Bloom was founded with a fundamentally different vision for schooling, focused on how children learn and what they need to meet the challenges of the future.

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Bloom Community School is a progressive, independent, private school serving families with children in kindergarten through eighth grade in the Bloomington-Normal (IL) area. Bloom was founded in 2017 with a mission for rethinking schooling in ways that are:

• Student-centered in small, mixed-age classes

• Play- and Project-based 

• Centered around cultivating 21st-century skills

• Supportive of social-emotional growth

• Nurturing student ownership of their learning

• Community building

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Innovation and collaboration are driving our rapidly changing world, and children need learning experiences that help them integrate their intellectual, physical, communication, and social-emotional growth as well as their ability to manage information and technology. Bloom’s exceptional teaching staff adapts and innovates alongside the needs of children within a structured daily schedule that emphasizes outdoor activity and play.

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Bloom Community School is truly a 21st-century education laboratory that integrates research-based practices in teaching and learning with community engagement. This approach prepares children to become empowered citizens in our communities, understanding the interconnectedness of our lives, economies, cultures, and futures. 

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Bloom’ s unique educational approach is supported by our environment as a "third teacher." Located in historic Normandy Village, our welcoming building - originally designed for children - is surrounded by green space and adjoining a community playground, offering scalable space for exploration, inquiry, and play. Students climb trees, bring sleds to school in winter, and study or eat lunch in the gazebo in fair weather. Classes regularly visit The Refuge Food Forest, Normal Public Library, University Galleries of ISU, Ewing Park, Hidden Creek Sanctuary, Sugar Grove Nature Center, community gardens, IWU campus, and more, and ride with Connect Transit busses to navigate Bloomington-Normal and feel more at home in McLean County.

 

Students develop confidence as they learn in developmentally appropriate ways to take responsibility for their environment, take care of their physical needs throughout the day, and to connect with peers of all ages. Bloom's recess - which is twice as long as most schools that allow for 20 minutes of outdoor time - brings our students together in community, along with regularly scheduled all-school activities and events.

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Walking into Bloom Community School you will see that it is organized to honor how children learn: with their whole selves. As the parent of two current students said when she first visited the school, “It was like walking into my child’s brain.” 

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Bloom's experienced, thoughtful teachers bring diverse backgrounds to their classrooms, united by a commitment to creating a unique school environment that respects each individual's strengths and needs. Our teachers also offer caring guidance and work with families to provide frameworks of understanding for how they address learner goals through personalized learning.​

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