SJCS is a full-service community hub for families raising Jewish children. SJCS’s award-winning elementary school program is at the heart of its North Seattle campus. Outstanding academics are just the beginning in SJCS’s warm and welcoming community environment. Inspiring teachers bring their unique strengths to the classroom in service of a common goal: igniting a lifelong journey of learning and Jewish engagement for each student through individualized and personal attention.
Critical thinking, problem solving, and responsibility for one’s learning are foundational skills emphasized in all aspects of the curriculum. SJCS encourages children to find paths that utilize their unique gifts and encourage discoveries that reveal strengths amidst their challenges. SJCS emphasizes a vocabulary of kindness and respect through a code of behavior rooted in timeless Jewish values. Teachers guide children in applying these values to the ethical and moral questions of the present day. Students are challenged to grow — academically, intellectually, ethically, spiritually, and emotionally.
SJCS alumni become leaders across Jewish and secular communities and are accepted to selective independent schools, Jewish day schools, and advanced learning programs in the public schools. Graduates carry their positive senses of identity, confidence, and questions into the greater world and actively engage in making it better.
As a community Jewish day school, SJCS is unaffiliated with a particular Jewish movement or philosophy. Students learn in an egalitarian, co-educational setting, and the community is rooted in an inclusive approach that respects and values diversity of opinion and practice. SJCS welcomes all families raising Jewish children and draws its students from across Seattle and its northern suburbs.
SJCS partners with many organizations to offer a full-service hub for both SJCS and non-SJCS families to plug in with the Jewish community. Seattle Jewish Cooperative Playschool (18-47 months “Parent & Me” program); monthly story times with PJ Library and Sifriyat Pijama B’America; summer camp with the Stroum Jewish Community Center; community-wide holiday events; and a wide range of parent education opportunities make SJCS a community for everyone.