San Francisco Mission (5 - 14 years)
As one of the top private schools in San Francisco, our Mission Campus, located in the heart of the Mission District, now houses our K-8 students.
This Italianate, wood-frame building was designed by Charles Devlin and built originally as a church in 1888. Starting in 1895, it also served as a school.
Big plans are in the works for this location in the upcoming years! The Mission campus will be transformed into the ideal international school of the future – the first and only of its kind in the United States - which will occupy some of the current school yard space. This building will be the main entrance to our campus and will house our food atelier, dining room, art, music, and makers ateliers.
The Ateliers are unique and at the heart of the Reggio Emilia program as they provide students with innovative spaces to learn, explore, create, and experiment.
Elementary and Middle School Environment
The St. Charles building is the anchor of our Mission Campus - a historic building with modern features inside.
The St. Charles building features light-filled classrooms, designed to be spaces of curiosity and wonder.
These interiors reflect the Reggio Emilia curriculum's commitment to hands-on learning and its belief in the environment as the "third teacher."
In the Reggio Emilia curriculum, students aren't empty vessels for knowledge – they are co-constructors of learning with their peers and teachers.
Students from kindergarten to middle school have the opportunity to connect with their teachers every day.
La Scuola's immersive approach to learning Italian can be seen in the classroom.
The classroom is a place of artistic exploration and discovery.
Students enjoy being a part of all aspects of school life. One of the core tenets of the IB Middle Years Program is Service as Action.
The play structures on the piazza were designed by an Italian architect in accordance with Reggio Emilia principles.
The piazza, which includes a stage, a basketball court, and several ateliers, is an ideal place for student recreation.
Outdoor time gives students a chance to catch up.
And of course, there's always time to relax and have fun!
Cross-grade level learning is integral to the La Scuola community.
Learning is an inherently collaborative process at La Scuola – from working one-on-one with teachers or in groups with other students.
Research is an integral part of the Grade 8 curriculum, culminating in the IB program's MYP Community Project.
The light-filled indoor spaces provide students with ideal classroom environments.
Meet the Elementary and Middle School Directors
Amanda Fox
Biography:
Amanda grew up in North Carolina, taking summer trips to visit family in the Italian speaking region of Switzerland. There she got started learning Italian with all the critical food words, sparking a lifelong love of language learning (and lemon sorbetto!) and for experiencing different cultures. She majored in cultural and linguistic Anthropology at Yale University, where she also studied French, Italian, and Portuguese language and literature, then began her career in education by teaching English in France and Brazil.
Amanda moved to California to earn an M.A. in TESOL at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, taught at community colleges and nonprofits in the Bay Area, then worked for 14 years at K-8 bilingual schools in the Bay Area as an ESL Specialist, homeroom teacher, and Curriculum Coordinator at Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley (French immersion), and most recently as a Math Specialist at Presidio Knolls School (Mandarin immersion).
Having discovered a passion for bilingual and bicultural education Amanda earned an Ed.M in Educational Leadership from the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College of Columbia University. In her free time Amanda enjoys cycling, hiking, and cooking with her husband and son (mostly serving as sous-chef and taster for her husband, an amateur pizzaiolo and pastaio), as well as reading and sewing.
Carmen Gomez
Biography:
Carmen was born in San Francisco and grew up between California and Arizona. After graduating from the University of San Francisco with a degree in International Business, Carmen moved to Tuscany where she worked in eno-gastronomic tourism and marketing for several years before returning to the States to pursue a Ph.D. in Italian literature and culture at the University of California, Los Angeles. Carmen spent over 10 years teaching Italian language classes of all levels, literature, and culture courses at La Scuola in 2013-14, within the UC system, and most recently as the Italian language coordinator at UC Davis. Carmen's love of teaching begins with a love of learning - studying Italian in college was a way for her to reclaim her family's heritage and explore new configurations of her own identity.
Land Acknowledgement for the Mission Campus
We acknowledge that the land our Mission Campus stands on is the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone people. 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 Ramaytush community.