Pine Street School: A Community That Reaches Across the Globe
Lauren Angarola vividly remembers the moment the soon-to-be first class of Pine Street Middle School students showed that they were developing into a caring and inclusive young community. Late in the 2022-2023 school year, the school’s fifth graders – many of whom had started with the school at two years old – took their first overnight field trip to Washington, D.C. Angarola, Pine Street Middle School Coordinator and Director of Innovation, watched in awe as one by one, the kids took turns comforting a fellow student who, away from home in a strange city for the first time, was struggling with her feelings.
It was, Angarola realized, the result of myriad intentional and unintentional efforts that the leaders at Pine Street had been building a caring, inclusive community for the entire time the school has existed. And it confirmed once again the rightness of her decision to leave a much larger, more traditional school overseas and join the Pine Street leadership team.
Pine Street is a dual language immersion school offering programs in Spanish and Mandarin. Located at 25 Pine Street in Manhattan’s financial district, Pine Street opened its doors in 2014. Fully authorized as an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) institution, Pine Street offers nursery programs for one- and two-year-olds, preschool for ages 3 and 4, elementary school for kindergarten through 5th grade, and, now in its second year, middle school for 6th through 8th graders. The school’s first 8th grade class will commence with the 2025-2026 school year.
Students who attend Pine Street benefit from developing and growing within an inquiry-based curriculum that focuses on self-agency and self-learning. It is, says Gaby Rowe, the CEO of KSS Immersion Schools, the parent company of Green Ivy Schools, “an exceptionally rigorous way of teaching children how to learn to be learners.”
“The International Baccalaureate, which is the curricular foundation for a network of more than 7,000 schools worldwide, provides a central framework for Pine Street,” Rowe says, “which contains six units of inquiry that students explore each year with greater understanding. Those units of inquiry cover everything from the nature of oneself; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social, and spiritual health; human relationships; rights and responsibilities; and orientation in place and time. What’s more, they get to ask these meaningful questions while having access to everything the world capital offers.”
Throughout its history, Pine Street has always emphasized community building within the school environment as well as in the larger world. Far from being “walled off” from the larger community, Pine Street is located in the heart of New York’s original village, near Wall Street, and a short walk away from some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks.
The classroom structure itself is unique, with an interior space that is spacious and filled with light. Walls in the elementary school are adjustable, making the space flexible for students to interact within grade levels and academic disciplines. The school uses the latest innovations to help students develop technological literacy while expanding critical thinking skills. As a result, Pine Street has proudly been recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for its emphasis on student agency, independence, and action through its use of Apple Technology.
Students are also mindful of their part in the global community, learning to take responsible action in the face of the world’s challenges. They’re taught to believe that their actions can reverse global warming and build a healthier and more sustainable world. To that end, toward the end of the 2023-2024 school year, students traveled to Costa Rica to take part in a coral restoration project. Students met with scientists and divers to learn about this vital part of the world’s ecosystem.
Being part of a global community is also a key component for a school that includes families from as many diverse national, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds as Pine Street. So each month the school hosts an “international night,” so that families can enjoy the food and learn the traditions of the many nationalities and cultures represented in the student population. They also host frequent chats so that everyone knows they’re being seen and heard.
Amy Rogers, who is the President of the Pine Street PTA, says that programs like this help ensure that, “no one feels left out, and no one feels like their culture is being slighted or diminished in any way.” A parent with two children at the school and an 8-month-old slated to join them, Rogers says, “we felt we were a part of the community from the beginning.”
For Pine Street Head of School Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth, welcoming parents into an inclusive community is what the school’s mission is all about. “We recognize that our families come from all over the world with different cultural practices, holidays, dress, and traditions, so we are constantly asking ourselves, ‘what does respect mean, at the student level and for our parents.’ Our goal is to make sure that all voices are being heard, but that we come together as one family, one community.”
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