Academics

Lower School

Welcome to Lower School

In Lower School, we are all about connections – connections with other people, connections with concepts, and connections with the subject matter. As a student grows from prekindergarten, she makes connections about who she wants to become and how she learns. The best part about entering Hockaday in Lower School is that each girl develops a support group of friends and teachers that will last her whole life. At Hockaday, students are more willing to try new things and take risks because they know they have supportive teachers and peers around them. Teachers in Lower School care about their students even after they leave their classrooms.

Our cornerstones of courtesy, character, scholarship, and athletics are discussed daily and integrated into all curriculum areas. Recognizing that each child is unique with individual needs and interests, the Lower School strives to help each girl develop her potential by providing programs to fit her own style of learning. These needs and interests are met through hands-on experiences in math, science, and engineering, problem-solving in cooperative learning activities, and a reading and writing program that combines a literature-based and phonetic approach. From learning the violin, viola, cello, or bass in a Second Grade music class to building with manipulatives during STEM, girls have various experiences to figure out what they love best. Our girls learn to ask questions, make discoveries, find answers for themselves, and lead and speak in front of others. Our students build a strong foundation for developing confidence, resiliency, and positive self-esteem.

Each classroom starts the day with a morning meeting to build community in the classroom, and each day we say our Hock-A-Way Cornerstones Pledge where we are reminded of our core values of respect, friendship, empathy, honesty, responsibility, and perseverance. In addition to our character program, girls at each grade level in Lower School participate in service learning projects that support our school, our Dallas community, and our global community. Each grade level takes field trips to local organizations, speakers come to talk to students, and each grade level’s service theme is integrated into curricular activities as well. Our Lower School girls also like to play and have lots of fun. Students engage with one another and build physical and social skills during daily physical education classes and through play and movement activities.

After a visit to Hockaday and talking with our students and teachers, we hope you discover that our Lower School is a place where your daughter will be loved and cared for, where she will make lifelong friends, and where she will develop her identity as a learner, a creator, a collaborator, and a leader.


List of 1 members.

  • Photo of Michelle Goldsmith

    Michelle Goldsmith 

    Head of Lower School
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