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2027-28 Admissions Now Open

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The Mission

The Mission

Before the approach, before the program, before any of it — this is the thinking underneath.

Before the approach, before the program, before any of it — this is the thinking underneath.

The Knox School of Santa Barbara nurtures the intellectual, social, and emotional growth of curious, motivated, and gifted children through an engaging, challenging curriculum in a warm, supportive community.

The Mission, Brought to Life

The Mission, Brought to Life

“intellectual, social, and emotional growth…”

Two things are true of a Knox classroom at the same time. The work can at some time be challenging and demand critical thinking and the room is also supportive and kind.

“Every day at Knox we get to experience what a child centric world looks like and feels like. It is fun and it is exciting. It is challenging and it is kind.”

— Ciara Murray Young, Knox parent and trustee

“…through an engaging, challenging curriculum…”

We have a dual responsibility to create an inspiring environment for learning through our curricular design and teaching but we also want to meet each students needs through differentiated instruction and project-based work.

“An integrated curriculum based on student inquiry, heavily differentiated to meet the specific, often far-ranging needs of each student. It is at once highly challenging, demanding, and rewarding for all involved.”

— Angela Tanner, founder of The Knox School of Santa Barbara

“…of curious, motivated, and gifted children…”

We do not have to work to keep our students motivated and engaged. We have to keep up with them, and then give them somewhere to go with their questions and lines of thought.

One year a second grader spent a term on ancient alchemy. Another followed pangolins. We do not assign these. We notice what a child has already decided to care about, and then we build something real around it.

“…in a warm, supportive community.”

Being known here includes the parts of a child that have nothing to do with school. Being seen here means every community member knowing each child so well that we know when to provide guidance, provide extra kindness and support as well as push them, make them laugh, and take interest in their passions in and out of Knox. 

“He found a unique and dynamic community that supported him, engaged him, challenged him and never seemed to tire of his puns or goofy sense of humor.”

— Ali Oshinsky, Knox parent and trustee

“intellectual, social, and emotional growth…”

Two things are true of a Knox classroom at the same time. The work can at some time be challenging and demand critical thinking and the room is also supportive and kind.

“Every day at Knox we get to experience what a child centric world looks like and feels like. It is fun and it is exciting. It is challenging and it is kind.”

— Ciara Murray Young, Knox parent and trustee

“…of curious, motivated, and gifted children…”

We do not have to work to keep our students motivated and engaged. We have to keep up with them, and then give them somewhere to go with their questions and lines of thought.

One year a second grader spent a term on ancient alchemy. Another followed pangolins. We do not assign these. We notice what a child has already decided to care about, and then we build something real around it.

“…through an engaging, challenging curriculum…”

We have a dual responsibility to create an inspiring environment for learning through our curricular design and teaching but we also want to meet each students needs through differentiated instruction and project-based work.

“An integrated curriculum based on student inquiry, heavily differentiated to meet the specific, often far-ranging needs of each student. It is at once highly challenging, demanding, and rewarding for all involved.”

— Angela Tanner, founder of The Knox School of Santa Barbara

“…in a warm, supportive community.”

Being known here includes the parts of a child that have nothing to do with school. Being seen here means every community member knowing each child so well that we know when to provide guidance, provide extra kindness and support as well as push them, make them laugh, and take interest in their passions in and out of Knox. 

“He found a unique and dynamic community that supported him, engaged him, challenged him and never seemed to tire of his puns or goofy sense of humor.”

— Ali Oshinsky, Knox parent and trustee

“My kids graduated with an unwavering confidence and sense of self.”

— Knox parent

What We Believe

Children learn best when they are known and supported.

A Knox teacher knows how each child in the room thinks, what they need, and what they love. That knowledge is what makes the rest possible: work pitched at the right level, a classroom where nobody is overlooked, and a push that arrives when a child is ready for it.

A child should work at the level of the work.

We know that the learning journey is unique to each student, sometimes uneven, and can be inspired by students of different grade levels. We build this into the structure of Knox with our looped grades, differentiated education, integrated curriculum and problem-based approach.

Depth is worth more than speed.

Moving faster through a curriculum is not the same as understanding more of it. We would rather a child spend a whole week on one question they care about than three days each on five they do not. Understanding, engagement, and depth outlast coverage or breadth.

Curiosity is the thing to protect.

Nearly every child starts school with innate curiosity. We are the school that perpetually celebrates questions, inquiry and inquisitiveness. We take questions seriously here, including the inconvenient ones, because a child’s appetite for the world is the thing most worth keeping intact.

Productive struggle is part of the work.

Children who find certain things easy can learn to avoid the things they might not be as good at. We teach in ways that ask our inquiring minds to expand their lines of inquiry, encourage and embrace learning – particularly from mistakes – and celebrate breakthrough moments and new personal achievements.

Character is taught and built day by day.

Kindness, persistence, and the willingness to help someone who is still learning are not auxiliary to the academic program. They are things we teach on purpose, name out loud, and build day by day within a dedicated social and emotional learning curriculum.

Student in a tie-dye shirt building a tower out of popsicle sticks at an outdoor table

A Letter from the Head of School

Dear Families,

The first thing you notice at Knox is the sound. Not silence, and not noise. It is the particular hum of children who are genuinely interested in what they are doing.

I have spent my career in classrooms built for bright, curious children, and I have learned that the hum is hard to fake. It comes from a specific set of conditions. A teacher who knows your child well enough to pitch the question at exactly the right height. A classroom where no child is sidelined or unseen, and where children have permission to go deep and to think expansively and creatively.

Angela Tanner founded Knox in 2013 with five students and a conviction that a child’s curiosity is worth building a school around. More than a decade later, that conviction is still the center of everything we do.

Here is what it looks like in practice. A child works at the level of the work, not at the level of the schedule or the calendar. If a child is ready for mathematics beyond their grade, or for a book, a question, or a project that sits far ahead of where the calendar says they should be, they go there with help from their teacher and peers. That same child, in that same week, can also get support with handwriting from teachers who see both needs and think nothing of it.

We care as much about who your child becomes as about what they know. Curiosity is the beginning, and kindness, persistence, and the willingness to learn from mistakes are what propel the learning forward. Together, those are the things that turn a child’s learning into a life.

If you are reading this, you are probably still searching, and we would love to invite you to come see us. We would be so happy to have you walk our campus on an ordinary school day, observe the energy of a classroom, and talk with our teachers. The best way to understand Knox is to be among us, and we would be so glad to meet you.

Warmly,

Paul Hauser
Head of School

Dear Families,

The first thing you notice at Knox is the sound. Not silence, and not noise. It is the particular hum of children who are genuinely interested in what they are doing.

I have spent my career in classrooms built for bright, curious children, and I have learned that the hum is hard to fake. It comes from a specific set of conditions. A teacher who knows your child well enough to pitch the question at exactly the right height. A classroom where no child is sidelined or unseen, and where children have permission to go deep and to think expansively and creatively.

Angela Tanner founded Knox in 2013 with five students and a conviction that a child’s curiosity is worth building a school around. More than a decade later, that conviction is still the center of everything we do.

Here is what it looks like in practice. A child works at the level of the work, not at the level of the schedule or the calendar. If a child is ready for mathematics beyond their grade, or for a book, a question, or a project that sits far ahead of where the calendar says they should be, they go there with help from their teacher and peers. That same child, in that same week, can also get support with handwriting from teachers who see both needs and think nothing of it.

We care as much about who your child becomes as about what they know. Curiosity is the beginning, and kindness, persistence, and the willingness to learn from mistakes are what propel the learning forward. Together, those are the things that turn a child’s learning into a life.

If you are reading this, you are probably still searching, and we would love to invite you to come see us. We would be so happy to have you walk our campus on an ordinary school day, observe the energy of a classroom, and talk with our teachers. The best way to understand Knox is to be among us, and we would be so glad to meet you.

Warmly,

Paul Hauser
Head of School

And here’s how it lives in a classroom

That is what we believe. If you would like to see how it lives in a classroom, start with The Knox Approach.

The Knox Approach →

Hand-drawn Welcome chalkboard sign featuring the Knox fox mascot on the school courtyard lawn

Come see whether we mean it

Everything above is easy to claim on a website. A morning in the building is how you check.

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Stories from inside the school

A window into daily school life. What our students are working on, musings about the joys of teaching our learners, and exciting happenings within the school and community.

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