Golestan Elementary School
Community Subscriber- See also: Golestan Preschool
The elementary school focuses on the beauty of humanity – and all that we share in common – and celebrates the heritages and cultures of each community. While building a strong academic foundation in each child, we are creating a microcosm of the global society we envision for a peaceful future.
The school curriculum integrates research-based best practices in the classroom (both indoors and outdoors) such as Common Core and NGSS Science Standards, with a hands-on, experiential pedagogy. Our elementary school is the place where students nurture their love of learning, their humanity, and their innate sense of justice. It is a school where every child is a changemaker who is empowered to create positive change by being resourceful, kind, innovative, conscious, creative, and engaged. It is a school where the individual child and the collective community of children are equally valued.
This idyllic space, with complex chemistry in cooking class, abstract math in the maker’s lab, and hands-on messy science, feels more like a beautiful home than an institution. It is a place that smells like baked bread, tastes like fresh greens, and sounds like the United Nations.
Parent Q&A
Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.Golestan is a warm and loving environment where children are respected and celebrated for their unique qualities. The academics focus on experiential and integrative learning with lots of group work. There is a strong social emotional learning component that teaches children how to effectively communicate and build community. My son has thrived in this beautiful school!
My 1st grade daughter is now in her second year at Golestan and loves it. There is such care taken with every aspect of the school. From the gorgeous campus to the organic meals and thoughtful curriculum focused on raising kind, courageous and brave children, it is a truly unique and beautiful school environment.
Golestan is a wonderful school in el Cerrito. It’s very small and the full tuition is about $25,000/year. Depending on your financial situation, you might qualify for financial aid. A lot of folks assume they don’t qualify but the schools are very aware of the cost of living and ww were surprised how many schools offered significant financial aid to our family
There is also Montessori Family school, Crestmont, wild cat canyon community school (Waldorf school in el sobrante, very affordable). If you looking toward berkeley you should check out berkwood hedge (I think they have rolling admissions this year, so you could potentially transfer earlier. We applied here and we’re offered a very generous financial aid package), the berkeley school (similar price point to prospect sierra), the school of the Madeline (more affordable than many private schools, it’s catholic but considered more progressive than most catholic schools), black pine circle, and Walden school.
good luck!
Golestan is an amazing place. I can't adequately describe how special it is. My daughter has been there since preschool and was in the first kindergarten class. Now she's in third grade. She has experienced each new class as the school has expanded and they have managed to do it seamlessly. They pulled off in-school (outdoor) instruction during the pandemic with big tents and so much ingenuity, for which I will always be grateful. My daughter had a very easy experience of the pandemic as a result. In terms of renovations, the campus is gorgeous. It's beautifully landscaped and every detail in the classrooms has been well thought out. You have to see their amazing kitchen and dining hall! They are currently fundraising to renovate the downstairs spaces, which are not being used yet. The school is growing but it is already in my view the best private elementary school I could hope for. My daughter is so happy and her teachers are amazing. We love everything about Golestan and can't recommend it enough!
There is nothing we would change about Golestan, even if we could! Our daughter has attended preschool through K so far.
The administration is highly communicative, thoughtful, caring for their staff, and innovative. Yalda, their ED, is always available if needed though her team is highly capable as well. We feel we are in the best hands in an increasingly challenging school landscape of Covid risks and fire seasons. Rather than a transactional feel, Golestan fosters a strong sense of community and belonging among the staff, students and their families.
We couldn't think of any better teachers to entrust our daughter with and for her to look up to as role models. The teachers are so flexible and creative, providing individualized care to each student's needs. We know they are nurturing my daughter's love of learning, critical thinking and curiosity which are essential for leading a life of meaning, connection and resiliency. The highest recommendation comes from our daughter who says "I like my school so much it makes me want to stay there forever and ever and ever. And I love my teachers so much!"
Golestan is an oasis of kindness, beauty, expansion, and friendship. We have long had deep respect for Golestan’s science-based best practices, International baccalaureate program, and their commitment to global cultures and environment stewardship—reflected in their leadership as an Ashoka Changemaker school, and as part of green schoolyards America.
In these particularly challenging times, we feel beyond lucky to be part of the incredible community Yalda and her team have built—and the extensive resources they have put in place to keep our families and teachers safe during the pandemic. Little did we know when we started at Golestan, that we would have the good fortune to be able to send our child to school started by someone who is deeply committed to education and child enrichment, but who also has a medical degree in immunology! If there’s anyone you want at the helm of your child’s school during a pandemic, Yalda—and the COVID task-force she has assembled—is it.
Not only do we breathe easy knowing that the absolute best scientific practices are in place to keep our children safe, but we are moved by the school’s ongoing pro-bono consulting across the globe through the Golestan Colab, to help public and private schools also reopen safely. That is the precise generosity of spirit and commitment to global wellbeing that underscores everything at Golestan. We can’t think of a more nurturing, dynamic, gorgeous, and magical place to be able to offer children.
We joined Golestan in 9/2020. It was the best decision we've ever made for our family. Prior to that, my son was struggling with distance-learning as a kindergartener at another local school earlier in 2020. It was very difficult for my husband and I to help him navigate Zoom classes, while both of us are full-time working professionals and cannot work remotely (physician and environmental engineer). We looked all over East Bay, SF and South Bay for a school that is open full-time in-person with a safe COVID protocol. Golestan fulfilled all of the beyond our expectations. It has hybrid indoor/outdoor classrooms with plenty fresh air circulation. The entire staff and student households get tested biweekly. The kids are in small pods of 9-11 kids with teacher: student ratio of 5:1. Above all, we love the school's philosophy with emphasis on human kindness, compassion and creativity. With an multi-cultural (Persian/Hebrew/Arabic/English) IB curriculum that emphasizes on self-inquiry and exploration, we have seen tremendous growth in our son in reading, writing, math, understanding of the world and emotional intelligence. Golestan is helping us to rise our son to be a wonderfully compassionate and responsible human being, while equipping him with the tools he needs to find his passion. We cannot be more grateful for everything Golestan has done for my son and family! The school is currently enrolling K-4 and there are still some slots left. Please apply if you are interested. https://golestankids.com/admissions/
We have a first grader at Golestan (started last year in K) and absolutely love it. Of all the schools my husband and I researched, public and private, this was the only one about which we were both completely enthusiastic, and that enthusiasm has increased. The teachers are top-notch, the entire staff is incredibly caring and dedicated, the kids get a lot of focused attention, there was a lot of outdoor time even before COVID, and there is ample PE/gardening/art time spread throughout the week. The kids have been learning Farsi, Hebrew and Arabic too; there is less focus on that this year since the county rules around cohort size (due to COVID) required some juggling of the teaching roles, but I'm surprised how much my child retains. The campus is beautiful and the food is delicious (lunch and snacks are prepared everyday on-site). Golestan does a great job of challenging kids and fostering a love of learning while avoiding an overcompetitive environment. Yalda, the director, is a phenomenal human being, words can't even describe her. I also really like the judicious way in which the school borrows elements of Montessori and Waldorf without being rigid or dogmatic. Whenever we pass the school on a weekend my daughter says she can't wait for Monday...that's a pretty good endorsement. This place is a gem.
My daughter is in her second year at Golestan (El Cerrito) and loves it. The classes are a combination of grades (K/1, etc) with two teachers each and the kids get a lot of individual attention. In my experience the classes are very accommodating of different levels of maturity and academic readiness. The school is amazing in so many ways. It is very focused on the outdoors (and in fact has been operating in-person this school year thanks to a robust safety policy and mostly-outdoor classrooms), has an on-site chef who feeds the kids delicious, wholesome lunch and snacks daily, and has PE, gardening and art as well as reading, math, etc. Golestan is an outgrowth of a Farsi-immersion preschool and the primary school kids have been learning Farsi, Hebrew and (until this year) Arabic. We have no background in any of these languages but are impressed with our daughter's absorption of the vocabulary. Also, the environment is incredibly loving and supportive with an active (and increasingly very local) parent community. Please message me if you would like to discuss. Good luck!
Our son is in his first year at first grade at Golestan and we couldn't be happier. We chose Golestan before it became apparent how disruptive COVID would be for the 2020-21 school year. We chose it because of its emphasis on explorative learning, plenty of outdoor time, and a loving environment. The teachers and administration seem very intelligent and thoughtful in how they run the school. With COVID, they have had to be all the more creative and resilient. The children are either in mixed indoor/outdoor classrooms, or entirely outdoors in shaded pavilions. They have a lengthly and well-thought out safety protocol. The kids stay in their own pods of twelve with two teachers all day. Our son has made good friends and his teacher really seems to understand his strengths, weaknesses, and how to work with him. He especially loves daily P.E. and gardening. We feel very lucky that he is able to have this sweet, educational, and undigital school experience this year.
Our kids went to Golestan preschool and they go to summer camp there every year. They're now 16 and 13 and they still love it there. :) The teachers are wonderfully kind and fun (our kids adore them) and the activities are so great (mosaics and other art projects, lots of soccer, piano playing, games, and hanging with the bunnies, plus the cooking! my kids brought home some yummy pickled stuff last year). Plus they're outdoors every day, all day, in the wonderful yard. I would recommend it for your 2nd grader, for sure! She will make lots of friends.