Saint Louis Sudbury School

Sudbury students, staff, and volunteers are free to organize classes, workshops, activities, group lunches, discussions, movie screenings, and more! 🍿 Sign-up sheets are posted in advance (usually 😊) and students are welcome to attend part of an event or activity without staying the whole time. We do require participants to be clear with an instructor or the person leading the event by telling them if they are going to take a break and come back or are they fully leaving. And if there is a mess involved, coming back to help clean! 🧹

✅ Some of our recent sign-up sheets were for ceramics, woodshop, a math meetup, timed activities during a field trip to the Saint Louis Science Center, a discussion about social media bans, theatre games, and a sock monkey making workshop.

As a microschool (we’re small!), each person who joins our community has a big impact on stretching and shaping the growth of our group. It’s an exciting and challenging part of being at Saint Louis Sudbury School. 💙

Sudbury students are an important part of the year-round admissions process! ✅ Before a new student is invited to be a part of Sudbury, current students get a sense if a future student is a good fit with our school by helping with school tours, asking and answering questions during a portion of the admissions interview, explaining school rules and Restoration Committee guidelines to students during Visiting Days, and being welcoming and kind with prospective students.

Sudbury students vote to invite new students for Visiting Days and to enroll. Their advice goes to staff as recommendations, but staff has yet to disagree with their suggestions. 😊 Students take their responsibilities seriously and want to keep their community a place that everyone can enjoy!

📷: Photo of Sudbury students voting to invite a student to join our community.

📷 We're so excited to share the news! 🎉 Our photo (the group image under the tree), taken by Sudbury Lead Staff, Jennifer, was selected by Dutchtown South Community Corporation's Southside Snapshots Contest! The photo has been framed and is now on display at Intersect Arts Center. 💙

This is the original caption that we submitted with our entry:

"We are students of Saint Louis Sudbury School, a nonprofit microschool offering self-directed education and a nurturing learning community where students and staff work together to run the school! 💕 We meet every day at Intersect Arts Center in the Gravois Park neighborhood and we all love the magic of this soulful linden tree in the welcoming yard. Linden trees historically have been associated with truth, love, and connection—offering support and comfort under a full canopy of heart-shaped leaves. 🌳 Sudbury students, staff, and volunteers have enjoyed quiet conversations, letter writing sessions, imaginative games, lunches, restorative justice meetings, and much more in the embrace of this wise tree which is surely full of many stories!"

Enjoy some of the other images of Sudbury students outside at Intersect Arts Center! 🥰 We are so grateful to be a part of such a vibrant and creative neighborhood in South City.

📷: Photography by Jennifer A. Lin

🎉 The Saint Louis Sudbury School community had a wonderful end to the school year! Here are some highlights from the month of May:

-- We worked hard on a deep clean of the entire school and ended up researching the spiders that we found
-- We enjoyed preparing group lunches and learned how to make Butterfingers and Mounds candy from a grandparent
-- Pet and Plant Committee took care of our vegetable garden, fish, and gecko
-- Students got help from staff and a volunteer on writing their resumes for summer jobs
-- A new student figured out how to get our magnetic marble run to work
-- We played a lot of CatchPhrase, theatre games, and other fun language and movement activities
-- Students and staff made cards for community members going through hard situations
-- Students helped a new student learn some of our key school rules and policies
-- We welcomed a Montessori educator who was interested in experiencing our school
-- With the help of a volunteer, we made sock monkeys and learned that it is a little harder than it looks!
-- We had fun on a field trip to the Saint Louis Science Center and a few students saw their first OMNIMAX film
-- We volunteered at The Little Bit Foundation
-- We learned about meadow garlic that we found in our yard
-- A student organized a movie screening at school
-- Students led Restoration Committee meetings and helped people understand school rules
-- We had our fun end of year picnic indoors since it was raining (Thank you Intersect Arts Center for the space!)
-- Students and staff worked together on admissions interviews and tours
-- We talked about the school year, ideas on how to improve for next year, and celebrated how much we all grew!

It's always fun to connect with the many Sudbury model schools around the world! Saint Louis Sudbury School staff, Bobby and Jennifer, talked with Tallgrass Sudbury School staff recently. We chatted about a possible student exchange program for the future, end of year events, admissions, and more. We're excited to visit Tallgrass Sudbury School in July! They are the hosts of the 2026 Global Self-Directed Democratic School Conference. 💙

Interested in learning more about the many Sudbury inspired schools? Check out this list! ✅ https://stlsudbury.org/sudbury-schools

We had a great party celebrating summer birthdays during our last week of school! 🎉 Students, staff, board members, and volunteers enjoyed sushi, cheesecake, gluten-free cupcakes, sparkling water, toasted ravioli, chips, and fruit! 🎭 We played theatre games, tried new foods, chatted with a Montessori educator and a music producer who were visiting Sudbury, made up stories, crocheted, looked at photos from the school year, ran around in the dance studio, and had a very insightful group discussion about how to bring the Sudbury approach to life at home this summer. 💙 What a joyful celebration!

It's our last week of school before summer break! Today in School Meeting, students shared how they thought the year went and how our school culture has changed for the better. Our days at Sudbury are relatively calm (but still fun) and quiet, now there is intentional and thoughtful tech use, Restoration Committee meetings and chores have improved, and people really care for and respect each other while still pursuing their interests and work. 💙 One student said, "I can't wait for after-summer." We agree! 🥰

📷: Photo by Sudbury staff member, Jennifer A. Lin