Lower School

Discovery & Growth

Tatnall’s Lower School is a place of exploration, self-discovery, risk taking, and active learning. Through individualized and engaging work, students become effective problem solvers and communicators, and become comfortable generating new ideas and strategies.

The greatest strength of the Lower School is the relationships between the faculty and the students. These relationships are built on respect, trust, and, ultimately, love.

With the goal of educating the whole child, the Lower School instills the expertise and behaviors students will rely on as they continue their educational journeys.

Value and Traditions

In addition to the academic focus, Tatnall’s Lower School provides lessons and character development through our Daisy Values. The daisy is a longstanding Tatnall symbol and represents compassion, integrity, honesty, perseverance, sportsmanship, respect, and cooperation. These qualities teach us to be responsible citizens, caring friends, and lifelong learners, while supporting Tatnall's mission and motto, Omnia in Caritate, or All Things in Love.

Opening Exercises

A tradition since Tatnall was founded in 1930, Lower School students start each day with Opening Exercises, building a strong sense of community and allowing students to practice public speaking to an audience of peers, families, and faculty.

Musical and Dance Productions
Both the Holiday Concert and May Celebration give Lower School students the opportunity to explore and showcase their musical and dancing talents for the community. Students learn the value of practice and see the progression of their abilities from each performance's inception to completion and as they progress through the Lower School year-to-year.

Field Day

Field Day is held each spring to highlight students’ athleticism and the skills learned in their physical education classes. Field Day encourages teamwork as students learn to win with grace and dignity.

Fourth Grade Campout

Students look forward to the annual Fourth Grade Campout. This team building and bonding experience takes advantage of the beauty and amenities Tatnall’s campus offers, while encouraging our students to practice their maturity and autonomy with problem solving tasks and getting out of their comfort zone.

INNOVATIVE CURRICULUM

Students will:

Engage in progressively advanced text-based analysis to build predictive, summative, and comprehensive reading strategies.
Benefit from a writers’ workshop approach to build strong organizational and language usage skills in written communication.
Remain active throughout the academic day, engaging in multisensory lessons in a variety of individualized and group-based settings.
Practice computation, number sense, and problem-solving, applying those mathematical principles to cross-curricular and real-world situations.
Engage in a project-based science curriculum that employs the scientific method and hands-on, kinesthetic learning at every level.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Experiential learning involves not only learning by doing, but also reflecting on the doing. Our program includes:

Student-created mini-societies and the opportunity to engage with economics and entrepreneurship.
Project-based, cross-curricular interdisciplinary initiatives.
A Tinker Lab featuring 3D printing spaces, and resources dedicated to exploration and creativity.
The Stock Market Challenge to reinforce cause-effect and analytical skills in real-world scenarios.
Collaborative music and physical education programs to help students experience the connection of brain and body.
A fine arts program that exposes students to multiple artistic media. The World Peace Game, a hands-on political simulation that teaches students the complexity of geopolitics and the importance of collaboration.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT