curriculum
Throughout the year, children work independently and collaboratively as they engage with and investigate their surroundings, think creatively, and solve problems resourcefully. Learn more about our curriculum and see how children are encouraged to engage in work and play that furthers these aims by exploring each topic below.
social justice education
screen print design created by rhp students in spring 2021 representing their collective values. read more here.
At RHP we understand that at an early age, children can absorb our society’s biases of gender, age, race, culture, language, social economics, and physical characteristics. We embrace an anti-bias approach that supports children as they explore, celebrate, and understand differences. Particular attention is paid to ensuring honest, transparent, and developmentally appropriate conversations around issues of inequality.
We work to inform and support children as they become aware of their own identities and those of others with the aim of creating an inclusive school community in which each individual’s whole self is respected and welcomed, and where each child’s sense of self is nurtured. Our approach acknowledges that children and adults can be empowered to stand up for their rights and the rights of others and to recognize and question social injustice. We challenge the children and ourselves to:
see conflict as a challenge in problem-solving;
explore issues of fairness as seen from a child’s perspective;
recognize and demonstrate respect for diversity among people;
monitor our words and actions for unconscious bias or prejudice;
and be open to differing perspectives, ideas, attitudes, and behaviors.
INVESTIGATIONS
Our investigations curriculum is grounded in our commitment to exploring questions and areas of interest that emerge from the children’s play, work, and interactions with each other and with teachers. As we build relationships with children and learn about their interests, passions, and questions, we work with them to develop long-term investigations. These long-term investigations are at the forefront of our classroom curricula and are developed collaboratively between the children and the teachers, driven entirely by the children’s interests and questions about their world. After an initial question and/or topic of interest is identified, investigations can last for months and are continuously propelled by a cycle of exploration, questioning, and experimentation. Each year’s curriculum is different, designed to support and extend the interests of the group. You can learn more about documentation of student learning, emergent curriculum, and how teachers build investigations by watching this slideshow.
