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creating the Academic Village

Since 1689, Penn Charter has continually opened new paths to fresh instructional methods.Today, evolving approaches require reconsidered spaces. We must now boldly reconfigure the Lower School itself to support our efforts to reshape our curriculum for each new generation of learners.

How much farther can we see?

We can see updated programming, direct observation, hands-on experimentation, and active engagement.

Today, our students’ futures depend upon developing aptitudes we didn’t possess a generation ago. We engineer lessons to cross curricular boundaries and engage multiple intelligences. And our classrooms—starting in pre-K—must accommodate this profound shift in how we teach today.

We can see teachers marshalling the full energies—intellectual, emotional, even physical—of every student.

Innovative, dynamic teaching can be a constant struggle in spaces designed for tightly-packed rows of desks. Our new Lower School creates opportunities for students to problem-solve in groups, retreat individually for quiet study, and work on complex project-based assignments that evolve and grow over time

We seek to raise more than $25 million to offer our youngest students eye-opening classes in open spaces, to give our faculty the elbow room they need to let their methods take full flight, and to complete construction on the state-of-the-art Graham Athletics & Wellness Center.

Join Us

You are here because Penn Charter matters to you, too.
Join us to advance our shared mission and goal to create the most challenging, exhilarating educational program.

By the light of our charter

We See:

  • Teams of classmates excavating history - and archaeological sites
  • A student using a 3-D printer to invent his own musical instrument
  • Young researchers investigating the origins (and the ethics) of their T-shirts

How much farther can our light of knowledge shine?


Our commitment:

  • Our youngest learners are heliotropic - they naturally bend and climb toward new discoveries, bask in newfound knowledge, and grow remarkably when exposed to the right conditions
  • By creating a new, light-filled and child-centric Lower School, we can teach the way we wish, and in the way our students optimally receive information.