Sally Kingston, Ph.D.
Sally Kingston, Ph.D. has been the Principal of Harding School since 2005. She holds a B.A. in Spanish from Keene State College in New Hampshire, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Organizations from UCSB. She was recently awarded the "Distinguished Education Alumni Award" from UCSB in 2008.

Promoting High Levels of Learning
    Promoting high levels of learning for every student is our top priority. At Harding School, we have a unique student recognition program aimed at doing just that. Thanks to a generous donation from the Bialis Family Fund, our Top Scholar Program acknowledges students each year who have performed at an outstanding level in (1) academics, (2) work habits, (3) study skills, and (4) character. 
     The Top Scholar Awards are awarded to a boy and a girl top scholar in preschool through fifth-grades who have consistently demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, effort, and character at Harding School.  Students who receive the award are acknowledged at a school-wide recognition assembly each June when they are presented with medals and a personal set of literature books to read over the summer. The top boy and girl top scholars in sixth grade receive the Thomas Armstrong Award and are acknowledged with a trophy and a laptop computer generously donated by the Bialis Family Foundation in honor of their life-long friend, Thomas Armstrong, who was their friend and mentor, and a visionary who enriched their lives and sought to make Santa Barbara a wonderful place to live.
    The top scholar program has evolved and expanded over the past three years to include more students.

International Baccalaureate School
In August 2008, the Santa Barbara School Board approved the implementation of the International Baccalaureate Program (IB) at Harding School.  Last year, a team of teachers visited an IB School in Pasadena, California to explore the Programme and brought back their reflections to the rest of the teaching staff who expressed widespread interest in pursuing IB for Harding School. Our journey has begun, and we are on our way!

What is the IB Program for elementary schools?
The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) is designed for students aged 3 to 12. It focuses on the total growth of the developing child, touching hearts as well as minds and encompassing social, physical, emotional and cultural needs in addition to academic development. Unlike the junior high and high schools where only some students participate in the Programme, the PYP in elementary schools is inclusive and all of the students in PK-6 participate in it. 
The ultimate goal of the IB PYP is for learners to be:

    
The PYP is based on a curriculum framework, in which teachers are trained to develop units of learning that are based on six transdisciplinary themes of global significance: (1) Who we are, (2) where we are in place and time, (3) how we express ourselves, (4) how the world works, (5) how we organize ourselves, and (6) sharing the planet.

Students will continue to use state-adopted materials in English/Language Arts, social studies, mathematics, arts, science, and personal, social and physical education. A unique component of the IB PYP is that students will learn a second language as well. There are three phases to becoming an IB World School, authorized to offer the PYP.