The History of
The Native School
The Early Years
In 2011, The Native School was formed as an LLC, initially housed within the walls of a Reggio Emilia-inspired schoolhouse. By 2012, teachers and students began to embrace the outdoors beyond their playyard fences, venturing regularly to the nearby preserve to encourage exploration and learning in nature. The inspiration for this shift was rooted in the belief that children are not limited to traditional forms of learning, and that the natural world provides an engaging living classroom of provocations any indoor environment cannot fabricate.
A Place-Based Approach to Education
For over 14 years, The Native School has supported multiple generations of families, helping children develop not only strong academic foundations but also a love for the learning process. Our programs are designed to be immersive and holistic, meeting and exceeding California State Education Standards while embracing each child's unique developmental path. Our approach uses the local environment as a vehicle for learning, encouraging students to explore and grow at their own pace through hands-on, place-based education.
Looking to the Future
The Native School continues to be an innovative leader in nature-based education, creating space for children to explore their world, ask questions, and find joy in learning. As we look to the future, Shannon and our entire team of professional educators, remain passionate about ensuring that every child who walks through our doors is inspired to develop a love for learning that will last a lifetime.
At The Native School, we believe in meeting each child where they are, nurturing their curiosity, and preparing them for the world ahead—one filled with discovery, creativity, and a deep connection to the natural world.
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What will your child do at The Native School?
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Engage in experiential and emergent place-based learning
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Learn to mastery academic skills in core subjects aligned to California State Standards
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Receive explicit multi-sensory Literacy instruction within developmentally appropriate practices
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Apply early, emergent, and developing literacy skills utilizing multiple research methods, creative and descriptive multi-step narrations, and collaborative story projects.
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Develop excellent locomotor skills and confidence in their abilities through risky play
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Become champions of cooperation, teamwork, and balancing the rights of others with oneself
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Develop strong social and emotional skills including self-awareness, resiliency, and empathy
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Become a steward of the environment
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Develop a joy for lifelong learning and deeper understanding the natural world
Our Guiding Purpose
Imagine a world where every child is free to play, naturally and without limits. A world where childhood brims with adventure, awe, and wonder. Where all children are nurtured through deep, meaningful connections with nature and their community. Where every child’s voice is heard, and their innate wisdom is trusted.
​​​​​​Reggio Emilia Approach
100 Languages of Comprehension and Learning
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Honoring a Reggio Emilia approach, our students navigate their unique journey of learning through exchanges between themselves and their environments, their social contexts and relationships, and relationships within themselves. Their teachers are intentional in the knowledge-building process, embracing students’ diverse ways of thinking and making meaning where knowledge is embodied and constructed.
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It is our belief and guarantee that each experience presented to us outdoors can be harnessed as a learning opportunity. With each students’ hundred languages or hundred ways of thinking, comprehension can be tapped into organically. Genuine learning emerges from our student’s findings within the environment and is carefully integrated and curated to invite deeper learning including the integration of CA state standards of education, Creative Curriculum, Social and Emotional Learning and Environmental Stewardship all in the form of emergent learning, provocations, and planned activities. We utilize these provocations or invitations to learn to document and assess the growth of each child to ensure that all students’ unique learning styles are engaged and advancing​​
​​​​​​The Power of Positive Guidance​​
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As a school and passion driven child program, we wholeheartedly believe in the importance of supporting the growth and development of the whole child. This is not limited to academia, nor is it as simple as exploring the outdoors. It also includes the importance of scaffolding children’s social and emotional learning which includes supporting students as they practice skills of self regulation, empathy, building relationships, and making responsible decisions. Like other strategies of incorporating curriculum into our teachings, we use Positive Guidance and a Trauma-Informed approach to foster understanding, growth, and development in these areas for all students with the goal of guiding students as they are learning the complex social and emotional processes of everyday life.
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​​​​​​Stewards of Nature
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Being an outdoor school, not only do we emphasize the importance of state standards of education, curriculum, and social and emotional learning to support the whole child, but we also share the importance of lessons regarding protecting our environment, our nature classrooms, and the life within it by being as eco-conscious and mindful as possible in our activities, practices, and presence on and off of the trails. Our students discover their passion for protecting the animals and life around us as they develop a deeper understanding of our mutual responsibility to care for our environment in and out of class. Our teachers embody the same dedication and are committed to sharing these important lessons through their classroom practices of leaving no trace, only taking what is needed, and giving thanks to the land we are privileged to occupy. Teachers make an informed effort to not only teach these lessons, but also explain the “why,” encouraging empathy in all students.
​​​​​​Self Determination & Risky Play
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As students explore and learn from their surroundings, they are also enhancing their fine and gross motor skills, learning how to problem solve and increase their self-confidence as they participate in “risky play.” Risky play permits students the freedom necessary to empower themselves, assess and become aware of their abilities, their choices, and calculate decisions promoting self-reliance and resilience.