Teaching Excellence
Goal: Town faculty will consistently pursue and exemplify excellence across the Nursery through Eighth grade program.
To promote consistent and successful teaching practices, Town will:
- Ground all aspects of program design in the school’s Principles of Education so that our teaching and curriculum are clearly aligned within and across grade levels and our learning objectives are clearly understood and appreciated by existing and prospective families.
- Nurture innovation and forward-looking pedagogy in the classroom through continuous professional development, curricular review, and faculty evaluation.
- Broaden and deepen our efforts to diversify our faculty and to align expectations for excellence and continued learning around diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism.
- Reimagine our learning spaces, educational tools, and technology in service of our evolving teaching and curricular goals.
- Achieve the full potential of our World Languages program by examining which languages we offer and when they are most effectively introduced in the N-8 scope.
Learning Excellence
Goal: Town students will be engaged, independent, and joyful learners, who embrace challenge and collaboration, and who go on to excel in high school and beyond.
To enable our students to reach their full potential, in and beyond our classrooms, Town will:
- Establish and articulate the range of learners whom Town can serve.
- Evaluate student support and training structures, so that our faculty are best prepared to serve these varied learning styles with individualized attention and effectively respond to learning or enrichment needs.
- Embed and uphold Town’s mission and values across the program: Self, Others, and Surroundings; our Statement on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity; and our Sustainability focus.
- Amplify our commitment to cultivating multiple perspectives, equity of voice, and anti-racist consciousnesses and actions.
- Advance rich connections between educational technology and curriculum to enhance learning, while empowering students with skills and principles of productive, thoughtful use of tech tools and good digital citizenship.
- Sustain our focus on the whole child by deepening our commitment to health and wellness.
Community Connections
Goal: Town will expand and deepen mission-centered learning partnerships within the school, New York City, and the greater community.
To advance aspirational leadership, civic understanding, and ethical values, Town will:
- Extend the recently established Seventh and Eighth grade service learning program to create developmentally creative opportunities for our younger grades.
- Cultivate relationships with a diverse and inclusive range of local businesses and academic institutions to further students’ access to outside expertise and to use the city as an extension of the school’s classroom.
- Pursue the expansion of co-curricular offerings and service opportunities through community relationships.
- Evolve our sustainability studies and outreach, and deepen our collective understanding of and commitment to responsible stewardship of our planet.
Sustaining Our School
Goal: Town will design a plan for a more financially sustainable future while focusing on outreach, affordability, and accessibility for a diverse group of prospective families.
To foster the sustainability of and increase access to its N-8 co-educational program, Town will:
- Design ways to most effectively highlight how the school’s N-8, co-educational model, unique programs, and high school placement process result in our alumni/ae’s success in high school and beyond.
- Expand awareness of Town’s program and family support structures to engage and enroll more students from all parts of New York City.
- Prioritize the growth and strength of our endowment as a critical element of financial support.
- Commit necessary resources to provide salaries, benefits, and professional development opportunities that will attract and retain excellent employees.
- Establish additional sources of revenue to reduce the school’s dependency on tuition as a primary budget lever.
- Expand financial aid and explore other tuition models to make a Town education accessible to more students.
- Celebrate our culture of philanthropy and strengthen understanding and buy-in across all constituencies to inspire more consistent and extensive investment in Town.