St Paul’s Episcopal School

My family appreciates St. Paul’s for serving as a community-​based school committed to diversity, service learning and academic excellence.
As life-​long Oakland residents, our lives have been shaped and enriched by the city’s diversity. As a result, my husband and I are not willing to sacrifice diversity in our 1^st grade daughter’s school environment. In order for her to thrive, she must be in an environment like St. Paul’s that is not only academically challenging but diverse and reflective of her family culture.
Our family loves Oakland and wants to help revitalize and construct a healthy, sustainable community through service and active participation in community institutions. We love that St. Paul’s views Oakland as its campus and establishes a variety of partners for authentic service learning. Providing these types of active learning experiences instills essential values and ways of living that last a life-​time as I have seen with my younger sister who attended St. Paul’s in the early 1990s.
St. Paul’s curriculum and instruction ensures all students’ needs are consistently addressed via differentiated teaching practices. My daughter’s reading, writing, vocabulary and math activities are tailored to be «just right» for her level. In addition, St. Paul’s academic program develops high order thinking skills essential for college and career success.
Our family is thrilled and honored to be apart of the St. Paul’s community. We are so happy that our daughter is receiving a holistic, high quality education.

We have a fifth grade boy at St. Paul’s, and we are very happy. He is very strong academically and is thriving in the challenging but supportive curriculum. The teachers are fantastic – creative, smart, engaged, focused and kind. I am impressed with how they have been able to teach across different learning abilities and styles with grace. As a college professor myself, I am delighted with the variety of successful ways they approach teaching critical thinking, quantitative skills, and aesthetic and creative expression without scanting any of these essential pieces of kids’ education. In addition to the strong academics, St. Paul’s has really amazing music and art programs. Finally, the school teaches empathy and compassion and embodies the values of diversity and service rather than just approaching these as gestural ideals or marketing add ons. We feel super lucky to be part of this great community!

As the 5 Star rating says «WooHoo! It’s as good as it gets!» St. Paul’s is definitely THE BEST School in Oakland! Ok, it might be because they have great teachers, strong academics, the most amazing diverse community and the most fantastic kids! Do I sound a little too happy about this school? Well, I am.
When I looked for a school for my son 4 years ago, it was quite the job. There are so many great schools, public and private. My son actually got accepted into many schools and St. Paul’s wasn’t his choice. He wanted to go to another school, but my hubby really loved this school. So when I called to give our acceptance, I told the Admissions Director my problem. She had me bring my son in for his own private tour. During the tour, he still wasn’t too excited, but by the end something happened. We ended up at the computer lab, where a class of 7^th graders were. My tiny son stood at the door of the room and two tall 7^th graders greeted him. Asked him if he was coming to St. Paul’s and hoped that they would be his 8^th grade buddies. Then they gave him a «high five». No one told them to do that. They just did what was natural to them. That small gesture made my son’s day and after that he was sold on St. Paul’s. So was I!