P.S. 264, the Bay Ridge Elementary School for the Arts, is a small zoned school that offers broad exposure to different forms of art in all grades.

Founding principal Patrice Edison's experience as a music teacher and assistant principal has shaped her belief that an education in the arts can do much to help children develop confidence and presence.

The arts are integrated with the rest of the curriculum. Connected to a social studies unit on the five senses, kindergartners create collages about touch, hearing, and songs. Alongside a science unit about trees, children study what kinds of trees are used to make musical instruments. An architecture project for kindergartners mixed math measuring skills and sculpture, as the children learned about skyscrapers and created their own version of a metropolis with cups, cardboard, and aluminum foil.

P.S. 264 takes the arts experience beyond the classroom and into museums and other venues, including Circle in the Square Theatre. When we visited, kindergartners were getting ready for a trip to the Staten Island Museum. The previous week 1st-graders visited an art museum after completing a project based on the works of pop artist Andy Warhol. The project, consisting of a series of vividly colored portraits of the students, was displayed prominently in a school hallway, as were other student works. Children also take music and movement classes.

Math is taught using the Math in Focus program, which is based on the Singapore method that emphasizes problem solving. Science is hands-on. We saw students in one class attentively watching a boy clicking together interlocking cubes, counting each cube as he added it on. In another class, students experimented with soaking different materials in water to see if they changed. Teachers make an effort to create lessons at various levels aimed at students with different abilities and learning styles.

At P.S. 264 teachers move up a grade with their students. For example, a kindergarten teacher will move to the first grade with her students. In the second grade, classes will be rotated and students will get a new teacher. The idea is to help students feel more comfortable as they move up through the grades.

P.S. 264 opened in 2010 in the Fort Hamilton Early Childhood Center, sharing space with the P.S./I.S. 104 Annex. In September 2012,  it moved into its own, new space, a few blocks away. The new building has a full gym, an auditorium, and a small outdoor schoolyard. P.S. 264 began offering  pre-kindergarten in 2012.

Admission: P.S. 264 is a zoned school. Students from other zones will be accepted if seats are available.

Special education: Special education students are completely integrated. The school has both English speaking and non-English speaking ESL students, along with one Integrated Co-Teaching class per grade. The number of ICT classes is slated to expand. The school's current and new building are both handicapped accessible. (Eliana Mascio, March 2012; updated October 2012)