Inside Outside School

Our family has had the pleasure of being a part of this community for the last 4 years. I was relieved to find a place that celebrates each child's individuality and encourages them to work together with others. In addition to academic curriculum, IOS offers electives that teach the kids real life skills. For example, my oldest sometimes cooks us dinner! Communication between parents and teachers/ staff is excellent. Everyone works together for what is best for the students. We have 3 children. We just had our oldest child graduate last spring and are excited about our 3rd child being able to attend next year.

My son was enrolled at Inside Outside School. After several days, his teacher tried to diagnose my son with a faulty diagnosis. I asked on what criteria she based her comments, and she said he doesn't always pay attention and likes to swing on the playground. HE IS IN KINDERGARTEN! Of course he doesn't pay attention and likes to swing. She also stated he didn't know his alphabet or letter sounds. She clearly didn’t know him at all, as he knew his alphabet and was already reading. She also requested we move him from the part-time program to full time. Less than a month later, she and the director told us they COULD NOT teach my son. They told us he could only come to school one day a week to participate in electives. This action conveniently opened up a spot for a full-time student, while still getting money from us. They then quit offering part time enrollment. I emailed the director a list of concerns and questions, which she never addressed. We subsequently enrolled him in public school. He loves his teachers (who CAN teach him) and loves riding the bus. My son is getting everything he needs and more in his neighborhood public school. He is excelling and regularly making the honor roll! We are realizing most of his lack of attention stemmed from not being challenged at IOS because of weak teaching strategies. Overall, I would definitely skip this school. Our bad experience was not the only one at this school.

I spent months researching nearly every option for my son's education; Montessori, Waldorf (Steiner), Democratic, Homeschool, Charter, Sudbury, Holistic, Unschooling, Virtual, Magnet, Reggio Emilia, Indigo, Krishnamurti, Quaker, Libertarian, Independent, Progressive, Community, and Cooperative. We needed to find an educational environment that integrates a variety of learning methods, in order to best suit each child's individual learning style. We needed an educational curriculum that embraces a love of learning, feeds the child's imagination & curiosity, and instills a love, respect & desire to explore our planet. We needed to be sure the academics were strong, but balanced, with the perfect combination of indoor/outdoor discovery. We needed authentic, organic, hands-on, nature-based learning. At the Inside Outside School we found exactly what we were looking for! After visiting nearly every private/alternative school in Austin and the surrounding cities, we found ourselves driving down a small country road, on our way to tour the Inside Outside School. The drive itself made me smile. Growing up in the Himalayas, with Mt. Everest outside my bedroom window, a love and respect for nature was instilled in me at a young age and has always played a big part in my life. When we arrived at IOS we fell in love. No other school we had visited came close to the philosophy, curriculum, habitat and emphasis on nature that they had to offer. When we left, my son begged me to stay and said that, of all the schools we had visited, this was the one he wanted most. I couldn't agree more! It's been nearly a year now since my son enrolled, and what an incredible experience it's been! We're thrilled to be a part of this community. My son absolutely loves his teacher, who works harder than anyone I know to give our kids the best education you could ask for. Caring for our animals (our goats just had babies!) is one of his favorite parts of the day. The responsibility these kids learn in caring for our planet — the environment, the animals, and each other — is incredible and something that will stay with them for life. Friday Electives are always a highlight in his week. Shout out to his apothecary/survival teacher, she's got mad skills! And I've never seen a more dedicated, hands-on director in all my years of teaching. She's kind hearted, hard working, honest, and treats the kids as if they were her own. Nature Literacy, at the end of each school day, is pretty much paradise to my son — adventures down by the creek, building mud homes for bugs, tracking footprints, collecting fossils and exploring insects, plants, and the great outdoors! I could go on, but this review is ridiculously long. In my defense, it's hard to sum up the Inside Outside School in just a couple paragraphs! I'll sign off with the quotes below, they express my thoughts better than I ever could... Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives. - Thomas Berry When the child goes out, it is the world itself that offers itself to him. Let us take the child out to show him real things instead of making objects which represent ideas and closing them up in cupboards. - Maria Montessori

We LOVE the Inside Outside School! I have been following the school since it's opening year, and as an educator (former public school teacher), I love the blend of academics and outside time. From all that I can tell, they are taking the educational research that talks to what truly works in the best interest of children and applying it in all aspects of the school. The class sizes are small, there are many opportunities for mixed-age learning, there is direct teaching of core concepts, highly individualized learning, lots of outside and student-led activities, and an integrated social/emotional component that is woven throughout the structure of the days that helps our children learn one of the most valuable skills that will serve them through life - emotional intelligence! This is not an unstructured school - there is structure and academics happening even when it can appear unstructured. For instance, I volunteer once a week for Nature Literacy in "the woods" as my daughter calls it. I have watched students create amazing learning opportunities for themselves that are completely self-initiated. I've seen them perform experiments on the flow of the creek, figure out how to construct a dragon's lair with tree branches, create mud homes, and compare/contrast plants and rocks. This is all proof to me that these kids are learning HOW to learn and LOVE LEARNING! All things that make both my mommy heart and my teacher heart very happy. :) Our daughter is currently in the 1st grade in a 1st/2nd grade classroom. She came with a high reading level and (in my mind) a low math ability which was compounded with a self-esteem issue from her kinder experience in a local charter school. Her teacher has done an excellent job of finding out what she needs and providing her with opportunities to expand her learning and fill in the gaps she had. Within the first semester the esteem issues I was worried about have all but vanished, and she truly enjoys math as well as reading now! I love the way IOS approaches assessment of the students - there are no grades (which did make this former teacher a little nervous at first), but it has been replaced with anecdotal records that are far more meaningful than a single page of letter grades! I received a 10 page document that took me through the semester, explained what was learned in class and how my daughter is progressing. We used this document to review our previous goals and set new ones as a team - teacher, parents, and student. This is authentic learning at its best! I really cannot say enough about this school. Parents are encouraged to participate in the school day, and I love that this school is as welcoming to the parents as it is for the students. This school may not be for everyone, but I am confident that this is the school for our family and for our daughter. :)

We just started my daughter in the IOS upper elementary classroom this year and love it! She's thriving with the small student-teacher ratio and individualized learning. In addition to regular academics, she loves getting to choose electives she's interested in like theater and art. Lots of time in beautiful nature is great too! As parents, we enjoy being part of a great community.