Who We Are
What is special about Clark Fork School?
Academic Excellence
Our student-centered, parent-guided school is filled with children who are enthusiastic about their classes and challenged academically to reach their fullest potential. Clark Fork School offers children a supportive, warm environment that nurtures their emotional, cognitive, physical and social development. Every child is able to get more individual attention and move at a comfortable pace for them thanks to our low student-to- teacher ratios.
Place-based Education
At the center of our curriculum is the belief that building connections between individuals and their surroundings is the foundation for all learning. Clark Fork School primarily uses a place-based approach to education. The definitions "sense of place" and "place-based" have variations from person to person, so CFS addressed this topic and defined what it means to us. We define place-based education
as a real-world learning experience that provides time, ideas and ways of approaching learning that will be life long and transferable from place to place.
- Use our home to inform our life experience and our way of looking at the world
- Explore relationships to both the human environment and the natural world
- Develop heightened awareness of detail
- Explore with purpose and intention
- Teach respect for learning, for each other, and for our community
- Promote an investigative approach to life
- Expand the classroom to include the schoolyard, community, and watershed
- Learn to approach the world with curiosity and humanity
- Help students feel that they are a part of the natural world, not apart from it
When we understand and feel connected to our own natural environment and social community we can begin to comprehend our personal and collective responsibilities to the world at large. We emphasize the natural world. As part of our place-based curriculum, our students and teachers devote significant time to study and direct personal experience of the natural environment. As an extension of this, we strive to model environmentally sound choices in our school practices. (Click here for our handout on "being green" and our sustainability policy.)
Examples
Because of Clark Fork School's low student-teacher ratios, our teachers have the time to work with each student to develop the skill of careful observation. They explore, document, and discuss detailed changes in their classroom projects, the schoolyard, or the Rattlesnake Creek system. But these ways of observing and understanding do not simply apply to their development as scientists. The same skills help them to quickly identify and understand each others' emotions and give them the eye of an artist or photographer.
As children progress, Clark Fork School offers increasingly greater and more detailed exposure to the world around them. The preschool starts by introducing exploration skills primarily in the neighborhood around CFS and nearby wilderness spaces, the kindergarten moves up and into the hills of Missoula, and the primary grades explore the town and hills of Missoula in greater depth.
At Clark Fork School, children work to make purposeful products. For example, after studying Missoula using their history, social studies, math, and art skills, the primary class produced a book of Missoula history that they then donated to the Missoula Public Library. After thoroughly investigating, researching, and exploring the Tom Green Trail and the community surrounding it, they erected an interpretive sign for the community at the trail head at Pineview Park.
We encourage everyone to explore place-based education to understand what it is, why we choose to use it, and how it is implemented in real classrooms. We have compiled this list of reading resources, which you can find in our Orientation Booklet under "Documents."
CFS students are able to enjoy a lot of time outdoors. Nestled in Missoula's beautiful Rattlesnake Valley, Clark Fork School is just a short walk or bus ride to Rattlesnake Creek, Mt. Jumbo, and other sites for our students' natural explorations. Children enjoy our large outdoor play yard every day throughout the year.
Community
Clark Fork School has a strong, close-knit community, in which both children and families build strong connections. All members of the school community enjoy a warm social environment, partly created by social gatherings throughout the year, including all-school activities. Special Friday gatherings for the whole school provide opportunities for children of all ages to develop relationships in their school community while they engage in arts and crafts, drama, outdoor adventure, meals, and discussions. Our community relies on parent involvement. CFS is a parent co-op, which means parents play a very important role in keeping the school running.The executive board consists of dedicated parents who are committed to educational excellence. All parents are required to perform some hours of service each month, but most parents gladly go beyond the work requirements. Parents can get involved in many ways, including volunteering in the classrooms, maintaining the school building and playground, working in the office, helping on field trips, coordinating fundraising projects, and much more. Each family plays a special role at Clark Fork School. Every individual is a valuable asset to our school community. (Click here for our handout on parent involvement)
Special Programs
Besides the normal educational experiences of art, music, academics, health, movement, Clark Fork School offers some special programs for students. Kindergartners get the opportunity to participate in a swimming program in the fall. After the New Year begins, kindergarten and primary students enjoy a six-week skiing program at the local ski resort, Snowbowl. The primary programs also participate in an overnight camping trip with Ravenwood at Camp Corvid in Flathead Valley!
