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Multi-Age Grouping

Multi-Age Grouping

At PS1, eight of our nine classes bring together students from two consecutive grade levels: K–1, 2, 3–4, and 5–6, so children experience a dynamic and evolving peer community each year. This structure gives every child the chance to be both a leader and a learner throughout their school journey, building essential skills in adaptability, empathy, and collaboration.

By learning alongside peers of different ages, students develop strong connections and social agility, lifelong skills that help them thrive in a variety of environments. Families often tell us, year after year and now generation after generation, that this two-grade span was the key to raising well-rounded, confident, articulate, and resilient young people.

Curious to hear what they say?

CLICK HERE to view testimonials from students, parents, and alumni about our multi-age grouping classroom structure.

Clusters

Our close-knit school community grows even stronger through our Cluster system, which groups multi-age classrooms together to foster empowerment, safety, and belonging beyond the classroom walls.

We have four Clusters:

  • Youngers: three classes of K–1 students

  • Bridge: one 2nd grade class

  • Middles: two classes of 3rd and 4th graders

  • Olders: three classes of 5th and 6th graders

This layered community structure allows students to connect across a wider range of ages while still enjoying small group support. Because they know every teacher and peer in the school, PS1 students grow into self-assured, confident learners ready to take on new challenges.


Click to watch our video, highlighting our multi-age classrooms and the Cluster system at PS1. See an example of how identical twins moved through the Clusters during their seven-year journey.

Class Placement

In most schools, children are tracked and class placement is automatic. That translates into moving with your same group en masse every year to the next level, for example from first grade to second.

When children are grouped developmentally, as they are at PS1, a child can experience being a younger student in his class one year and an older student the next. There is a two-year age range in each of our nine multi-age classes. A child's self-esteem is often affected by his perceived placement within his group. There are benefits to being both an older and a younger; we work to make sure that every PS1 child will experience both at some time during their tenure at our school.

Class placement is determined by the faculty and administration after receiving recommendations from classroom teachers and from parents. We assess all aspects of a child's development - academic, social, emotional, physical, artistic, personal, and interpersonal - in forging each year's class groupings. We seek to be responsive to the timing, learning style, and differences in the social, emotional, and cognitive development of each child. Out of our system, over a seven-year period, comes a whole child – competent, confident, and connected.