Golestan elementary school in El Cerito, California, supports the development of kind, thoughtful, and courageous children through hands-on, experiential, and transdisciplinary learning. Immersed in a loving and aesthetically beautiful environment, Golestan kids are grounded and nurtured to meet their full potential. The school takes a global view and gives children a deep understanding and respect for the world they live in.

The elementary school focuses on the beauty of humanity – and all that we share in common – and celebrates the heritages and cultures of each community.  While building a strong academic foundation in each child, we are creating a microcosm of the global society we envision for a peaceful future.

As of September 1st, 2018, Golestan is an International Baccalaureate* (IB) candidate school for the Primary Years Program (PYP). This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School in 2021. IB World Schools share a common philosophy – a commitment to high-quality, challenging, international education.

The school curriculum integrates research-based best practices in the classroom (both indoors and outdoors) such as Common Core and NGSS Science Standards, with a hands-on, experiential pedagogy. Our elementary school is the place where students nurture their love of learning, their humanity, and their innate sense of justice. It is a school where every child is a changemaker who is empowered to create positive change by being resourceful, kind, innovative, conscious, creative, and engaged. It is a school where the individual child and the collective community of children are equally valued.

This idyllic space, with complex chemistry in cooking class, abstract math in the maker’s lab, and hands-on messy science, feels more like a beautiful home than an institution. It is a place that smells like baked bread, tastes like fresh greens, and sounds like the United Nations.

*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programs: the Primary Years Program (PYP), the Middle Years Program (MYP), the Diploma Program (DP), or the Career-related Program (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted >>>

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