What Makes Us Greene Hill?

At Greene Hill, we value:

  • Open-ended exploration and collaboration with peers

  • Both the academic and social emotional aspects of children’s experience in school

  • Each individual’s identity

At Greene Hill, we are committed to:

  • Inspiring children to love learning and to know themselves as learners

  • Actively engaging in social justice and racial equity

  • Cultivating a strong community where members learn from and give back to each other

These values are lived each day at Greene Hill through the core practices described below.

Open Work, All-School Studies, Social and Emotional Learning, Identity, Racial Equity, Social Justice, Community Building, Home/School Partnership, Community Service and Service Learning

Open Work

We value open ended exploration

Open Work is a regular opportunity for children to engage in self-initiated work with a range of materials. Open Work is an important part of our academic program enabling students to exercise choice and take ownership over their work.  As children make choices and decisions fueled by their most pressing interests it is easier for them to work through the challenges that come up during their explorations.  Motivated by their passions or curiosity, children are eager to try and try again.  This experience persevering through unfamiliar tasks helps them in other times throughout their school day as they tackle new problems.

Through extended experience with open-ended materials, children’s work develops in complex and often surprising ways.  They move fluidly between materials and activities, finding opportunities to work independently or with peers. Most importantly, children experience the satisfaction of making their own choices and following their own ideas.  The explorations and creations of Open Work in the early childhood classrooms set the stage for continued self-initiated work throughout the Lower School, as children acquire the ability to manage more complicated projects. Encouraged to share their ideas with classmates, they become increasingly comfortable giving and receiving feedback and reflecting on their own work.

Labs, mixed-age mini-courses focused on topics and interests like fashion design, insects, sculpture, and newspaper are available at various times of the year to children ages 5-10. These are teacher-led sessions that serve as models for children as they bring ideas and skills that they have learned in Labs back to their classrooms. Middle School students have the opportunity to select from a range of elective courses that are based on student and teacher interest such as: fiber arts, Running Club, and creative writing.

WOWs (Wide Open Work) are student-led mini-courses that give students the opportunity to develop an idea, decide how to teach it, and invite other students to participate.  Students are responsible for planning their process and listing the materials they will need, as well as facilitating the sessions with other students.  WOWs can focus on any topic or activity and 

younger or older students can be the leaders of the group.  In recent years, WOWs have included DIY crafts, role-playing games, Earth Club, and basketball.  

All-School Studies

Every year students and faculty at GHS embark on several All-School Studies that provide opportunities for mixed-age work and deep exploration of a topic that offers entry points for students of all ages. Students collaborate with cross-class peers and teachers to learn about and create work to share with the school community. An All-School Study often culminates in a week where the regular schedule is put aside to allow extended focus and time spent on this innovative and immersive learning, and ends with a share during which students perform or present their work to other students and GHS families.

Social and Emotional Learning

We value both the academic and social emotional aspects of children’s experience in school

As part of our commitment to the whole child, at Greene Hill School teachers dedicate time to addressing the social and emotional needs of the children.  In the younger grades, lessons are taught about friendship, fairness, and self-confidence.  Teachers encourage and model sharing feelings and expressing one’s needs in a productive way, and take into consideration the developmental needs and characteristics of all students.  Read alouds, role play, and specific conflict resolution techniques are used to teach and practice these skills.  Additionally, teachers are trained in the Responsive Classroom approach to classroom management, which includes empowering students to help create the expectations and norms in the classroom and set a positive tone for learning.  Our Student Support Counselor works with parents, teachers, and students to navigate relationships, emotions, and family dynamics.  Administrators and faculty run regular Community Forums and provide resources on issues impacting each developmental stage, such as transitions back to school, friendships, “tweens,” safe use of technology, and talking with children about difficult topics.  

Students’ days in both Lower and Middle School are anchored by a Morning Meeting that begins their day with community building activities and an overview of the daily schedule in order to set them up for success.  Middle School also includes a weekly Advisory time when students meet with faculty members in small groups to discuss adolescent issues and communication strategies.  

Health education focuses on providing students with accurate information and clear communication skills around issues of human development, friendships and relationships, and other concerns.  Greene Hill’s Health and Wellness class gives students an opportunity to explore topics related to social, emotional, and physical health through activities, discussions, and shared readings.  Students discuss issues of emotional wellness, relationships, their changing bodies, and issues of self-identity in a supportive and safe environment.  They also explore problem-solving connected to their growing independence and maturity in the society and world we are living in.

Identity

Connected to its mission, Greene Hill values the experience and individuality of each member of the school community, and teachers work to instill in students both a strong sense of themselves and empathy and understanding of others and their perspectives.  We value and reserve space during the school day for these conversations and consider the work an important part of our commitment to creating children who will grow into adults who participate in a diverse and democratic society.

In order to promote community in the classroom and school as well as to set the expectations for shared norms and procedures, classes begin the school year with an Identity Study. Through this study, teachers build community through the exploration of various individual and group identities. This study seeks to address the following guiding questions: 

  1. Who am I?

  2. Who am I with others? 

  3. Who are we as a school? 

  4. What makes us Greene Hill?

  5. How can understanding myself help me understand others?

By investigating these questions at the beginning of the school year, teachers and students seek to co-create a progressive and responsive classroom and school community. This in turn establishes a foundation based on reflection and inclusivity that will support learning throughout the school year.  

Our All-School Identity Study curriculum is designed to be developmentally appropriate, emergent, and responsive to the academic and social-emotional needs of the students in their classroom community. Lower School students may do regular self-portraits throughout the year as they learn about what makes them unique as well as similar to others, or observe themselves closely in a mirror and use these observations to create a sketch of themselves.  Older Lower School students may look at their own family artifacts as a precursor to learning about how researchers have learned about ancient civilizations, or create personal maps that represent the various places that are significant to them and their family.  Students in Middle School create physical representations of themselves, including identity masks and boxes, to display both their external, obvious characteristics as well as those that are more internal and lesser known.  In all areas of learning about the world, students begin by first learning about themselves.  

An identity study allows students of all ages to build core understandings and skills that help them contribute to their classrooms, the school, and ultimately their various communities of membership outside of school as confident individuals.  The main developmental outcomes created by teachers working to frame the identity study and its goals were drawn from the work of Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance), and built upon the same themes for different age groups in the school, culminating with the Middle School outcomes: 

  • I know and like who I am and can comfortably talk about my family and myself and describe our various group identities.

  • I see myself as an engaged learner, a socially responsible community member, and a leader in my school.

  • I know that I can use the democratic and progressive values of my school to positively contribute to my life outside of school.

By beginning the year with a focused identity study and incorporating these key elements into curriculum through the school year, Greene Hill School aims to support students’ development of their individual sense of self, their awareness of their roles in the classroom and school community, and their ongoing growth into active contributing members of a wider society.  

We value each other’s identity

Social Justice and Racial Equity

At Greene Hill School children consider themselves as part of a larger community, whether it is their classroom, neighborhood or the wider world.  They are attuned to how their actions impact themselves and others and use this lens as they investigate historical movements and relate them to contemporary times.  Starting with a framework that examines social justice and is embedded in daily classroom life, young children are encouraged to love and know themselves while practicing respect for others.  They begin to tackle issues of social justice, ones that relate directly to their own lives and in developmentally aligned ways explore concepts like power, discrimination and social change.  Part of this work is exploring historical and contemporary movements for social change and participating in awareness raising and social action in the school and wider community.

This mission of Greene Hill School is based upon a commitment to social justice, and a desire to bring about positive change in our school, our local community, and the world. Our faculty design curriculum in order to make connections between classroom learning and social justice. Students throughout the school study literacy, history, and math with a lens that allows for frequent exploration of ideas of power and inequality.  Conversations and lessons on social justice topics often emerge organically and in response to current events.  Students have natural interest in right and wrong, and teachers tap into this and get them excited about learning from a young age. In addition, teachers support students in understanding and sharing different points of view.  It is a goal that students at Greene Hill recognize the development of similar themes and ideas throughout their years of study, becoming critical thinkers and learners across the curriculum.

Each class’s curriculum includes themes and topics related to social justice that are regularly taught, aligned with the Six Elements of Social Justice Curriculum Design: Self-Love & Knowledge; Respect for Others; Issues of Social Injustice; Social Movements & Social Change; Awareness-Raising; and Social Action.*  Throughout their years at Greene Hill, students build their capacity for grappling with, articulating ideas about, and asking meaningful questions related to justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging through work around concepts and topics that they are able to understand and relate to.  This work is intentional and deeply embedded in even our youngest classrooms.

We are committed to actively engaging in Social Justice and Racial Equity

  • Fairness & Kindness

    Difference & Diversity

    Leaders & Change-Makers

    Geography & Opportunity; Discrimination & Privilege

    Civil Rights Movements & Activism

    Power: Slavery & Systematic Oppression

    Resistance, Activism & Social Change

    Across Civilizations

    Perspectives: Identity, World Religions & Bias

    Origins of Race and Power

    Identity, Citizenship, & Democracy

  • How do people take care of themselves and others?

    What do people and places need to flourish?

    How do social movements impact people?

    Who has access to power?

    How do the beliefs and values of a diverse culture affect individuals and society?

    How does a text reflect a set of cultural values?

    How can math raise awareness of economic injustice and inspire social action?

    What ethical issues arise in the study of science?

A significant focus of our Identity and Social Justice work promotes racial equity and students’ recognition of the way that race shapes our society and identities.  Starting with our youngest students, teachers introduce vocabulary and concepts that help to define and explore race and racial equity.  Greene Hill students develop an understanding of and comfort in using terms such as stereotype, discrimination, prejudice, racism, and identifiers that people use to describe themselves and their family.  Both within the curriculum and in the daily community-building of the classroom, students and teachers dig into complex conversations that help build connections, empathy, and advocacy throughout the school community. 

Community Building

We are committed to cultivating a strong community where members learn from and give back to each other

Throughout Greene Hill School, teachers support students in working together to navigate conflict, communicate effectively, and collaborate with purpose. Classrooms are student-centered which means that children’s developmental stages drive everything that occurs during the day, from academic lessons to classroom jobs and responsibilities. The importance of a strong community is taught both through targeted activities as well as through the purposeful structure of daily routines and instructional practices in all spaces of the school.

Home/School Partnership

Based on an understanding that a strong partnership between families and school ensures that students can be successful, Greene Hill has a schedule of regular opportunities for family engagement as well as openness to ongoing communication with parents. Some of the ways that families learn about their child’s experience at school are:

  • Welcome Conferences

  • Curriculum Night

  • Community Forums

  • Classroom Newsletters

  • Fall Conferences

  • Midyear Reports

  • Winter Conferences

  • Spring Family Conferences

  • End-of-Year Reports

Community Service and Service Learning

Greene Hill students are active stewards of community life in their neighborhoods, in NYC at large, and beyond. The aim of our community service program is for students to engage in projects where they can have a direct impact, develop meaningful relationships with members of the community and their peers, and have a high level of respect for their environment. Since service learning is an integral part of the social-emotional curriculum, we believe it is important for students to have a say in the projects that they undertake. By the end of Middle School, GHS students will have had the opportunity to participate in both internal and external community service and service learning projects. Through these experiences students develop their capacity for compassion, empathy, and caring.

Here are some ways that Greene Hill Students develop, facilitate and take ownership of community service initiatives both inside and outside of school:

  • Overseeing recycling

    Organizing a Lost and Found

    Caring for our garden

    Leading activist campaigns for causes such as gun control

    Creating student-run Earth Club to raise environmental awareness

  • Volunteering at local community service organizations

    Cleaning up local park

    Running drives to collect items such as food, coats, toys, diapers for those in need

    Working with the local Business Improvement District to beautify and create pedestrian safety measures

    Planning events to raise money for global causes

What Is Progressive Education?

  • Progressive Education

    Progressive education is a movement dedicated to educating the whole child, with an emphasis on social justice.

  • Constructivism

    The concept that all people construct their own knowledge, developing meaning and understanding through experience and reflection.

Learn More