About Us Video | Mead School

Giving Each Child the Power to Create a Personally Meaningful Life

Client: Mead School
Industry: Non-Profit
Video Type: Recruitment
Messaging Type: Interview-Based

About This Video Project

This video is about Mead School, a place where students and teachers are accepted for who they are. It focuses on individual children and values a range of learners. The school has a strong sense of community and focuses on both academic and social-emotional learning. It allows kids to be kids and helps them develop skills to succeed in the future.

Transcription

Mead is a place where students and teachers can come and be themselves, be accepted for who they are and where they are in the moment of their lives. We care about individual children. We want them to find their own path, find their own voice. The care level at Mead is really incredible. The essence of the school, the mission of the school, the mindset of the people here at school and really the collaborative nature from adults and working with kids. We work in conjunction with the families, teachers and child to meet that child where they are at. We value a range of learners and we’re going to make it work for all of them. What makes Mead different is the sense of community. Because we’re a smaller school, we can really get to know our children at the core. Most schools are really fast-paced. Kids just drill through the day. I think our pace here is a little more human, a little more gradual. And I think we take our time to do things more thoroughly. We really try to create education that is really innovative. My colleagues are some of the most creative teachers I have ever worked with. Being in a K-8 school, the focus is truly on all of the students. Kids who are as young as four or five in kindergarten to those 13-year-olds who are in middle school and getting ready for high school. It’s really about the foundation, about getting them to think about who they are when they’re a young child and giving them that choice and then building on that choice as they grow older. In general, it allows kids to be kids longer and it also enables us to focus equally on the social-emotional piece of learning as it does on the academic piece of learning, which is really important. I think a lot of times in other school settings, those middle school years can be a little lost. And I love that for middle schoolers, having them be the elders in a school rather than sandwiched between two other groups, there’s a right of passage to it that I think exists differently here. I think what parents value about the school is the fact that kids can just be kids. How often do you hear of a school that allows kids to go outside in the morning at snack, at lunch, and then possibly again at the end of the day for guided play? We’re really thinking about what do kids need developmentally and giving that to them. By the time the students graduate in eighth grade, they know how to advocate for themselves. They know what kind of learner they are. They know what their strengths are and their weaknesses are. I know one of my biggest charges, especially teaching middle schoolers, is ensuring that when they walk out of here and go into the next experience in high school, that they’ve got the tools in their toolkit that they need to succeed. It’s beautiful to watch the kids blossom. They thrive because we care about them and who they are. Everybody is invited to bring their full humanity here, to try things, take risks, and think about learning in exciting ways. It’s a joyful community and a joyful place for children to grow and learn.

To learn more: https://www.meadschool.org