, image = File:Shefa School logo.png , image_size = , address = 40 East 29th St , city =

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, zipcode = 10016 , country = United States , coordinates = , type =

Private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compar ...

, religion = Jewish , denomination = Pluralistic Judaism , established = , ceeb = , us_nces_school_id = A1502585 , principal = , head of school = Ilana Ruskay-Kidd , faculty = , grades = 1–8 , enrollment = 200 , class = , ratio = 3:1 , campus = , campus_size = , campus_type = Urban , tuition = , homepage = The Shefa School is a pluralistic Jewish

for children with language-based learning disabilities in

NoMad, Manhattan NoMad ("North of Madison Square Park"), also known as Madison Square North, is a neighborhood centered on the Madison Square North Historic District in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The name NoMad, which has been in use since 199 ...

. The school's name Shefa ( he, שֶׁפַע / ) means "abundance".

History

The Shefa School was founded by Ilana Ruskay-Kidd, and opened in 2014. It was founded to educate Jewish children between grades 1 and 8 with language-based learning disabilities, with the goal of preparing them to enrol in mainstream schools when they are ready. The school is pluralistic, and enrols students from a variety of Jewish backgrounds and observances. The school had an inaugural class of 24 students with 12 faculty and staff in 2014, and grew to 80 students and 42 faculty and staff by 2016. It moved from a five-classroom space at

Lincoln Square Synagogue The Lincoln Square Synagogue is a Modern Orthodox synagogue located at 180 Amsterdam Avenue between West 68th and 69th Streets in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1964, the physical location of the c ...

to a dedicated campus at 40 East 29th Street in September 2016. In 2016, Ruskay-Kidd received a Covenant Award for her work as head of the Shefa School. In 2018, Shefa honored its first 8th grade class at its inaugural Benefit. The 11 students in that class graduated later that spring in Shefa's first graduation ceremony, held at the school. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the school retooled its teaching approach, and moved to even smaller class sizes to follow

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious disea ...

requirements. By February 2022, the school had 200 students and was constructing a new campus to accommodate 350 students, slated for completion in February 2024. Students from the Shefa School recited the Seder Order song (Kadesh Urchatz) and the

Four Questions Ma Nishtana ( he, מה נשתנה) are the first two words in a phrase meaning "Why is tonight different from all other nights?" The phrase appears at the beginning of each line of The Four Questions, traditionally asked via song by the youngest ...

during the 2022 virtual White House Passover Seder held by President Joe Biden.

Academics

The Shefa School has a low

student–teacher ratio Student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio is the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that there are 10 students ...

of 3:1 and provides individualized teaching to students who have difficulty in traditional classroom settings. The school offers a comprehensive academic program. Students are taught grade-level content for the critical analysis required in mainstream middle and high schools. The curriculum incorporates the PAF Reading Program, which uses an

Orton-Gillingham The Orton-Gillingham approach is a multisensory phonics technique for remedial reading instruction developed in the early-20th century. It is practiced as a direct, explicit, cognitive, cumulative, and multi-sensory approach. While it is most comm ...

and multisensory approach to learning. The writing program uses strategies from the Hochman Method, also known as Teaching Basic Writing Skills. Math is taught using the Multisensory Math approach, developed by Marilyn Zecher. Jewish learning is part of Shefa's daily program in all grades.

Judaic Studies Jewish studies (or Judaic studies; he, מדעי היהדות, madey ha-yahadut, sciences of Judaism) is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history (espe ...

is conducted primarily in English. The school does not treat dual-language Hebrew proficiency as a necessity, since language is an area of difficulty for many students and learning two languages simultaneously can interfere with the acquisition of either one. Because of this, the school typically begins teaching Hebrew language at 4th or 5th grade, though Hebrew words and songs are integrated into prayer and Judaic Studies from the beginning. The school includes an arts course as part of its core curriculum in addition to electives and arts integrated into academic subjects to enrich the teaching of history, Judaic Studies, and the culture of Israel and the Jewish people. Working artists, such as Israeli artist

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, have collaborated with the school by visiting to work with students. In addition to physical education, visual and performance arts, the school also focuses on

social–emotional learning Social–emotional learning (SEL) is an educational method that aims to foster social and emotional skills within school curricula. SEL is also referred to as "socio-emotional learning", "social and emotional learning", or "social–emotional ...

and community service projects. Field trips and visits are made to local

sites, such as galleries and museums. Some students meet with therapists during elective periods. The school's faculty includes speech-language pathologists, an occupational therapist and psychologist and social workers. These professionals consult and collaborate with teachers, and also meet with small groups of students during elective periods. As they approach graduation, 8th grade students are coached and guided as they apply for mainstream Jewish and secular high schools, including how to write personal essays, and succeed in interviews and

placement test A placement exam or placement test is a test designed to evaluate a person's preexisting knowledge of a subject and thus determine the level most suitable for the person to begin coursework on that subject. In many countries, including the United S ...

The Shefa Center

The Shefa Center hosts trainings and meetings for educators from other day schools to learn best practices for educating children with learning challenges. The center also provides a consultation, coaching, teacher residency to Jewish educators learning how to teach students in a specialized educational setting.

Campus

The Shefa School is currently located at 40 East 29th Street in Manhattan. In addition to classrooms and break-out spaces for small group learning, the campus also includes facilities for STEM programs. It was designed by

HLW International HLW is a design, architecture and planning firm headquartered in New York, NY, with offices in Madison, NJ, Los Angeles, CA, Stamford, CT, London and Shanghai. HLW is one of the oldest design firms in the United States, tracing its beginnings to ...

. In order to support the build-out of the new space and the school's expansion in 2016, the Board of Trustees raised $6 million in a capital campaign.

New campus

In August 2021, the school announced that it was moving to a larger campus, which would expand the school's size to 75,000 sq. ft. The Shefa School purchased a 99-year ground lease for a 12-story building at 17 West 60th Street for $49.5 million. To help fund the lease and renovation of the new campus, the school launched the Sowing the Seeds of Abundance fundraising campaign, with the initial goal of raising $20 million. Planned renovations for the new building include construction of new classrooms, facilities such as a gym and cafeteria, gathering spaces for programming and celebrations, and an outdoor playspace on the roof. The move and renovations are set to be completed in the spring of 2024.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.shefaschool.org Jewish day schools in New York (state) Pluralistic Jewish day schools 2014 establishments in New York (state)