Elementary School

Students do not need a background in Italian to enroll in La Scuola International School. Many join us as new students of Italian.

Students start in kindergarten and first grade with Italian as the language of instruction approximately 80% of the time. Over later grades, the Italian to English ratio shifts towards more instruction in English, ending with 30% of instruction in Italian by the eighth grade. We introduce Spanish as a third language in fifth grade.

For more detail, visit our page on language immersion.

Trusting, caring relationships between teachers and students secures emotional wellbeing and leads to more successful learning. Feeling supported, seen, and heard are important.

At La Scuola, the Responsive Classroom approach helps us build healthy relationships, teaching children how to listen with open hearts and open minds. We use Restorative Justice in Education to meaningfully address conflict. Mistakes are great teachers, and we help students understand the importance of owning theirs without shame.

Ateliers — hands-on creativity labs — nurture a lifelong love of learning. Focused on art, music, coding, garden, and more, ateliers enliven our flagship Mission Campus building and foster learning through form, function, and beauty. La Scuola is one of very few schools in the world to apply the Reggio Emilia Approach through elementary and middle school.

Structured and purposeful inquiry, across all subject areas, is a hallmark of La Scuola education. We encourage student curiosity, questioning, exploration, and interaction with the educational environment — physically, socially, and intellectually. Children actively engage as the protagonists in their own learning.

La Scuola elementary classes work together to develop essential skills in traditional subjects, exceeding the requirements of Common Core standards and the Italian National Curriculum. They engage in learning across the boundaries of subject areas, following a central idea through science, literature, mathematics, art, and more, creating and sharing enduring understanding of what they learn and how they learn.

At La Scuola, we differentiate learning experiences to accommodate the range of abilities and learning styles of all our students. Our teachers use a wealth of assessment strategies and tools to understand how your child learns, then they apply that knowledge to inform instruction.

Elementary classes explore our Mission District neighborhood, take field trips in and around San Francisco, and journey across California as part of multi-day experiences. These trips beyond campus help reinforce how the themes students investigate in class connect with their on-going lives. They are another way we help La Scuola students to be open to the world.