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School as Living Education
The exploration that is life begins before birth and continues all our lives, with or without the benefit of schooling. To truly succeed as education, school must be relevant to a child's life, engaging the body and the senses as well as the mind.
| “An enriched learning environment is one that provides a wide range of ways in which students can learn. That ideal environment...adapts to learning cycles typified by high levels of focused attention with built-in plans for periodic “downtime”...best described as opportunities to “reflect and connect” information to the existing neural circuitry in the brain.” |
| — Kenneth Wesson, What Everyone Should Know About The Latest Brain Research, TIES Magazine of Design and Technology Education, Nov/Dec 2000 |
At Bellingham Cooperative School, we create a learning environment in which children can live purposefully, supported by adult facilitation and encouraged to pursue self-directed activities when appropriate. An atmosphere of intimacy and quiet expectation allows children to absorb from each experience what is significant for them and pursue their unique interests and passions. Small class size and respectful communication methods foster a feeling of security and positive interactions between students. Groups of mixed ages provide opportunities for students to develop close relationships with both adults and children.
How Kids Learn: Education for Body and Brain
Recent brain research into how children learn emphasizes that learning happens best when children are actively engaged with the world around them, and in our four decades of experience in childhood education we have found this to be true. Researchers have now discovered that physical exercise and multisensory experiences are essential not just for effective learning, but for healthy brain development as well. Thus experiences at school affect not only the kind of learning that growing kids aquire, but the kind of brain they develop, establishing in a very concrete way their basis for future learning.
| “As far as possible, men are to be taught to become wise not by books but by the Heavens, the Earth, the oaks and the beeches; that is, they must learn to know and examine the things themselves and not the observations and testimony of others about things.” |
| — Jan Komensky, Czech educational reformer, 1592-1670 |
With this in mind, we create a body-brain compatible learning environment at BCS which emphasizes hand-on, experiential learning. Nature, the outdoors, and physical activity are essential elements of our curriculum. Taking children out of the desk, paper-and-pencil world and into the natural world grounds their learning in concrete experiences and facilitates long-term retention and creative exploration.
Many school activities reflect this need for direct, hand-on experience and for engaging vividly with the world.
Some of these activities include:
Spanish * Soccer * Art * Mt. Baker Snow Days
Eagle Watching * Music * Ice Skating * Ski to Sea Jr. Parade and Race
Nature Studies * Connelly Creek * Tide Pool Exploration
Community Service * Gardening * Outdoor Play
Games * Drama * Mount Baker Theater
Individual Pathways to Learning
Our goal is not simply to teach, but to create life-long learners. To this end, we encourage each child to experience education as exploration and learning as a joyful process. We help students develop the abilities they will need for future learning, including the ability to ask intelligent questions. We also support children in discovering their passion, their unique contribution to life.
| “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” |
| — Eric Hoffer, social writer/philosopher and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient |
At BCS, we discover where your child is in the sequence of skill development, provide opportunities for next steps, encourage exploration, and ensure affirmation of progress. We support children in utilizing their own unique learning style, and we respect each child's need to absorb learning in their own time.
Our Vision of Success
We feel we have succeeded when students leave school knowing who they are and being comfortable with that person, having had fun and having gained the skills and experience they need to become responsible, independent citizens of the world.
Parent Participation
Parents provide an important connection between home and school for their children. Participation in school activities is one way in which parents let children know that their time at school is valued by their family.
Being involved as life permits gives many benefits:
- The opportunity to play a positive role in your child's education
- Support for teachers to individualize your child's learning
- Opportunities to see how children learn in different ways
- And perhaps most of all: increased understanding of your child's unique abilities and his or her school experience.
Parent meetings are organized regularly for parent support, information and community-building. Guest speakers are sometimes invited, giving parents access to the wider resources of our community in the areas of education, parenting and child development.
Why Parents Choose BCS
There are more than 50 families at BCS and there are more than fifty reasons to send a child to BCS.
Some parents are attracted to the social and age diversity; some attended independent schools themselves; some had unhappy experiences they don't want their children to repeat; all like the nurturing, safe and conscientious environment and staff.
Some parents like the playground and setting of the school; some like the proximity to the University; some like a particular teacher; some like the small, built-in community for the whole family.... All are drawn to the multi-faceted BCS approach to learning: an education that puts children first.
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Key Statistics |
| Established: 1969 | |
| Average enrollment: 30 | |
| Staff: Teachers, specialists, student aides and interns | |
| Facility: Two acres in South Bellingham, play fields gardens, natural areas, pasture, fruit trees, all-weather game area. | |
| Program: Flexible structure, intimate atmosphere, efficient, low-stress academic progress, personal responsibility, expanded traditional curriculum, outdoor and community experience, school-wide foreign language instruction (Spanish), small class size, individualized instruction. | |
| Auxiliary: Before- and after-school care is available on site (7am–5.30pm). Fall, winter and spring break day camps are provided. | |
| Annual operating costs: $150,000 | |
| Source of income: 95% tuition, 5% fundraising activities | |
| Private school approval: Washington State Board of Education | |
| Calendar: School begins the first Wednesday after Labor Day. There are two weeks of holidays at the end of December, and one week of holidays each during February and April (on-site care available). School ends the second Wednesday in June. | |
| Summer: Annual summer day camp program: June-August. |
