Arlington
Virginia
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Barcroft Elementary School
Vision:
Barcroft is dedicated to:
Continuous learning as a link to the global community.
Diversity which energizes the program and reflects the strength of America and its future.
Safety within the learning community with high expectations for all students and where risk taking and thinking are encouraged.
Better beginnings and home connections which are foundations for all learning.
Providing the essential tools of communication and technology for explorations into the past and quest for the future.
Modeling and implementing systematic strategies for inquiry and problem solving in real life experiences.
Continuous assessment and evaluation throughout the learning cycle.
The philosophy that all students can and will learn.
Statement of Philosophy:
The Barcroft staff endeavors to implement the Standards of Quality developed by the State Board of Education and the philosophy and objectives adopted by the Arlington County School Board. The goal for each learner is active, productive participation in school and society. Each learner should acquire the fundamental tools to make intelligent decisions throughout life.
Students function best in a total school atmosphere conducive to self-discipline, self-reliance, self-expression, creativity, intrinsically motivated learning, and a wholesome respect for individual growth, interests, and abilities. Underlying all instructional and learning activities is the development in learners of a sense of their personal worth and a respectful understanding and concern for others.
Barcroft's History:
Originally opened in 1925, Barcroft Elementary School has had longer, continuous service to the community as an elementary facility than any other public school in Arlington. The school has a proud heritage of graduates who return with families to share in its ties to another era in Arlington's past. It has served students through the ravages of the Depression, World War II, the Baby Boom, Desegregation, the unrest of the Sixties, the redefinition of power and patriotism of the Seventies, and the redistricting of the Eighties. Currently, the school is in the planning stages for meeting the millennium and teachers are preparing another generation of Americans of diverse backgrounds to be contributing members of society.
The community and the school are named for Dr. John Woolverton Barcroft. Dr. Barcroft came to Virginia in 1848 and first settled on Columbia Pike beyond our county line at Holmes Run. This area is presently the Lake Barcroft community in Fairfax County. Federal Troops returning from the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) damaged Dr. Barcroft's mill and home so badly that Dr. Barcroft returned to New Jersey until after the war between the states.
Dr. Barcroft returned to Virginia in 1880 and rebuilt the flour mill and a number of other homes which became a small community. He was not only a physician, but he also invented a ditching and dredging machine, the principles of which are incorporated in some of our present day equipment.
The community, with 10 young children ready for school, but too small to walk through Arlington Forest to Glencarlyn School, decided to start its own school. This was established in the home of Mrs. Edith Fairfax, their teacher, in 1906. The first year enrollment swelled, and in 1908 the community erected a building at 800 South Buchanan Street to serve as church, community center, and school. The Barcroft School and Civic League, as it was called, held many fundraisers, and the School Board rented space there until a separate four-room school building was completed.
The new building, named for Dr. Barcroft, opened in 1925 with an enrollment of 65 children. Dr. Barcroft's picture was installed in 1927. In 1945, as the community grew, nine more rooms were added. A library and a new wing with six classrooms, cafeteria, and a multipurpose room were added later in 1945, as were 5 acres of playground. Yet another change came in 1975 with a gymnasium and open space and access. Reflecting the changing needs of the times, 1985 brought closed instructional spaces for the needs of an everchanging student profile. The spurt in population growth in the fall of 1987 brought the addition of two portable classrooms.
. . . And BARCROFT School Today:
In 1989 Barcroft launched two initiatives. One was for a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to plan a structure and facility to serve the needs of its student population and to incorporate technological change and options. The second initiative was an internal, instructional one to develop an exemplary school project. This was answered with teacher initiative and planning integrated thematic units within the da Vinci Project This project in constantly evolving and has been expanded to two units per grade level. The spillover effect can be witnessed in a changed attitude about planning and assessment.
In the school years 1991-93, staff and students continued instruction on the current site surrounded by fourteen relocatable trailers/trailers, displaced play areas, and bulldozers. As with all shared experiences, communal need for a common goal created a staff bond. Focus on instruction, program, student/staff learning were items within the realm of staff control. It is within this circumstance that staff forged a new focus on Barcroft's future curriculum integration.
On September 29, 1993, Barcroft Elementary School, as a renovated structure with its new addition, was officially dedicated. It remains Arlington County's oldest functioning elementary school but has become its newest facility for learning. In 2003, Barcroft will celebrate its 78th birthday. Barcroft is a reflection of the changing face of America and stands firm in its dedication to opening the window to our world.
Barcroft is dedicated to:
Continuous learning as a link to the global community.
Diversity which energizes the program and reflects the strength of America and its future.
Safety within the learning community with high expectations for all students and where risk taking and thinking are encouraged.
Better beginnings and home connections which are foundations for all learning.
Providing the essential tools of communication and technology for explorations into the past and quest for the future.
Modeling and implementing systematic strategies for inquiry and problem solving in real life experiences.
Continuous assessment and evaluation throughout the learning cycle.
The philosophy that all students can and will learn.
Statement of Philosophy:
The Barcroft staff endeavors to implement the Standards of Quality developed by the State Board of Education and the philosophy and objectives adopted by the Arlington County School Board. The goal for each learner is active, productive participation in school and society. Each learner should acquire the fundamental tools to make intelligent decisions throughout life.
Students function best in a total school atmosphere conducive to self-discipline, self-reliance, self-expression, creativity, intrinsically motivated learning, and a wholesome respect for individual growth, interests, and abilities. Underlying all instructional and learning activities is the development in learners of a sense of their personal worth and a respectful understanding and concern for others.
Barcroft's History:
Originally opened in 1925, Barcroft Elementary School has had longer, continuous service to the community as an elementary facility than any other public school in Arlington. The school has a proud heritage of graduates who return with families to share in its ties to another era in Arlington's past. It has served students through the ravages of the Depression, World War II, the Baby Boom, Desegregation, the unrest of the Sixties, the redefinition of power and patriotism of the Seventies, and the redistricting of the Eighties. Currently, the school is in the planning stages for meeting the millennium and teachers are preparing another generation of Americans of diverse backgrounds to be contributing members of society.
The community and the school are named for Dr. John Woolverton Barcroft. Dr. Barcroft came to Virginia in 1848 and first settled on Columbia Pike beyond our county line at Holmes Run. This area is presently the Lake Barcroft community in Fairfax County. Federal Troops returning from the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) damaged Dr. Barcroft's mill and home so badly that Dr. Barcroft returned to New Jersey until after the war between the states.
Dr. Barcroft returned to Virginia in 1880 and rebuilt the flour mill and a number of other homes which became a small community. He was not only a physician, but he also invented a ditching and dredging machine, the principles of which are incorporated in some of our present day equipment.
The community, with 10 young children ready for school, but too small to walk through Arlington Forest to Glencarlyn School, decided to start its own school. This was established in the home of Mrs. Edith Fairfax, their teacher, in 1906. The first year enrollment swelled, and in 1908 the community erected a building at 800 South Buchanan Street to serve as church, community center, and school. The Barcroft School and Civic League, as it was called, held many fundraisers, and the School Board rented space there until a separate four-room school building was completed.
The new building, named for Dr. Barcroft, opened in 1925 with an enrollment of 65 children. Dr. Barcroft's picture was installed in 1927. In 1945, as the community grew, nine more rooms were added. A library and a new wing with six classrooms, cafeteria, and a multipurpose room were added later in 1945, as were 5 acres of playground. Yet another change came in 1975 with a gymnasium and open space and access. Reflecting the changing needs of the times, 1985 brought closed instructional spaces for the needs of an everchanging student profile. The spurt in population growth in the fall of 1987 brought the addition of two portable classrooms.
. . . And BARCROFT School Today:
In 1989 Barcroft launched two initiatives. One was for a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to plan a structure and facility to serve the needs of its student population and to incorporate technological change and options. The second initiative was an internal, instructional one to develop an exemplary school project. This was answered with teacher initiative and planning integrated thematic units within the da Vinci Project This project in constantly evolving and has been expanded to two units per grade level. The spillover effect can be witnessed in a changed attitude about planning and assessment.
In the school years 1991-93, staff and students continued instruction on the current site surrounded by fourteen relocatable trailers/trailers, displaced play areas, and bulldozers. As with all shared experiences, communal need for a common goal created a staff bond. Focus on instruction, program, student/staff learning were items within the realm of staff control. It is within this circumstance that staff forged a new focus on Barcroft's future curriculum integration.
On September 29, 1993, Barcroft Elementary School, as a renovated structure with its new addition, was officially dedicated. It remains Arlington County's oldest functioning elementary school but has become its newest facility for learning. In 2003, Barcroft will celebrate its 78th birthday. Barcroft is a reflection of the changing face of America and stands firm in its dedication to opening the window to our world.