Students attending St. Matthew’s Parish School participate in a variety of community building activities as well as classes in character development.

• Community Education: St. Matthew’s strives to connect its students with the rich cultural and environmental opportunities Greater Los Angeles and California provide. Preschool through fourth grade students take age appropriate field trips that enhance and extend classroom instruction, visiting carefully selected museums, historical sites and other community resources. Guest speakers, authors and artists are invited to the campus to share their expertise and experience, as are performing groups from different cultural backgrounds.

• Community Life: A small school by design, St. Matthew’s teachers and students have the opportunity to enjoy working closely together and have easy access to one another. We are a student body of approximately 325 in the preschool through eighth grade, with fewer than eleven students for every teacher. Programs such as the 8th grade – Kindergarten Buddies and other cross grade level activities provide rich opportunities to build community throughout the student body.

• Spiritual, Moral, and Character Development: Since its beginning, St. Matthew’s has been committed to helping children develop spiritually and morally. An example of this development is the chapel program. Administrated by the School Minister, chapel is a time when the school community gathers to explore issues and values of importance with the clergy of the Parish and the Head of School. In addition to chapel, the School Minister visits classrooms and teaches religion classes leading age-appropriate discussions regarding Bible stories and aspects of moral and ethical issues, within the context of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Students in grades 7 and 8 engage in discussions about ethical decision-making and interpersonal and global issues in a two-year ethics course.