Our Program
Program Investments
Live Oak’s academic program is ever-evolving to meet the needs of our students. As the education landscape seems to move at warp speed with new technologies, strategies, and philosophies, Live Oak takes careful consideration of the changes it makes, implementing meaningful, data-driven developments that align with the learning goals we set out for our students. In addition, we take intentional steps toward evolving our program in ways that enable our faculty and staff grow as innovative, responsive educators, matching their interests, passions, and experience with opportunities to teach and inspire their students, while enriching their experience and maximizing the impact they can have on our students.
Explore some of the most recent investments and developments ongoing at Live Oak.
Explore some of the most recent investments and developments ongoing at Live Oak.
Reimagined STEM Spaces: Dynamic Spaces for Engaging Learning
Live Oak’s new STEM Labs—funded by the Class of 2025 Legacy Gift—are poised to transform how students experience science and math. These purposefully designed spaces will give students greater opportunities to engage in hands-on inquiry, cross-disciplinary thinking, and project-based learning that reflects the real-world challenges they’re eager to explore. One of the key innovations in these redesigned spaces is that each Middle School grade now has its own dedicated lab. The vision for these new STEM Labs is about more than upgraded infrastructure—it’s about creating a setting where students can engage in meaningful, relevant, and at times, unexpected learning.
Changemaker Program: Supporting Leaders in Their Communities
The 2025-26 school year marks the first year of the Changemaker Program, a formalized and expanded structure for helping support student service learning and community action. Led by Changemaker Program Coordinator Renata Martin, this program seeks to intertwine service learning within the K-8 curriculum by establishing unique social justice themes that inform curricular throughlines within and across all grade levels. Supporting these social justice themes at the Middle School level specifically is the creation of the Social Impact Studio, a class for grades 6-8 specifically designed to teach students the historical context around notable changemaking initiatives from the past and giving them the skills to take action in the present and future. Future development of the program will include more partnerships with local organizations that enable symbiotic service learning opportunities for all Live Oak students.
Collaborative Problem Solving: Teaching the Skills That Drive Success
Live Oak entered the 2025-26 school year engaged in a new partnership with Think:Kids, a social-emotional learning program within the Psychiatry Department of Massachusetts General Hospital, in order to implement an evidence-based, trauma-informed approach to student support called Collaborative Problem Solving. The three-year partnership is intended to support Live Oak faculty and staff in learning and sustainably implementing the Collaborative Problem Solving approach, which is designed to help teach students the problem-solving skills they need to be successful learners with the overarching awareness that behavior is a matter of skill, not a matter of will. Live Oak has long made a priority out of knowing our students well, and this model aligns with many of the collaborative, empathy-building social-emotional strategies that Live Oak faculty are already using. It further develops Live Oak’s model of student support towards one where specific faculty leaders work alongside their peers in the implementation of the Collaborative Problem Solving approach. Experts from the Think:Kids program started training the entire Live Oak staff in the summer of 2025 and will continue to guide Live Oak’s team of internal implementation leaders in establishing the program schoolwide.
Spanish Across K-8: Deepening Language Learning
Live Oak expanded its Spanish instruction to include Lower School grades in 2025-26. With the aim of establishing a strong language foundation for younger learners, grades K-4 now take Spanish class two days per week for 40 minutes. The Lower School program centers around engaging students with movement, music, interaction, and storytelling to start building new vocabulary and grammar. For students who already speak Spanish, having regular academic classes helps bridge their school day with their home life, further expanding their opportunities to develop their language. In addition, by implementing Latin American cultural lessons within the curriculum students are learning language with relevant context while building a deeper global perspective.
Dive deeper into our program by exploring the throughlines that shape Live Oak's curriculum.
Live Oak School welcomes and admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities of Live Oak School. Live Oak School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith in administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions policies, Adjusted Tuition program, and athletic and other school-administered programs.