Make it matter
Students at The Brandeis School of San Francisco make it matter by participating as innovators and doers in the unique challenges of our time.
Together, we nurture creativity and curiosity, celebrating the connections that engage students with learning, with each other, and with our world.
See what makes us extraordinary-
Where learning and purpose go hand in hand.
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Celebrating the many ways of being Jewish.
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Our values aren’t just painted on the walls: they walk the halls.
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Parent involvement keeps our community warm, welcoming, and vibrant.
Recent News
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Middle School Student Community Board Breaks Bread with KZV Armenian School Students
On Tuesday, March 12, our middle school student community board (SCB) members joined students from our Brotherhood Way neighbor, KZV Armenian School, at their campus to have lunch together. This relationship came about following last month’s sad news of Armenian schools in Los Angeles being vandalized; our students shared a message of solidarity with the KZV community and asked that Brandeis fly an Armenian flag on our campus...Read More -
Director of Lower School Jenny Rinn Wins Distinguished Service Award
Director of Lower School Jenny Rinn was recently named a Distinguished Service Award winner from the California Association for the Gifted. The award is given out to one member of each GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) region who goes above and beyond in contributing to the interests of gifted and talented children...Read More -
Sixth Graders Learn That DNA Holds the Code
Sixth graders are engaged in a science unit on DNA, and are building "snorks"—made-up characters with lots of interesting traits—to help them prepare for their collaborative DNA project. “We are learning about DNA and how it holds the code to build our traits,” explains teacher Lindsay Mackintosh. “Each snork has a different genetic code which, in turn, codes for different traits. Once students are able to decipher the code, they are able to build their unique snorks.” Students decoded traits including hairy or hairless, round head or square head...Read More -
Seventh Graders Participate in Empowering Workshop with We Schools
As part of a We Schools nationwide tour, seventh graders had the opportunity to hear a keynote address and participate in a morning-long workshop focused on the ways youth can get involved and transform the world through active global citizenship. “We are so fortunate we got to be part of this tour!” exclaims teacher Jody Bloom. The keynote address, by We Schools representatives Matthew and Cass, discussed the importance of telling stories and how stories can help people gain empathy...Read More -
A BIG Idea: Success of Lit Circles Leads to Program Expansion
Lit circles, launched in the 2017–18 school year thanks to a Brandeis Innovation Grant (BIG), have proven so successful that the BIG program has funded its expansion this year to second grade. “Success with third grade lit circles led to the desire to expand the program to second grade,” explains grantee Lori Galante...Read More -
A BIG Idea: SPIRE Decoders Improve Fluency for Students in Double Dose Reading Program
Learning specialist Anna Rentz (née Levy) applied for a 2018–19 Brandeis Innovation Grant (BIG) with hopes of purchasing SPIRE leveled reading books for students in the Double Dose reading program. SPIRE is a research-proven reading program for students who need additional support as they learn to read. “SPIRE texts are engaging and leveled appropriately for our students,” explains Ms. Rentz. “Kids absolutely love them!” The BIG program funded the purchase of six sets of 120 decodable readers...Read More -
Social Studies Unit Reflects More Accurate Understanding of European Colonization
Fourth graders are wrapping up presentations for their “European Colonizers” unit in social studies, “a title we use in our ongoing effort to de-emphasize a Eurocentric historical approach, which privileges and romanticizes European experience during their conquest of the so-called 'New World,’” explains resident teacher Torin Coffino. “We wanted students to recognize how the idea of exploration and discovery works to erase the people and nations that were here and thriving long before European contact.” Students were placed into groups and tasked with researching a European colonizer who came to California...Read More -
Faculty and Staff Engage in Professional Development around Gender/LGBTQ+ Issues
Read MoreThe Brandeis mission and core values speak to a community that is welcoming and inclusive to all, one that treats everyone with empathy and compassion. As part of our commitment to being an empathetic and inclusive community, our faculty and staff have embarked this year on learning more about gender and LGBTQ+ issues, and how to integrate these important topics into student learning.Earlier this year, faculty and staff participated in a two-part seminar led by Gender Spectrum, an organization with a mission of helping families and institutions increase their understandings of gender. Yesterday, faculty and staff participated in a professional development program led by Keshet, a national organization that works for full LGBTQ equality and inclusion in Jewish life. This training provided facultyand staff with the terms, language, and history of the LGBTQ+ community through a Jewish lens, and provided faculty and staff with resources for how to be allies within our community... -
Sixth Graders Volunteer Time in Golden Gate Park Clean-up
While rain prevented sixth graders from participating in a clean-up in Golden Gate Park during the week of Tu B’Shvat, the trip was merely postponed to today, and our students still had the opportunity to contribute to caring for the environment. “Tu B’Shvat offers a perfect opportunity to connect traditional Jewish practices of tree planting and caring for forested land with caring for the environment,” said teacher Jody Bloom. This is the ninth year sixth graders have participated in this park clean-up field trip...Read More -
Woodworking and Fabrication Elective Challenges Students to Make Wooden Spoons
The first project of the second semester woodworking and fabrication elective tasks middle schoolers with creating their own usable wooden spoons, modeled after the sjöld tradition in Sweden and the work of British woodworker EJ Osborne. “The goal of this project is two-fold,” says Director of Technology and elective teacher Nicholas Cole-Farrell. “In addition to learning technique and familiarizing themselves with our tools, students are completing the circle of being both producers and consumers of a functional item crafted with their own hands...Read More -
Seventh Grade Experiential Education Focuses on Leadership, Tzedek
Our seventh graders embarked last week for their three-day, two-night outdoor education trip at Redwood Glen Retreat Center in Pescadero. This experiential education trip focused on the themes of leadership and tzedek (justice), two themes that permeate the seventh grade curriculum. Students collaborated in group challenges; hiked through the woods; spent time discussing different types of leadership and the choices they can make around tzedakah; and participated in a tefillah walk through the woods, “in which we would walk together, and then pause and look at nature quietly...Read More -
Seven Ways We Learn and Work Together at Brandeis Provides Framework for Fifth Grade Social-emotional Learning Curriculum
As Jenny Rinn, director of lower school, explained at the beginning of the year, our community came together to design a guide “to forming a community that is open and inclusive to all,” the Seven Ways We Learn and Work Together at Brandeis. In the fifth grade, students and teachers are working their way through this guide, discussing the importance of each principle and participating in activities that highlight this importance. To punctuate the fourth principle, “Listen,” fifth graders paired up last Friday and both students in the pairings were given an identical set of LEGO pieces. One partner used the LEGO pieces to create a structure and then, sitting back to back, the partner who built a structure described it verbally so that the other partner could duplicate the structure...Read More -
Culture of Kindness in Action
For the last two months, eighth graders Avital D., Zohar F., and Amelia L. have dedicated their Friday afternoon elective period to furthering the culture of kindness in the middle school. For an hour each week (and sometimes additional time after school), these students write positive notes of affirmation on Post-it notes and put them up around the middle school wing for their peers to see. “Their empathy and compassion for their peers epitomizes our community values and we are grateful for the enrichment they provide Brandeis,” exclaims Director of Middle School Dr. Sivan Tarle...Read More
