Silicon Valley (2 - 7 years)
La Scuola Silicon Valley Campus (2 - 7 years) is one of the best schools in Silicon Valley. Our Reggio-inspired classrooms spark the joy of learning.
La Scuola International Silicon Valley is a Candidate School* for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IB-PYP). This campus is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that La Scuola believes is important for our students. La Scuola's San Francisco program is an accredited IB-PYP and IB-MYP World School.
This is our newest campus, having just opened in 2022, and currently enrolling PreK, K, and Grade 1 students. The campus is located in East Palo Alto, just minutes away from Hwy 101, Stanford University, Facebook and Google headquarters in a quiet residential neighborhood. The campus has undergone extensive construction work and attention to detail, with the help of Michele Zini of ZPZ Partners in Modena, Italy. The Reggio-inspired classrooms, furniture, gardens, ateliers, and play structures are all brand new, and first welcomed South Bay families and students for the 2022 - 2023 academic year.
*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Program (PYP), the Middle Years Program (MYP), the Diploma Program, or the Career-related Program (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programs, visit www.ibo.org.
Silicon Valley School Environment
Our newest campus, in Silicon Valley, is welcoming new students for the 2024-25 school year!
A special place in every Reggio school is the atelier, where students further their inquiries, explore new ideas and express themselves.
The playground is designed according to Reggio Emilia principles.
The playground and garden provide ample opportunities for students to be creative.
Our classrooms are bright, beautiful and intentionally set up to nurture children's innate curiosity.
Every aspect of the classroom, from lighting to furniture to colors, reflects Reggio Emilia principles.
Experiential learning is a core aspect of student life at the Silicon Valley Campus.
Play and imagination, both in and outside the classroom, are key to social-emotional learning.
Meet the Campus Director
Beatrice Balfour
Biography:
Beatrice grew up in Milan, Italy, earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master’s in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies at Cambridge University, UK and a Ph.D in Education with a focus on the Reggio Emilia Approach, also at Cambridge University.
Upon graduation, Beatrice taught in Ecuador at the University level as a Professor of Education and branched out into project management for the creation of a primary school, inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach. The position encompassed the school’s finance, design, construction, curriculum, student recruitment, and teacher training. The school received national attention and has served as a model throughout the country, particularly in rural areas.
More recent experiences include Principal of Gan Shalom school in Berkeley, CA, and PK-1st Grade Principal of Escuela Bilingüe Internacional, an IB, bilingual Spanish-English school in Oakland, CA.
Since 2020, Beatrice has been co-facilitating workshops on the Reggio Emilia Approach at the Innovative Teacher Project (ITP). She is a native Italian speaker, and fluent in Spanish and French. She enjoys the outdoors, the arts, and works as a volunteer teaching special needs children how to ride horses. As a student at Berkeley, Beatrice taught at the La Scuola in San Francisco and is so happy to have now returned to her ‘alma mater!’
Land Acknowledgement for the Silicon Valley Campus
We acknowledge that the land our Silicon Valley Campus stands on is the unceded ancestral homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone people and the Tamien Tribe. As educators and life-long learners, we recognize that as uninvited guests, we all need to affirm their sovereign rights as first peoples. We pay our respects to their ancestors, elders and relatives of the Muwekma and Tamien communities.