A mission statement can usually be found in the brochure of a national organization or in an advertising kit from a magazine, but it’s rare to find one in a school’s information packet. The All Saints School on Seventh and Washington in Hoboken has one, but then again, this private Episcopal school isn’t an ordinary educational institution.
Their mission statement is: “All Saints Episcopal Day School provides academic excellence for early childhood and elementary school children through enriched experience for all children in an urban community. Children will graduate with a sincere love of learning, an appreciation of the diversity and cultural wonder of urban life, a sense of values, self-esteem and respect for individuals, a responsibility for this planet and gratitude for its beauty and a nurtured sense of their own spirituality.”
The school officials at All Saints take pride in their innovated academic curriculum. They use the technique of Orton-Gillingham, which is a method of teaching that was developed in the 1930s. Orton-Gillingham is an intensive, sequential phonics-based system that teaches the basics of word formation before whole meanings. The school assigns special economics projects like having their first-graders start a mock restaurant, while students are taught subjects like math through making change at a cash register. They’re taught reading, writing and spelling by creating their own menus.
“Part of the first grade curriculum is to teach the children how to write their name, address and phone number,” said All Saints Head Director Elisabeth Deyo. “Rather than making them write it over and over again, we make them fill out an application for a job in the restaurant. Now it’s not a boring homework assignment for the children to learn their address and phone number, because now there’s a reason for them to learn it. It’s all about motivation.”
Language Arts is also an important subject to All Saints. Each year, the school participates in an international internship program by hosting an intern from Japan. These interns teach Japanese history and culture to all grades as well as the Japanese language to grades two to four. And kindergartners through fourth graders are all taught Spanish.
Third grader Sam Proctor, 8, said he enjoys learning different languages.
“It’s fun, because we sing songs, read books in Spanish, learn words in Japanese and make origami,” said Sam. “It’s good too, because someday I might have to go to a place and need to speak Spanish and I’ll know how to say some stuff.”
But the students’ learning environment isn’t limited to the classroom; they’re also required to participate in community service activities. As early as the first grade, All Saints students are expected to do 10 hours of volunteer work each year as a class project. Some past projects have been working with the elderly, helping at a local soup kitchen, promoting the school recycling program and working at a local food pantry.
All Saints opened in 1985 with an enrollment of 16 students, and by the second year, enrollment began to grow. A kindergarten was added the third year, and The Parents Association was created and officers were elected. This school year, the school has seen its largest enrollment ever with 116 students in the nursery through fourth grade classes.
Because the school’s enrollment continues to escalate, the board is looking to expand the size of the building and to also offer fifth and sixth grades, which would make All Saints a full elementary school.
All Saints School is sponsored by the Episcopal Church, but a child of any religious background can attend. Students who are currently enrolled are from Hoboken, Jersey City, Union City, Weehawken, Guttenberg, North Bergen, Bayonne, Kearny and Englewood. For more information, call the school at 792-0736.