Our Los Gatos Campus
Every corner of Hillbrook's JK - 8 campus is built with intention, inviting learners of all ages to explore, discover, and grow.
Hillbrook's Marchmont campus covers 14 rolling acres in the Los Gatos Hills - a beautiful natural setting filled with spaces to learn, and grow. In every corner, you'll find Hillbrook students enjoying all that our Marchmont campus has to offer: conducting science classes in the creek, listening to stories or working on projects in the amphitheater, feeding the chickens in the science garden, or finding a quiet spot to read under the trees.
In our downtown San Jose campuses, our future high school students will use the city itself as a classroom alongside the beautiful historic buildings that house our classrooms, studios, and athletic facilities - click here to learn more about our growing Upper School!
The Bridges
Two bridges cross our on-campus creek and connect our Lower and Middle School. Our students travel across both throughout their day, running, skipping, or strolling to class. Students of yes and today can be found “fishing” off the side of a wooden bridge, or using the structures as inspiration - kindergarten’s nature walks inspire students to build bridges of their own across the creek using materials they pick up on their hikes, exercising both active bodies and engineering mindsets. And every fall, our 8th graders welcome our 5th graders to Middle School with our annual 5th Grade Bridge Run - a beautiful tradition that we look forward to every September!
The Village of Friendly Relations
The Village of Friendly Relations is a miniature village in the center of the Hillbrook campus that dates back to 1937. Students of The Children's Country School visited the bank in Downtown Los Gatos and acquired a loan for building supplies and learned to build the original 5 miniature houses - including a bank, a gift shop, a tea house. Today, all but the tea house still stands on the Hillbrook campus. The houses have been lovingly maintained over the years; though no longer used as a bank or general store, children at the Hillbrook play in them every school day. The houses also provide spaces for impromptu classes, musical jam sessions, and quiet places to read a book or write in a journal. The most recent addition to the Village of Friendly Relations is the "History House," a project started by a group of 7th grade girls from the Class of 2015. The Village of Friendly Relations is a physical reminders of the innovative spirit that has guided the school since it opened in 1935.
Library and Historic Tower
A Los Gatos Historical landmark, the our campus tower is the only remaining building that is original to the Parker Ranch purchased by Mary Orem and the founders of the school back in the 1930s. This rustic, cozy space has taken on many different roles throughout the history of the school, including housing a music room and a woodshop. Today, the Tower is home to our beautiful library, complete with fireplace and lots of cozy spaces for children to read, do homework, and enjoy a slower pace of life. Sometimes, you'll catch local owls nesting in the top!
Ross Creek
A natural dividing line between Lower and Middle School, Ross Creek is also an extension of our classrooms, providing outdoor learning space for science students and budding environmentalists. On a given day, you might find Lower School students exploring the creek and problem-solving ways to traverse it, including using branches and other natural tools around them to build their own bridges; you might also see 7th graders taking water samples and studying them under microscopes in our science labs. Students in all grade levels gain valuable lessons in caring for our campus and our planet by participating in creek clean-ups. Student-designed seating around the creek makes this a favorite spot for students to eat lunch or daydream.
The Hub and art studios
With over 3,000 square feet of sprawling space for collaboration and creation, the Hub is the epicenter of making, engineering, and art on Hillbrook’s campus, with ample workspace for students to tinker, explore, innovate, and problem-solve. The Hub provides the space and the tools for everything from coding classes to cooking electives to woodshop to sewing and photography. The Hub is also equipped with modern devices, including laser cutters and 3-D printers, making this a well-stocked place where students turn creative ideas into reality.
Adjacent to the Hub, Hillbrook’s art and ceramics rooms are equipped with direct access to outdoor space so that students of all ages have the freedom to let their creativity flow. The ceramics room features an in-room kiln, and all classrooms provide a colorful, dynamic, and imaginative space for children to both contemplate their work and create. Visit our Arts page to learn more!
Athletics Facilities
Hillbrook has everything students need for a great athletic experience. Our Upper Field is home to everything from P.E. class to softball games to flag football practice (you'll sometimes find science and history classes out there, too!)
Our state-of-the-art gym has plenty of room and equipment for any budding athlete: equipped with a basketball court, flexible stadium seating, and volleyball nets, the Hillbrook Gym is a lively place for both P.E. instruction and Middle School athletics games and practices. Hillbrook also has a pool where countless students have honed their swimming skills.
Learn more about our PE department here!
The Amphitheater
The Amphitheater is at the heart of our campus. Nestled at the center of the Village of Friendly Relations and canopied with expansive trees, it’s a central community gathering space. Students, faculty, staff administrators, and families gather here for Friday Flag each week; the stage is also a vibrant and well-utilized performance space, featuring student concerts and our annual K - 8 Talent Show.
When it's not being used for performances, children and adults use the amphitheater to eat lunch, study, practice, and play.
Chicken Coop + Gardens
Students take turns on “chicken duty,” learning how to care for Hillbrook’s chickens and the joy of caring for living creatures. This is a favorite space for many of our students, who love this moment to connect and bond with our beloved feathered friends.
The Science Garden is filled with plants, flowers, and seasonal vegetables; Lower School students have a blast cutting up fruit for compost, raking leaves, and watching green things grow. Over in JK and K you'll find the Mud Kitchen, which is home to an herb garden, a fairy garden, and a "minibeast hotel," where students play, build, explore, and dream. The Mud Kitchen instills in our youngest students problem-solving skills, a sense of community, and a deep love for the natural world.
The Equity & Impact Lab
Created by Hillbrook’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Director of the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship, and Director of Teaching and Learning, the Equity and Impact Lab houses and showcases the school’s commitment to core Hillbrook values—equity and inclusion, reaching beyond, social impact, lifelong learning and being our best. This shared space for teaching, learning, and collaboration is a gathering space for student and employee groups, such as People of Color at Hillbrook (PoCaH, an employee affinity group) and Helping Everyone Reach Out (HERO, a Middle School student club). This space is also home base for a number of classes and clubs led by the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship. All community visitors and campus visitors alike are invited to engage with Hillbrook’s Equity & Impact Lab, to view the community work and reflections on display, and to learn from the ample resources in this well-stocked space.
Flexible Learning Spaces
Hillbrook has an expansive history with agile learning spaces. Students in highly agile learning spaces engage in more exploration, mobility, and movement - one of the key ways we keep student choice and engagement at the center of the everyday learning experience. Today, flexible classrooms are fully integrated across campus. Foldable whiteboard tables make collaboration easy and allow students to brainstorm and problem-solve in community. Flexible seating and tables fold up and away, allowing for a dynamic classroom environment that can be shaped around and for the learning happening in that space on a daily basis. Wiggle stools and portable chairs give younger students the freedom of choice to care for their bodies and learn in a way that optimizes their engagement.