Portfolio School

As many of you know, after 7 incredible years dedicated to applied, project-based learning, academic excellence, and fostering agency, Portfolio School will close at the end of the 2022/2023 academic year. Of course this is a sad moment, but we know that what we’ve accomplished at Portfolio will guide us all to build bigger and better things in the future.

To our families (past and present): we thank you for your trust and support. Any learning environment is strengthened by the community that is built around it. We believe a school should be much more than what happens during school hours, and your support, friendship, and love were instrumental in enabling our school to become what it was.

To our students (past and present): you are the essence of Portfolio. You are all beautiful advocates for yourselves, your friends, and your community. You have inspired us every single day in your zest for learning and for your pure intentions to make this world a better place. Remember to keep asking difficult questions, challenging the status quo, and never stop searching for the things that interest you.

To our team (past and present): It has been an honor and a great privilege building this school with you. Your passions and talents have left an indelible mark on the place and—by extension—anyone who has been a part of our community or even stepped foot inside our school.

Portfolio would not have been possible without the support and collaboration of so many educators, teachers, and advisors. To all of you we will be forever grateful.

We wish everyone the best and will look forward to staying in touch with you. Portfolio’s mission doesn’t just stop here, and we hope to continue collaborating with our community to make thoughtful and continuous changes in education across the globe.

Portfolio School at the UN! A group of our students were asked to participate in the opening of the UN 2023 Water Conference.  As the youngest participants, they easily made friends with members of the UN and other distinguished guests at the conference. This event perfectly coincides with the conclusion of our last PBL Unit, called “Fire and Water.” Thus, our students had a lot of context to the water issues which the UN is now trying to tackle.  In the opening speeches delivered by The King of the Netherlands His Majesty William Alexander, the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, and the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, our students heard about:

Current threats to water security across the world in developing countries including water scarcity in developing countries, disease and water borne illnesses and the devastating effects of climate change and how they affect countries all over the world from the mountains of Tajikistan to the canals of the Netherlands. We were inspired by the conference as a coming together of the global community, making commitments to tackle the most pressing issues relating to water before they reconvene in 2028. 

(We even made friends with the other presenters and used school materials to help them make a water symbol of algae that made its way to center stage!)

We are so proud of our future Portfolio leaders!

Happy Holi! Our staff, students, and families all joined in to celebrate Holi this week. Also known as the “Festival of Colors”, Holi is the Hindu festival that celebrates the end of Winter and beginning of Spring!

                                       

Happy from Portfolio School! 💙💛❤️

Here are some impressive highlights from our “Elements of Graphic Design” project with 2nd and 3rd graders. Can you spot examples of the elements of design at work? Emphasis, Balance, Contrast, Negative Space, Repetition, Proportion and Movement

Thank you to everyone who attended Portfolio’s First Annual Holiday Arts and Design Fair this Saturday. Our creative faculty sold homemade fine art and functional craft objects of every kind. We appreciate the support of our strong community of families. Thank you for giving our lovingly crafted items new homes!

Students on Portfolio's leadership team led our whole school assembly in making holiday cards for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital last week. is dedicated to pursuing research to defeat childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Each of the cards made by our students will be given to a current patient at the hospital during the coming weeks.

Join us this Saturday, Dec. 10 for Portfolio’s Holiday Arts and Design Market. We will be selling knitwear, prints, jewelry, fine art, vessels and ornaments created by the Portfolio faculty.

Join us from 11 am - 5 pm at 90 Hudson Street in Tribeca to enjoy cocoa, cider and a screening of World Cup soccer. We will also have a small charity raffle with one key item from each Portfolio artist or designer.

Please register to attend at our link in bio or story. You can use the link below in a web browser:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/holiday-arts-design-market-tickets-473730971087

Kindergartners and First Graders are working in the makerspace to create a Portfolio Superhero Gym. We are working to answer the essential question: how can we make things that help us express big physical energy at school in a safe and constructive way? Students are learning wood fabrication skills and using mechanical hardware and 3D printed parts to complete their ideas.