subject of sustainability and global warming.
We have seen firsthand the power young people have to effect changes in sustainability practices in their families, and it is our mission to empower our young learners with the knowledge and tools to inspire new and more sustainable practices while preparing themselves to be adults who can confront serious climate-related challenges.
Pine Street School is committed to making sustainability a key component of our curriculum and our school culture. Families can expect to see themes of sustainability appear frequently in the inquiries our students develop, in the priorities we uphold as a school, and in the activism we use to demonstrate our commitment to making real and meaningful change.
A School Without Walls
We are not your typical “compound school” where students spend full days on school facilities. Our school is centrally located in the vibrant New York City – just a block from Wall Street, a short walk from the Hudson River, Brooklyn Bridge, and Chinatown – We are surrounded by tangible artifacts and monuments to history that changed the world. Beyond our neighborhood, we have the vast resources of New York and its outer boroughs filled with culture, language, arts, universities, international organizations, museums, and institutions willing to open their doors to our students.
Our school without walls brings academics to life for students at Pine Street School, because we constantly use our city as a powerful resource to explore.
Our School Community
Pine Street School is a warm, diverse, and vibrant community with more than 30 countries represented among our students and dozens of languages spoken. Our families come from nearby Tribeca, SoHo, Chelsea, Williamsburg, DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights, and from as far as the Upper West Side, Harlem, and Jersey City! We invite you to learn more about Pine Street School, and our rolling admissions process, by completing an online inquiry form and schedule a convenient tour today.
