Lower School

Principal's Message

Welcome to the St. Margaret's Lower School. We focus on growth and wellbeing in four core aspects of child development: academic, social, emotional and spiritual. Our program is designed to nurture each child's growth across these four domains.

We believe a strong partnership between parents and our school is essential to the development of our students. This close collaboration is evidenced daily between our teachers and families and allows us to know and celebrate children as individuals. Together, we strive to infuse our students with a passion for learning and inquiry-based discovery as they mature and develop into young adolescents. Throughout the Lower School, we emphasize essential questions such as: “What makes a good friend? What is a healthy diet? Why does character count?

Within small class sizes, St. Margaret’s provides a challenging curriculum that prepares our students for the demands of the 21st century. We seek to inspire our students to solve problems and think critically as they prepare to be leaders in the global community. We offer a rich and comprehensive curriculum that includes the visual and performing arts, social sciences, physical education, computer literacy, science, world languages and an understanding of faith traditions. Our math program incorporates both the learning of traditional skills as well as conceptual understanding. The reading and writing programs offer small group instruction within the classroom setting, affording children the opportunity to read and write at their own instructional level with the appropriate support from their teachers.

Our exceptional faculty is comprised of passionate, accomplished professional educators who are well versed in promoting the social and emotional growth of our children. We strive to create a physically and emotionally safe, nurturing environment where students are motivated to learn and empowered to take risks because they feel comfortable and loved. Additional student support is provided by special subjects teachers, instructional assistants, two full-time registered school nurses and a learning center. Our Lower School students grow spiritually by attending chapel services four times a week and a Christian life skills class. In keeping with the Episcopal school tradition, we embrace diversity of religious backgrounds and teach our students to do the same.

We welcome the opportunity to share with you the wonderful and rewarding work we do in educating our students for lives of learning, leadership and service.

Dr. Regina McDuffie
Lower School Principal