Mission & Model

The mission of The Soulard School is to be a community dedicated to educating its children so they can be empowered academically, grow emotionally, and build authentic connections.

Our education is based on an innovative model that we created when The Soulard School opened in 2005. It is this unique model that allows us to create original programming that empowers teachers, engages families and includes students’ voices in their learning. Through innovative leadership programs, relevant community partnerships and authentic experiences that elevate every type of learner, our model results in children who know they can have an impact.

It is our mission to establish a strong sense of community and belonging within our students, parents and staff.

At The Soulard School, belonging means:

• Everyone feels safe and comfortable

• We are able to express our experiences and interact with our community

• We are able to actively engage and be a part of all activities and experiences

• We feel at home and welcome

We see the power of self-discovery, and believe that as you learn about others, you learn about yourself. The Soulard School welcomes students from across the city. We work to actively recruit many kinds of students and families, believing that everyone learns best in a diverse setting. We seek to build a community with racial, socio-economic, geographic and cognitive diversity, where parents, teachers and students can come together to learn and grow. As such, diversity of all kinds is represented not only in our community, but in our curriculum, our libraries, our provocations, and our experiences. We do not shy away from conversations around diversity as they arise naturally through a child’s attempts to make sense of the world around them, and actively and intentionally insert tenets of The Social Justice Standards developed by the Teaching Tolerance into our integrated learning program.

As an urban school, we know it is important for our students to learn beyond our school walls. As we work within our school community to find shared language and methods for processing big ideas and events related to individual and community identity, we are also taking our students out into our city to volunteer, learn about others and build a strong understanding of themselves as citizens and active community members. Our ability as a school to achieve this level of belonging, community-mindedness and citizenship is directly connected to our ability to address child well-being and implement our integrated practices.

Through our programming and social emotional curriculum, The Soulard School proactively creates a school culture that respects and values all students, fosters understandings of all kinds, and incorporates health and wellness.

We provide a framework for building social and emotional intelligences through the explicit teaching of executive function. This approach includes self-regulation instruction that emphasizes an inclusive environment and individualizes strategies with intention and flexibility to promote awareness and autonomy. This is combined with a class and school structure aimed at empowering students and building a sense of purposeful responsibility and belonging. We know that children are capable, and develop skills in our framework within this culture of integrity.

Facets of our well-being program include:

• Yoga, movement and mindfulness are part of daily classroom routine

• Self-regulation tools are taught explicitly to students

• Buddy circles bring together small groups of students for peer mentoring and support

• Students take an active part in caring for the school and classroom

• A Nutrition and Culinary Arts program provides all students with free, healthy and balanced lunches that students help cook and are paired with weekly nutrition education

Everything is connected - in life and in learning.

At its basic level, our integrated studies program combines curriculum for two or more subjects, allowing students to see how ideas are connected to arrive at more meaningful and authentic understanding. With this approach, students are motivated to learn, engaged in their learning, retain their knowledge, and are better able to think critically and collaborate. Within this academic approach, we intentionally create content and conversations around our initiatives in diversity and inclusion, and child well-being, whether it is building the capacity for empathic listening using Whole Body Listening,or teaching a gender-inclusive lesson on the reproductive system that includes concepts of human rights and freedom of expression.

Our teachers do not rely on textbooks to set the curriculum. With the Missouri Learning Standards as our base, teachers and students build the curriculum together each year. Student interests are incorporated into in-depth, cross-curricular studies, and vertically connect the grade levels for continuity and depth. Teachers draw from a variety of sources and influences, including elements of teaching found in Montessori and Reggio Emilia classrooms, and build on educational theories from Project Zero, Howard Gardner, and others. 

With our low student-teacher ratio (maximum 12:1), teachers are also able to genuinely know each student as a learner, and help them build on their strengths at an individual level as they work to form a classroom community. Trimester evaluations provide an in-depth assessment of student progress toward goals and standards, as well as narratives about student growth, both academic and social-emotional. Students are active participants in their mid-year conference, presenting their progress and goals to their parents and teachers, and forming strategies and supports together.

As a school, we are privileged to share a foundational time in both children and their parents’ lives.

The Soulard School was built upon a foundation of community-building as parents and founders came together to grow the school both as a physical space and as a learning model, making this an intimate and personal endeavor.

It is our objective to continue to facilitate healthy growth of the individual and the community in both respects. We are reminded and remind others not to take it for granted. Education is something that we do with our students and families, not for them.