Now enrolling!
-2024 - 2025 School Year
-8 Week Peek
-Summer Camp Session 1: Weeks of July 8 and 15, 2024
Outside School:
100% Outdoor Kindergarten - 12th Grade Natural, Organic Learning in scenic Wildcat Canyon Regional Park
Students experience real life in real time!
An antithesis to public and private school classrooms.
Celebrating nature, individuality, and freedom in the urban outdoors!
This alternative education model is all about relationships, with each other and with the land.
Learning is child led and teacher supported, with all of us learning through play, conversation, and direct experience. This developmental approach respects everyone for who they are and encourages growth in all realms: head (knowledge), heart (social and emotional), hands (physical), and ecological (“To acknowledge the understanding of ecology and human interdependence with the ecosystem.” (Sobel & Bailie, 2016)). Lessons are organic, weaving together my life and educator experiences, everyone’s strengths, challenges, and interests, and what our environment and needs provide for us each day.
We experience awe regularly.
School Year Program
Perfect for those who want to flexischool, unschool, deschool, microschool, hybrid school, homeschool, be in a pod, independent study, or privately tutored. (Most families file a simple private school affidavit or tell their school they’ll be with independent studies- the application page has more details.)
My students are here because their families are looking for an alternative, organic, or natural education!
School begins the day after Labor Day and follows West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) holidays: Veterans Day (if it’s on one of our school days), Thanksgiving Week, Winter Break, Presidents Week, and Spring Break. The school year ends the Thursday in June that corresponds with WCCUSD’s last week.
-Tuesday through Thursday
-9:00 - 3:00 (drop-off by 9:15, pick-up as early as 2:45)
-Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis until August 15 of each school year.
-Late enrollment may be available as space and existing group dynamics allow, with the last deadline for any school year being February 14 for a March 1 start. (See the top of this page to find out if space is currently available.)
Traveling scholars, those new to the Bay Area, and those referred by current or former families: please inquire.
8 Week Peek
Perfect for homeschoolers or those wanting to check Outside School out before committing to the entire school year.
8 Week Peek is for eight consecutive weeks, inclusive of school holidays; see the calendar linked on the front page,
Starting dates are available any Tuesday, so long as they occur on or before 3/1 of any school year,
Apply at least 15 calendar days in advance, no later than 2/14 of the current school year,
$2700.
If we mutually agree at the end of the eight weeks, I’ll invite you to attend Outside School at the usual tuition rate for the rest of the school year!
Summer Camp
Schedule is for four consecutive weeks beginning the week after the Independence Day holiday each year.
-Monday through Friday
-9:00 - 3:00 (drop-off by 9:15, pick-up as early as 2:45)
Summer Camp Session 1:
July 8 - 12, 2024 and July 15 - 19, 2024
Summer Camp Session 2 (SOLD OUT):
(If you want to be on a waitlist for Session 2, please submit an application without including payment.)
July 22 - 26, 2024 and July 29 - August 2, 2024
Summer Camp enrollment periods are:
-Each year from my group email after camp through October 31: families who were enrolled for three to four weeks in the current year’s summer camp.
-November 16 through December 15: families on my mailing list. Please use the “Contact” button at the top of the page to sign up for my mailing list!
-December 16 and after: everyone else!
Outside School is founded, directed, and taught by myself, Heather Taylor. I am an experienced, professional outdoor educator, California Master Teacher, and Emergency Medical Technician who has spearheaded this style of teaching and published my methods.
I provide the structure for the day and act as the “guide on the side, not the sage on the stage.”
Our motto, as defined by the children one school year:
“This is Outside School! We know what we’re doing! And, when we don’t, we learn from it.”
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In the News
〰️ In the News
“Outside School Offers Something Different and Extraordinary”
by El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce, Byline
“Meeting Students Where They Are: East Bay Schools Offer Neurodiverse Kids Places to Thrive”
by Janis Hashe, East Bay Magazine
“Preparing Future Generations to Protect Our Planet”
by Jilliann Rodriguez M’Barki (Outside School parent), Ten Strands
“Outside School in Richmond Brings Outdoor Learning to Life”
By Heather Taylor, Ten Strands
“THE CASE OF THE MISSING TRANSCRIPTS”
by Heather Taylor, North American Association for Environmental Education
“Outside School Uses Nature as the Classroom”
by Janis Hashe
“From Fear to Freedom: Risk and Learning in a Forest School”
By Heather Taylor, Young Children
Viaggio nel mondo dei bambini
by Manuela Ruaben
Nature Education with Young Children: Integrating Inquiry and Practice
by Daniel R. Meier and Stephanie Sisk-Hilton, eds.
I wrote the chapter, “Promoting Play in a School Garden and Using a Blog to Document Children's Nature Explorations” in the first edition.
I wrote “From Fear to Freedom: Risk and Learning in a Forest School” in the second edition.
*Sobel, D., & Bailie, P. (2016). Nature preschools and Forest Kindergartens: The Handbook for Outdoor Learning. Redleaf Press.