“Many schools talk about life-long learning but at Touchstone we live it. Teachers here are passionate about learning and about passing on this excitement to our students. In the current atmosphere of hectic test-preparation and rote memorization, we provide an oasis where children can learn in depth while being part of a caring community that shares this passion for knowledge.”
—Jane Katch, Teacher, Touchstone Community School
Walk into Touchstone Community School and experience the difference that a child-centered educational community makes in the lives of everyone who gathers here daily. Children come to school happily, eagerly, and with stories to tell and discoveries to share – with each other, with their teachers, and with the parents who participate in school life on a daily basis.
Our campus hums with activity. You may find a small group of four- and five-year-olds making bread in the kitchen while a class of seven- and eight-year-olds heads off to the gym. Nearby, two 11-year-olds take turns reading their own poems and asking each other for feedback. Rather than by grade levels, our classrooms typically group children who span two or three age levels. These small, multi-age groups allow each child to develop individually in an academically challenging yet non-competitive team environment. New groups are created each year, so that children have the opportunity to forge new friendships as they experience sometimes being a younger member of a group and sometimes an older, mentoring team member. Children thrive when they are freed from a pre-determined pace based on age rather than on their individual development.
Our program is organized into three groups: we offer a preschool setting for four-year-olds, an elementaryprogram for children ages five to 12, and middle school program for children from 12 to 14. The programs are based in our Grafton campus, and it is essential to us that children of all ages have appropriate opportunities to interact with each other on a regular basis.
Touchstone Community School’s highly experienced and dedicated teaching staff creates, each year, our deep, rich curriculum that is responsive to children’s interests and uses an inquiry-based, integrated approach emphasizing hands-on activities. Teachers organize reading, writing, social studies, science, art, math, movement and music activities around core subjects – a thematic approach to learning. A classroom’s exploration may be organized around farms and food, Inuit culture, migratory birds, or the local area watershed; themes are often developed collaboratively between a teacher and her students. This integrated, thematic approach leads children to make meaningful connections as their knowledge of the world grows in breadth, depth, and sophistication.
Our teachers give children time during the day to choose to work and play in areas of the curriculum that are of interest to them, and offer time every week for children of all ages to work and play together in activities of their choice about which they feel passionate. They use the world outside the classroom as much as possible to further learning experiences.