Bixby School serves preschool through elementary level children and their families in a small community setting that compassionately empowers children with critical thinking skills, self-confidence, independence and a love of learning; develops their individual gifts; and prepares them to make meaningful contributions to the world. Bixby's vision is to be a recognized leader in progressive, whole-child, customized education.

Education , Primary & Elementary Schools

In pursuit of our vision “to be a recognized leader in progressive, whole-child, customized education”, our teachers develop unique experiences for children to appreciate and celebrate their creativity, originality, independence, energy, curiosity, playfulness, imagination, excitement, open mindedness, attention to detail, emotions, and ethics. Bixby’s focus upon the whole child starts with its intentional school design. Some of the design elements of our unique school include small class sizes, child directed schedules, multi-age classes, on-site swimming and a one-of-its kind outside area that was designed by “watching how kids play”. Our small class sizes and extraordinary faculty mean huge opportunities. As our students learn in small class sizes (4-10 students) they gain powerful voices – speaking up for themselves, leading their peers, and never being afraid to ask others for help. Smaller class sizes allow faculty to spend more time on helping students practice self-awareness and self care, and develop authentic relationships with adults, peers and themselves. As Bixby co-founder, Pat Baker, described, “it is important that students learn each year at least as much about themselves as they do about their academics.” From ecstatic moments to pensive days, Bixby is a safe place to be authentic. Encouraging self-growth in students requires schools to accept that students are first children and social beings, and that social beings develop an understanding of their world (learn) by engaging their instincts and motivation in new experiences. Rather than assign one (or 2) teachers to a student for a year, each year Bixby students have access to multiple teachers throughout their preschool through 5th grade experience. Working together as a team, preschool students have access to 4 early childhood educators in a multi-age (2 ½-5 years) classroom. Beginning in 1st grade, students physically move through the school each period to learn with a different teacher and different groupings of students. Rather than have a single 1st grade teacher, a 1st grader learns with a teacher who specializes in Creative Design throughout their elementary experience. In this way, students have access to multiple trusted adults who see them in different contexts Student peer groups are also dynamic. Rather than move from class to class with the same group of students, student groups shift throughout the day, giving them access to a variety of social groups with diverse personalities, talents, strengths - academic and personal, and backgrounds. Just like the real world! Self-awareness, care for others and motivation are the building blocks upon which learning takes place. Just as we want our children to be healthy risk takers, we must also take a risk by empowering students’ interests and instincts, allowing learning experiences to adapt and change based upon them. As the old adage says, “what gets measured gets done”, at Bixby we regularly measure students’ growth in a variety of areas. In addition to academic growth, our proprietary assessments help us to understand and support students’ social-emotional, citizenship and physical growth. Rather than teach kids what to think, at Bixby the focus is on teaching kids how to be thinkers. Learning is real-world based, empowering students to make meaning of the world and understand why the academic content matters. To encourage self-growth, children must never doubt their innate brilliance. Valuing the whole-child, customizing learning to account for children’s’ interests and motivations, and building a community around the idea that there are many ways to be brilliant human being are just a few examples of how we have created a culture of self-growth at Bixby these past 49 years.

.. students realize their full potential and develop well-rounded people who will impact the world.

Boulder Colorado