The Olive Branch Community School is a play-based, emergent curriculum school. We believe in the importance of child-guided learning in an intentionally prepared environment in order to construct a healthy foundation of important life skills.

Olive Branch educators are committed to the highest quality of teaching, and remain up-to date in the ever-growing field of Early Education by regularly participating in continuing education seminars, exhibitions, conferences, and courses. Caring for children ages 2.5 - 6 years old in a mixed-age environment, The Olive Branch Community School maintains low teacher:child ratios in order to ensure an intimate, intentional, and high-quality facilitation of learning.

 Play-Based
At The Olive Branch, we believe in the importance of play in Early Childhood. We understand and advocate that play is never a “disguise” for real learning -- play is learning! Inspired by the works of great psychologists and researchers such as Erik Erikson and by our knowledge of Developmentally Appropriate Practice, The Olive Branch Community School is committed to ensuring that our youngest children are able to play with intention and fervor, as this type of play is at the core of developing strong, kind, smart, and healthy young people.

Emergent Curriculum
At The Olive Branch Community School, curriculum arises naturally and stems from the children’s interests and inquiries. Our perceptive and intuitive teachers are skilled in observation and interpretation of children’s play and language, and thus help to guide curricular pathways based both in the conscious, enthusiastic interests of the children, as well as the covert academic and developmental milestones they are working toward each day. When children show curiosity, our teachers are quick to curate the environment to support their exploration and play. This can take the shape of group discussions, evolving classroom materials, invitations/provocations, read-aloud stories, and more that encourage children to explore their current interests or ideas. This exploration is always clearly documented and beautifully displayed in order to make learning visible in the classroom for both the children and their families. By following the lead of the children and supporting their curiosities, this approach ensures that all learning is exceptionally deep and rich, and that the children take great pride in the work they do at school.

Skill-Building Program
The Olive Branch Community School is a program that centers passionately around how to learn, rather than what to learn. In a preschool-aged environment, it is important to develop a strong foundation of skills and traits by which to navigate life, relationships, and further education. We strive to help children develop the skills to be able to find answers to their own questions, and to be kind and empathetic people. Among others, our goals for our children include guiding them to become:

1. Successful and proactive learners

2. Confident, curious, and kind

3. Contributing members of community

1. Community
The Olive Branch Community School’s mixed-age classrooms foster a culture of respect and cooperation. In order to learn to find answers to their questions, the children are encouraged to work together, experiment, research, and to consult experts. This helps to foster the development of positive character traits such as empathy, respect, curiosity, and confidence.

Our school community includes not just our children and teachers, but also our program families and all those who care for our children. To ensure this, OBCS hosts monthly Open House events for program families to spend time in our learning environment. At these events, all Olive Branch community members are encouraged to mingle and visit with one another while spending time viewing the rotating documentation of children’s work displayed on our bulletin boards and in our monthly newsletter.

2. Children are Empowered and Respected
It is of the utmost importance at The Olive Branch Community School that the children are honored and respected, and that they possess the agency to guide and construct their own understandings of the world. We help children to shape their ability to explore and to learn, and teachers facilitate learning by figuring it out alongside them. With inspiration taken from the empowering works of psychologists Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, The Olive Branch Community School allows children the ability to shape their own learning in the most meaningful ways.

3. Bringing the Outdoors In and the Indoors Out
At The Olive Branch Community School, we are committed to facilitating a closeness with sunshine and nature, as we believe these are extremely important avenues of learning across all domains. For the majority of each morning spent at OBCS, our program operates as a hybrid indoor-outdoor model. Our intentionally low teacher:child ratio allows children the freedom to choose their most suitable learning environment at any moment, moving from our indoor classroom to our outdoor classroom and back as they see fit. When indoors, children are surrounded by natural elements, with an intentional minimization of synthetic materials. This creates a beautiful, comfortable, and respected learning environment with plenty of avenues for important sensorial exploration.