DESCRIPTION

     A non-religious, coed Preschool through 8th grade school with progressive tradition founded in 2011.

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LOCATION

     Painted Oak Nature School is located at 174 Lambertville-Hopewell Road, Hopewell, New Jersey, 08525, on a preserved 225 acre campus two miles from the Borough of Hopewell, five miles from the Borough of Pennington, and seven miles from downtown Lambertville, NJ.  

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MISSION

     Painted Oak Nature School is a nurturing community of learners that values kindness, cooperation, curiosity, imagination, and respect for all living things. We cultivate habits that instill confidence, capability, and self-reliance. Through daily interactions with the environment, our school promotes a holistic nature-based education for preschoolers, grade schoolers, and their families that foster deep connections with the natural world and to each other. 

     

ENROLLMENT

     Painted Oak Nature School enrolls 130 students from a 30 mile radius. Children who attend PONS come from many New Jersey school districts including: Hopewell Valley, South Hunterdon, Delaware Township, Robbinsville, Bound Brook, East Brunswick, Newark, Freehold Township, and in Pennsylvania: Council Rock, Langhorne, New Hope-Solebury.

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CLASS SIZE

     Teacher-student ratio in our Nature Preschool is 1:4; our Forest preKinder program is 1:6; our Kindergarten is 1:7; and in our Lower School and Middle School is 1:8. 

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HOURS

      Lower School and Middle School hours are 8:45am-3:15pm.

      Early Years children are enrolled either half day from 9am-1pm, or full day from 9am-3pm. 

 

EXTENDED DAY

     Early Bird is available to add-on before school care from 8am - 9am.

     Owl Club is available to add-on for after school care from 3pm - 5pm.

   

GOVERNANCE

     Painted Oak Nature School is registered with the New Jersey Department of Education as a Nonpublic School. ​