Dear families,
Since our founding in 1935, Hillbrook School has been committed to a simple and compelling vision - to inspire children to achieve their dreams and reach beyond themselves to make a difference in the world.
At the center of our campus lies the Village of Friendly Relations, a set of small buildings designed and built by our earliest students back in the late 1930s. School founder Mary Orem imagined that this small working village, which included a bank, general store, and a newspaper, would help children learn how to collaborate and co-exist and provide the children the skills they would need to help ensure a more peaceful and just world. Innovative and inspiring, the Village of Friendly Relations was highlighted in Sunset Magazine in the late 1930s.
More than eighty years later, we remain a school that is at the leading edge of education. Our innovative schedule balances skill development with integrated project-based learning, and includes dedicated time each week for students to reach beyond and make a difference in the world. We are also home to the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship, one of the only JK-8 centers dedicated to social impact education in the world, and we are about to open the Hub, a state-of-the-art space that will serve as the epicenter for design, making, science, art, and engineering on campus. We are deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, knowing that the best schools and the strongest academic programs are intentionally diverse communities. And, as evidence that our founding vision remains vital today, our newest house in the Village of Friendly Relations, designed and built by students just a few years ago, serves as the school’s newly launched podcast studio.
We encourage you to step foot on our 14-acre campus and enter a space where children are known and valued as learners, where exceptional educators co-design learning experiences each day that challenge children to reach their highest potential, and where laughter, friendship, and joy are a part of the daily fabric of our community.
Hillbrook is an extraordinary place to be a child. We hope you will visit soon.
Warmly,