We have put Down New Roots!
At Cow Hollow School, we are celebrating being back to school and back together in a joyous way. This year, we have more reason to celebrate: we have moved into our new, much larger, impressive home in the Presidio! Our new school is located at 387 Moraga. This new space amplifies and brings the CHS magic into the future and open doors to more families.
For twenty-two years, Cow Hollow School has been at the forefront of inquiry-based, anti-bias, nature-focused, early childhood education and innovative, respected parent teacher seminars. CHS is known throughout the Bay Area and beyond as a place of thought leadership. We are a community of educators committed to honoring children and childhood. We know that our values and understanding of young children informs and transforms the way we teach and parent. At CHS, children are seen as learners, creative and critical thinkers, producers and citizens of the world.
Further, we know that children’s and families’ lives are enriched by multiple perspectives, by celebration of differences, and by an embrace of interconnectedness. Belonging, engagement, and participation are the core values of our community and lie at the heart of our dual mission.
The dual mission of Cow Hollow School seeks to serve children, and all those in the presence of children:
It is our mission to honor and nurture a diverse community of children to reach their potential as learners, participants, stewards, and critical thinkers in society.
It is our mission to empower those in the presence of children with knowledge, skills and resources to raise and teach children with respect and dignity.
As part of our Strategic Planning process in 2018, our Board identified barriers to fully achieving our mission – the most significant of which being our part day program and the small size of our previous building. While we were ecstatic for the move to 387 Moraga, the search was not easy – we were determined to find a place that could feel like home and allow us to amplify the magic, embody the Reggio Emilia influenced pedagogy, foster learning in nature, create space for our community, and open doors to more families.
Why did we move?
Due to the increasingly high cost of living in San Francisco, our student population has changed. Families with young children are either being pushed out of the city or must work two or more jobs to make childcare affordable. Limited full-day, year-round, quality early childhood education programs compound this problem. As thought leaders in our field, we feel a responsibility to our current and future community to address these problems. Our past part-day program and small building were barriers to addressing a citywide challenge, meeting the needs of our school community, and fully realizing our goals for inclusivity, accessibility, and advocacy.
- The transition to our new home has removed barriers to inclusivity, access, and advocacy and helps us deliver on our mission to its fullest.
- As the result of a long-term lease, full-day and full-year program, robust tuition assistance, and more space, we are now able to increase the diversity of our community and advocate with and for more families with young children.
- Amplify our strong reputation as leaders in the field of anti-bias, Reggio Emilia-inspired Early Childhood Education by opening the doors to our new, beautiful, innovative space, attracting top-talent teachers and welcoming more families who are truly aligned with our mission and pedagogy.
In our move, we committed to maintaining the magic that is Cow Hollow School: community, engagement, high caliber teachers, low teacher-student ratios, rich and meaningful anti-bias and inquiry-based curriculum, learning from natural spaces, and robust parent and teachers enrichment.
What does 387 Moraga look and feel like?
A beautiful new school surrounded by a grove of cypress trees.
Large and airy rooms filled with natural light, and designed for seamless indoor-outdoor flow. Every class has independent access to the outside area, garden, and orchard.
A huge piazza, or community meeting/assembly room, that we call ‘The Meadow.’ This space houses a think tank for world-renowned educators to connect, a place for children to assemble, and for parent-to-teacher collaboration and connections – invitations for dialogue for our entire community.
CHS now not only holds a place at the early education table, we are the table that brings a community of parents and educators to a state-of-the-art Reggio-inspired center of learning and teaching!
This building, this expansion, and the promise of a long life for our school is a dream come true for us. To watch CHS become rooted here in the forest and reach and grow to maximize our potential, like the cypress trees that surround our new home, makes the magic real and lasting.
If you would like to learn more and apply for our full-day, full-year program for the 2024/2025 school year or beyond, please visit our admissions page, or get in touch with our Admissions team at [email protected].
We are so excited to share our school with more families!
