Chandler, AZ · Excellence starts here
A school small enough to know your child by name.
Chandler Presbyterian Day School is a full-time day school that runs every weekday on a church campus off Arrowhead Drive. Each child gets a teaching plan written for that child, and the campus itself does half the teaching: garden beds, a playground, a sanctuary.
Registration is currently paused. The school asks that you email cpds@chandlerpres.org for more, and that is still the fastest way to be told when it reopens.
The practical answers, first
- Days
- Full time, every day of the week
- Where
- 1900 S. Arrowhead Dr., Chandler, AZ 85286
- Getting there
- A quiet neighbourhood, minutes from the 101 and the 202
- Chapel
- Wednesdays, and families of every background are invited
- Ask the office
- 480-963-3821
One plan per child
Written for academic, spiritual and personal needs, and adjusted with the family.
One campus, three rooms outdoors
Garden beds, a playground and a sanctuary, all inside the same fence line.
One presentation a semester
Children document their milestones, then present them to their families.
What being known actually means
Knowing a child is not a feeling. It is a written plan.
Every preschool in the valley will tell you it is nurturing. CPDS says something narrower and more checkable: it makes a customized teaching plan for each child, and it makes it with the family in the room.
The plan is written down
Academic, spiritual and personal needs, per child. Something a parent can be shown, disagree with, and ask to change.
The family is part of it
The school's own description is family and community driven, with ways for parents to be involved in their children's lessons rather than briefed on them afterwards.
Behaviour is taught, not just enforced
Teachers model the expectations they hold, and lead children to reflect on the results of their own actions. The socio-emotional side is adjusted per child too.
Where it happens
A plan like that needs somewhere to happen.
CPDS is nestled in a quiet neighbourhood in Chandler with easy access to the 101 and the 202. That combination is rarer than it sounds: most schools get one or the other, and the ones on the arterial are the ones with the fence against the road.
- Garden beds the children actually plant and water
- A playground on the same site, not across a car park
- A sanctuary for Wednesday chapel, a short walk from the classrooms
- Service opportunities on campus, so kindness has somewhere to land
The campus, in the school's own words
“From garden beds to our sanctuary, to a playground, CPDS integrates into our campus, creating a whole village to explore.”
Chandler Presbyterian Day School, on its own page
A Wednesday, in order
So here is one whole day, from the front gate onward.
Not a list of values. The actual shape of a Wednesday, assembled only from what the school publishes about its own week. There are no clock times below, because CPDS does not publish any and this page will not invent them for it.
- 01Arrival
Into a campus, not a corridor
Drop-off is at a church campus in a quiet neighbourhood off Arrowhead Drive, not a strip-mall unit on an arterial. The playground, the garden beds and the sanctuary are all a walk from the same front door.
- 02The plan
Your child's plan, not the class's
CPDS writes a customized teaching plan for each child, covering academic, spiritual and personal needs. On any given morning a teacher is working somebody's individual plan, which is why the number of children in a room matters more here than the syllabus does.
- 03Chapel
Wednesday chapel, in the sanctuary next door
Chapel is a Wednesday fixture and families of all faiths and backgrounds are invited to it. It is a fifteen-second walk from the classroom, because it is the same campus.
- 04Outside
Garden beds and the moving-about part
Gardening, music and plenty of movement and exercise are named in the school's own description of the week. The garden beds are a real feature of the campus, not a metaphor for the curriculum.
- 05Together
Problems solved out loud, with other people
The school's stated method is learning by doing: children solve problems collaboratively and on many levels. A four-year-old arguing about whose turn it is to water is doing the lesson, not interrupting it.
- 06The record
It goes in the milestone book
Students document their learning milestones through the semester. That documentation is not filed away for an inspector. It is the thing they hand back to you at the end.
- 07Pick-up
And once a semester, they present it to you
At the end of a semester, children present their milestones to their families and friends. That is the moment the customized plan becomes something you can actually see, in your own child's voice.
Every line above traces back to something CPDS says about itself. Anything the school has not published, including ages, ratios, class sizes, hours and fees, is missing here on purpose. The office fills those in faster than a website can.
Come and walk it on a weekday, while it is loud.
An empty building on a Saturday tells you nothing. Ask the office for a weekday visit, stand in the garden beds, and see whether the children look like they are being known.
Registration is paused, so email cpds@chandlerpres.org to be told when it reopens.
Before you email
And the five things parents ask first.
Can we enrol right now?
Not this minute. The school's own page says registration is currently paused, so the honest answer is that the next step is an email to cpds@chandlerpres.org rather than a form. Ask to be told when it reopens, and ask to walk the campus in the meantime.
Do we have to be Presbyterian?
No. CPDS follows the teachings of Jesus and invites families of all faiths and backgrounds to join in, including at Wednesday chapel and Sunday worship. Both are invitations on a campus you are welcome on either way.
What ages does the school take, and what does it cost?
CPDS does not publish either figure, and this is a concept page, so nothing has been guessed at on its behalf. The office answers both in one reply: 480-963-3821, or cpds@chandlerpres.org.
How much of the day is spent outside?
Enough that the school describes its own campus as a village to explore: garden beds, a playground and a sanctuary, all on one site. Gardening and movement are named parts of the week, not weather-permitting extras.
Where exactly is it?
1900 S. Arrowhead Dr., Chandler, AZ 85286, in a quiet neighbourhood with easy access to the 101 and the 202. It shares a campus with Chandler Presbyterian Church.