Welcome to
River Valley School

As experts in early childhood education, at River Valley School, we know that the root of student success lies within a strong foundation of purposeful exploration, creation, play, and connection. We nurture our young learners to participate in, learn about, and actively make sense of the world around them, and we do so by prioritizing structured and unstructured indoor and outdoor play, developing relationships and celebrating curiosity. Our highly qualified educators engage with students through adaptive, inquiry-based and hands-on learning experiences; laying the groundwork for future success in elementary school and beyond.

River Valley School is an independent school offering an exceptional, one-of-a-kind early childhood and elementary school experience from Pre-JK (Age 3) to Grade 6. We are a growing school of approximately 270 students situated in a beautiful riverside campus on the banks of the Bow River, in the heart of northwest Calgary. Our school community deeply values the benefits of relationship-based and cross-curricular opportunities to learn.

Student achievement and student engagement is carried out through varied learning opportunities, hands-on exploration, collaboration, developing independence and differentiation in our instruction. We provide for the intellectual, social/emotional, and physical development of each student. Beyond the enriched core subjects, River Valley School also offers a robust offering of specialist programs including Art, Drama, Music, French Language, Outdoor Education, Physical Education and Library; starting as early as age 3.

As a community, we learn and grow together respecting the values, opinions and beliefs of all students, teachers, administrators and our parents. We work together in close partnerships to create a school where learners feel known, safe, confident and free to appreciate each other, make good ethical decisions, and take age- and stage- appropriate risks, leading to enhanced understanding and broadened inquiry. Within our supportive climate, students become joyful, passionate learners and know they are safe to try new things, make mistakes, discover new approaches, and explore innovative ways of seeing, contributing to and changing the world. We invite you to visit our campus to learn about our outstanding programs.

Kind regards,

Carolyn Breland
Head of School