Contact the Admissions Office for space availability!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
When was SFCS founded?
San Francisco Christian School was founded in September of 1971 by Jack McBirney, a former missionary to Newfoundland, Canada. Mr. McBirney was burdened by the lack of Christian education in the beautiful city of San Francisco. Since then, San Francisco Christian School has not only been able to reach our local residents of San Francisco, but also international students who require Form I-20s and F1 student visas to study in the States. Our international program in San Francisco, CA is able to reach students from all over the world.
What Christian denomination is SF Christian School?
SF Christian School is a ministry of Calvary Baptist Church of San Francisco. Though Calvary is a Baptist church, SFCS is considered non-denomination. We focus on core biblical doctrine without compromise and practical application in the lives of each of our students. Though students are not required to be Christians to enroll, all SFCS staff members have a testimony of faith in Christ, attend a Bible-believing church, and live a life that is sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
What grade levels do you offer?
SFCS is a KB–12 school with a Christian kindergarten, a Christian elementary school, a Christian middle school, and a Christian high school.
What is your KB class?
San Francisco Christian School’s kindergarten program is divided into two classes—Kindergarten Beginnings (KB) for four-year-olds and Kindergarten for five-year-olds.
What is your total number of students KB–12?
On average, San Francisco Christian School enrolls about 260 students grades KB–12.
Does San Francisco Christian School have age limitations?
SFCS begins accepting students into our Kindergarten Beginnings (KB) program by age four. For a student to be accepted into our KB program, he or she must be four years old by December 1 of that academic school year.
For a student to be accepted into our Kindergarten, he or she must be five years old by December 1 of that academic school year.
A student must also graduate from our accredited private school before he or she is 20 years old. If you are unsure as to whether or not your child exceeds this age limitation, please contact the admissions office.
What is the discipline structure at SFCS?
- Interacting with the student on a personal level via biblical counseling and prayer.
- Keeping parents informed and working with them for solutions.
- Offering positive reinforcement and praise when a student does right to avoid offering them attention only when they do something wrong.
The official structure for elementary students: Each student has a “Ready to Learn” scale on his or her desk that has six levels to which they may move up or down throughout the day based on teacher direction. At the start of each day, the student begins class at the “Ready to Learn” level and can go up to “Outstanding” or down to “Warning,” “Timeout,” “Principal,” or “Parent Contact.”
The official structure of middle school and high school students: SFCS middle school and high school uses infractions for violations of school policies. Accumulated infractions result in disciplinary action. Violations are considered more serious if they are repetitive. For every four infractions a student accumulates, he or she must serve a detention.
Are there parent volunteer opportunities?
Do you have before-school and after-school care?
Before-school care at SFCS begins as early as 7 am. The after-school program begins after classes end each day and goes until 5 pm.
There is no charge for before-school care. After-school care costs $5 per hour (or any portion thereof) and is charged to a family's after-care account based on usage. No pre-registration or monthly payment plan is required. If a child is not picked up during the designated pick-up time, he or she is brought to after-school care by their teacher.
A student in after-school care can choose to socialize and play with friends in the supervised game room and gym or work on homework in the designated study room.
What outdoor space do students use?
Students primarily use the city park right behind our campus (same block), Alice Chalmers, which contains a playground for our younger students and basketball courts, tennis courts, and a baseball diamond.
What is your male-to-female student ratio?
On average, SFCS has a 1:1 male-to-female student ratio.
How is your school year divided?
SFCS divides each school year into two semesters—the fall semester and the spring semester. The fall semester begins mid-August and ends mid-December before Christmas break. The spring semester begins the first week of January and ends at the end of May before Memorial Day.
What is Sycamore?
Sycamore Education is our student information system. It is used to receive school news, check homework assignments, monitor grades, and communicate with the office and teachers. Parents and students (grades 6–12) receive their own accounts.
Are uniforms required?
Yes. Students attending our accredited private school must be in school uniform every school day, unless instructed otherwise. SFCS families must purchase their official school uniforms from Simply Uniforms in Colma.
San Francisco Christian School does not have a specific policy regarding footwear. Any closed-toed shoe is acceptable.
What curriculum do you use?
At San Francisco Christian School, we place an emphasis on Christian education that works for every student. We recognize that not every school is the same and not every student processes information the same way. This is why we have not settled on one form of textbook publisher when developing our curriculum, but instead have pulled from various publishing sources. Our primary source for classroom instruction is BJU Press (www.bjupress.com). BJU Press texts are well known for their academic rigor, biblical integration, and ability to engage students in mind-developing critical thinking. Other publishers used include A Beka Book (www.abeka.com) and Saxon Math.
How much homework will my child have each night?
It is not our goal at SFCS to assign homework for the sake of giving our students busy work. Assignments are given to refine skills, reinforce concepts learned in the classroom, and to teach responsibility and time management. The average student can complete much of the schoolwork given in class during the day. Whatever schoolwork not completed by the end of the day becomes homework and, typically, takes no longer than 20 minutes for the average elementary student, one hour for the average middle school student, and an hour to an hour and a half for the average high school student.
Do your students take field trips?
Field trips are an important part of the educational process at SFCS.
Elementary school fields trips have included Pastorino Farms (pumpkin patch), the fire station, the SF Zoo, the California Academy of Sciences, the SF Botanical Gardens, CuriOdyssey, Sacramento, Fort Point, San Bruno Mountain, and Petaluma Wildlife and Natural Science Museum.
Middle school field trips have included Broadway shows, the Exploratorium, Giants games, Mussel Rock Park, and Great America Amusement Park.
High school field trips have included Broadway shows, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Salesforce Tower, and Wolf Mountain Camps.
San Francisco Christian School
25 Whittier Street, San Francisco, CA 94112
A ministry of Calvary Baptist Church of San Francisco
T: (415) 586-1117 F: (415) 841-0833
Web Design by Hearst Media Services , all rights reserved © 2019