Curriculum
We combine challenging core academics with hands-on activities that engage students in interdisciplinary learning. We also believe deeply that social emotional learning goes hand in hand with academic achievement. Our curriculum is made even deeper through our specialist classes. Additionally, every Bertschi students benefit from the support of our learning services team to reach their potential and address areas of challenge.
Comprehensive Academics
At the heart of Bertschi School’s rigorous academic curriculum are math, reading, writing, and social studies. Students move through scaffolded instruction and practice that meet them at their “just right” level. This may look like instruction in and exploration of new material, independent or collaborative practice and problem solving, or application of the learning to real life situations and independent projects. Small, flexible groupings made are used to differentiate instruction to respond to the ever changing needs of each student. Our graduates know how to learn both as independent thinkers and as part of a collaborative team.
Child-Led Learning
Bertschi believes that children thrive when they are partners in their own learning and can formulate and answer questions that are important to them. In addition to the rich content of our curriculum, we support students in developing and pursuing passions and ideas. For example, student-led activism in the community is supported and encouraged.
Equity-Focused Education
Students increase their capacity for empathy and collaboration when they are offered a diversity of perspectives and ideas. By centering historically disadvantaged perspectives and voices, students have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of historical events and gain the opportunity to see and to value the contributions of many different people.
This belief informs the curriculum across all content areas. As equity-focused educators, we focus not just on exposing students to multiple perspectives but also raising students’ awareness of their role as change-makers.
Moving from compassion to action happens on the playground, in classroom projects, and in spontaneous teachable moments. Bertschi students learn that their voices matter and that their actions can make a difference.
Interdisciplinary Learning
Academics at Bertschi are both interdisciplinary and grounded in real-life experiences. We integrate math, reading, writing, and social studies with cross-curricular connections to our specialist classes. Our specialists are experts in their field and collaborate with classroom teachers. Each specialist class is held in its own teaching space.
Social Emotional Learning
Bertschi School believes that the foundation of academic achievement includes a strong sense of self and safety within a community. Our curriculum includes a detailed scope and sequence for each grade level, reaching across the four competencies of social emotional learning: self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills, and decision-making. Our teachers are trained in a variety of strategies that are specific to the social emotional needs of each child and each grade level.
Bertschi has a school counselor on staff who supports teachers and families in meeting the needs of individual students, leads lunch bunches to help students develop social and friendship skills, provides instruction for classes related to areas of challenge, and more.
Environmental Stewardship
Our campus is at the center of our commitment to sustainability, with a LEED Gold-certified building and the first certified “Living Building” in Washington State. These buildings were designed to serve as exemplars and teaching tools so that children will discover principles, strategies, and technologies that prepare and empower them to create a more positive and sustainable future. Our curriculum is full of interdisciplinary through-lines that delve into the ways that we can be stewards of our environment, taking action to care for the global world we live in.
Click Below to View
Pre-K
Pre-kindergarten students explore their wonderings and ideas during studio time by constructing, creating, and experimenting with a variety of materials and tools.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten students practice developing writing skills and proper letter formation in meaningful ways such as notes to their third-grade buddies or a card for a neighbor.
Grade 1
First graders read “just right” books, try writing in persuasive, narrative, and informative styles, and are introduced to robotics and coding using LEGO® Education WeDo 1.0 materials.
Grade 2
Second graders explore the biodiversity and ecosystems of the local temperate forests of the Pacific Northwest and engage in a farm to table market study.
Grade 3
Third graders do a complete recycling, food waste, and trash study—including an audit of the school—and dive into Seattle history and local community service projects.
Grade 4
Fourth graders learn about the history of the disability rights movement in the US, study five major religions, and examine the local economic impact of salmon.
Grade 5
Fifth graders work cooperatively to play the World Peace Game, a hands-on political simulation that explores economic, social, and environmental crises in a global context.