Our Mission

Berkwood Hedge School provides a hands-on curriculum that promotes deep and intuitive learning. Students achieve academic excellence by becoming critical thinkers and creative problem solvers.

Our teachers meet the needs of every child, inspiring a joy of learning, academic success, intellectual excitement, emotional well-being, and creativity. Students leave Berkwood Hedge School prepared for success in high school and beyond.

Our small cooperative community of students, families, and educators share a commitment to preserving the environment and promoting social justice within both the school culture and the larger community. We are committed to strengthening diversity of all types, including cultural, ethnic, racial, learning style, economic, gender, and family structure.

We hold these values to be at the core of our mission:

Courage. Creativity. Curiosity. Connection.

We live these values by actively and intentionally fostering: 

Academic Excellence

While achieving academic excellence relies on continual assessment and evaluation, it goes beyond numbers and metrics. A setting that challenges students intellectually, while fostering their social and emotional strengths, pushes them beyond schoolbook basics to real-life understanding.

Students learn best when they are actively engaged in their learning. We want our students to think deeply about issues that matter to them, and to understand ideas from all perspectives. Our approach to teaching supports a child's natural creativity and desire to learn. Students leave Berkwood Hedge School as confident and self-directed learners, consistently successful at the broad range of independent and public high schools they attend.

Teacher Leadership

When teachers feel valued, are encouraged to think creatively, and are given the freedom to teach to the child, not the test, they become more than educators--they become role models. Their passion becomes contagious, seeding in their students an appetite for learning that extends well beyond the classroom.

Social Justice

Social justice is at the core of the Berkwood Hedge School curriculum. We encourage children to think critically and consider different viewpoints, to listen, question, probe, and challenge. This leads not only to intellectual and emotional growth, but also helps children develop an appreciation for their own perceptions, and a sense of their own agency.

Berkwood Hedge School students are not intimidated about seeking solutions to complicated problems. Our philosophy creates a learning community that enables children to develop into empowered participants creating positive changes in our world.

A Green School

As part of our mission to preserve the environment, Berkwood Hedge School is committed to setting an example for sustainability and environmental awareness through our curriculum, recycling programs and purchasing decisions. In 2005 we became the first school in Alameda County to earn certification as a Green Business, and each year we continue to reduce waste, conserve energy and water, and educate our students about sustainable ways of living.

A Connected Community

Community is the foundation of Berkwood Hedge School, and we take pride in our long history as a strong, collaborative organization. With care and intention, we have worked together to create a small, inclusive environment, valuing each individual member of our community - child, staff member, parent, or friend - as a significant participant in the school.

Together, we embrace the unique qualities that each of us brings to the group, across a spectrum of skin color, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, educational background, family structure, and strengths and challenges. In addition, we explore, with a sense of joy and discovery, the rich mix of family cultures, traditions, values, and beliefs represented among us. Our commitment to learning about one another - respecting and celebrating our separate experiences, yet also seeing the many ways in which our lives overlap - unites us as a healthy and vibrant community.