Our Philosophy

We’re delighted to welcome you to Manlius Pebble Hill’s Lower School!

Visit our campus, and you might encounter pre-kindergarten students engrossed in building Rube Goldberg machines in the Great Room of the Center for Early Learning. Or walk down the Bradlee hallway, where you may come across fifth graders rehearsing a scene from Hamlet, preparing to perform it at assembly-just one of the many ways our Lower School students learn to speak and perform publicly, fostering self-confidence and self-presentation skills.

You might also walk into a multi-age classroom and see students deeply engaged in collaborative hands-on projects that foster creative problem-solving, like building arcade games or creating museum artifacts about the local Haudenosaunee Indian Nation. At all levels, students learn from each other’s strengths and help each other grow through challenges. And, in any classroom, you often find the teacher working with small groups or one-on-one with students.

We don’t just teach content to students; we inspire academic ambition by ensuring that students love­  and know how-to learn. Every day, I am overwhelmed by our students’ enthusiasm. When I walk into   a classroom, students clamor to tell me what they are working on and all that they have learned. They show off sophisticated writing and discuss complex topics. And I’m proud and honored to be a part of this flourishing learning community.

We invite you to visit the MPH Lower School with your family. We  hope you’ll love it here as much as we do.

Amy Abdo
Head of Lower School