The Parkside Educational Program is tailored to meet the particular needs of individual students while delivering a complete elementary school curriculum: Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, Drama, Yoga and Physical Education.
The school’s guiding principle is to serve the whole child with a full array of academic subjects. Our rigorous and structured classroom programs are interwoven with a range of complimentary services, delivered in whole groups of eight or smaller and often one-to-one. Each student’s program is a highly individualized one with accommodations for each student’s strengths and challenges. A great deal of attention is given to delivering instructions in various modalities. Children are typically grouped in classrooms of eight students with one head teacher and at least one assistant teacher. Occupational therapy, social work and speech & language therapy are integrated into weekly whole-group classrooms with therapists as lead teachers, or as facilitators when a classroom teacher leads the lessons.
“Having worked in other special schools, I can honestly say that there is nothing that compares with Parkside. It is a unique place that offers such an amazing amount of support not only to children but to families. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the Parkside team and for allowing me to have the chance of a lifetime being a part of such a special program. ”
Curriculum is guided by the Common Core Standards and setting it is a dynamic process subject to constant review and revision based on the mission of the school. Parkside is subject to NYC Department of Education and NYS Education Department requirements. Almost all children have Individual Education Plans (IEPs) approved by the NYC Department of Education; these set goals for their academic attainment and provide the basis for the support services children receive.
The school is organized into lower, middle and upper school groups, each of which consist of 3 or 4 classrooms. These groups are for the purposes of assemblies, special performances and curriculum planning and children advance from group to group based on their academic and social needs.