Entry Points
Though we welcome all applicants for grades K-7 (we do not admit students for the 8th grade), we have two major entry points: a primary entry point for Kindergarten, and a secondary entry point when we expand the class in 6th grade. Admission to grades 1-5 and 7 varies year to year and is based on attrition and available spots.
We generally enroll students who would be in the top half of their public school classes. This range is wide enough to enroll a group of students with different strengths, interests, learning styles and perspectives, and narrow enough to allow faculty to provide academic differentiation for all students in the classroom.
When you choose an independent school for your child, you are choosing a community of families and educators who are aligned in their approach to education.
Apply for Kindergarten
The minute you step on campus at Mark Day School, there is a sense of joy, purpose, and belonging. It is a place where students, families, and faculty feel at home and supported by each other. The academic program is designed as a K-8 arc, with curriculum building intentionally across subjects each year. When students are exposed to cross-disciplinary literacies and metacognitive skills alongside foundational literacies from a young age, they learn deeply-rooted practices that allow them to be confident lifelong learners. Starting a Mark Day education in Kindergarten provides early and consistent exposure to social-emotional learning, a deep love of learning, growth mindset, and resiliency when facing challenges, academically and otherwise. Starting in Kindergarten, students at Mark Day School learn that teachers are their allies and are there to help each student understand how they learn best and encourage them to lean on their own learning modality strengths when they are presented with challenges. The faculty at Mark Day work endlessly to discover and help bring out the light in each child through every phase of their development.
In Kindergarten, families can expect:
- Small class sizes
- Low student-teacher ratio
- World language (Spanish and Mandarin) starting in Kindergarten
- Weekly classes for Music, Drama, and Art
- Daily P.E.
Apply for 6th Grade
Our 6th grade program is designed to have small class sizes within a larger grade to improve opportunities for student voice, greater academic differentiation, and deeper relationships with teachers.
Adding several students in 6th grade adds another layer of diversity in backgrounds and perspectives, which benefits all students. We know that adolescents need strong relationships with adults for healthy development and also that they thrive in a slightly expanded social peer network. Additionally, research has established the positive effects of hands-on, project-based learning, a pedagogical practice that we embrace, and smaller sections enable more depth in such practices. Diversity of all kinds has been proven to improve critical thinking, perspective taking, overall group decision making, and readiness for leadership in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.
Sixth grade students at Mark Day School can expect:
- Smaller class sizes for core subjects and specialist classes
- A block schedule that prepares them for the more rigorous academic experience in 7th and 8th grades and high school
- An expanded social network that welcomes an array of interests, hobbies, personalities, and backgrounds
- A one-to-one laptop program and weekly MTI (Media, Technology and Innovation) classes that prepare students for success in the current century
- Sixth grade-special SEL blocks, study halls, and homeroom time with dedicated homeroom teachers
- The opportunity to practice and hone executive functioning skills prior to the Upper Division