2025-2026 Admissions Process
1. Sign up for an individual or small group in person tour of the school here. You can also contact the director at jaya@greatlittleschool.com for any questions about tours or about the school or summer programs.
2. Apply. Submit the online application, using venmo or zelle to pay the application fee. OR: Download, print, and fill out a paper application. You can also complete and mail with a $55 application fee to:
The Great Little School Admissions
601 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10025
3. If applying for financial aid, please visit smartaidforparents.com, fill out the application and submit supporting documents. The school code is 15022. Please note that we are not able to offer tuition assistance for our Toddler Playgroups. Our Tuition Assistance Fund is supported in part by West Harlem Development Corporation
4. We follow the ISAAGNY admissions notification dates. This means applications for fall 2025 can be submitted starting August 1, 2024.
Annual Tuition & Fees for 2024-25
Please note that tuition typically increases annually by a small percentage.
TWOS
- MORNING SESSION (9-12) – $18,150
- EXTENDED SESSION (9-2:30) – $23,500
- FULL DAY (9-5:30) – $29,300
- Our 2’s program is focused on gently helping children adjust to a school setting and fostering a love of learning and exploration. Teachers support 2 year olds through hands-on sensory experiences, social emotional learning, and dramatic play themes. The 2’s also engage in simple versions of “projects.” Projects are ongoing studies on subjects of interest to the children in the class and are part of a whole child approach to teaching. Projects the 2’s group has explored in the past include wheels, subways, toothbrushes, and babies. Engaging in a curriculum centered around a subject children love helps to set the foundation for a lifetime of learning.
THREES and FOURS
- MORNING SESSION (9-12) – $17,325
- EXTENDED SESSION (9-2:30) – $22,600
- FULL DAY (9-5:30) – $27,300
- Our 3’s and 4’s program is centered around community building, meaningful inquiry, and more in depth projects. In this mixed age classroom, children are able to learn from each other, guide one another, and engage in complex play. Teachers support each age group, providing certain individualized times for 3’s and 4’s, and also bringing the age groups together to collaborate. Children continue to be introduced to hands-on materials and experiential learning. Children moving to Kindergarten are prepared through a curriculum that includes literacy, numeracy, science, and social studies taught through a developmentally appropriate lens.
Early Drop Off (8 or 8:30) $20 per hour per diem
Full Year Early Drop Off:
8:00am: $3,300
8:30am: $1,650
Community Fund – $400
Quick Facts
- Children must have turned 2 to start school.
- We strive to have enrollment that reflects the diversity of the community.
- Children of families affiliated in any way with the School or the Church are given priority.
- The program is play-based.
- Children engage in active play every day, either with a trip outside to a nearby playground, in the climber room or in the gym.
- Our program includes music, art, drama, cooking and science.
- Children bring their own healthy snacks from home.
- Children in Extended or Full Day sessions bring their own healthy lunches from home.
- Children in Extended or Full Day sessions have a short rest or nap period.
- Our teachers are advocates of progressive education, providing a range of structured and open-ended experiences, based on assessment of individual children’s development and readiness.
- Children are required to be up to date on vaccinations to attend. A schedule of vaccinations required to attend school can be found here.
- GLS graduates in the last 5 years have attended Alexander Robertson, Allen-Stevenson, Ascension, Bank Street, Brearley, Browning, Calhoun, Cathedral, Chapin, City and Country, Collegiate, Columbia Grammar, Fieldston, Hunter, LREI, Manhattan Country School, Metropolitan Montessori, Nightingale-Bamford, St. Bernard’s, The School at Columbia, The Special Music School, Spence, Speyer Legacy, St. Hilda’s and St. Hugh’s, Trevor Day, UNIS; and have attended District 3 G&T and Districts 4, 5 and 6 Dual Language programs, Anderson, CPE 1, CPE 2, Dos Puentes, Hamilton Heights School, Juan Bosch, Manhattan School for Children, Muscota New School, PS 9, PS 75, PS 84, PS 125, PS 163, PS 165, PS 166, PS 180, PS 187, PS 191, PS 452, Success Academies, TAG, WHEELS, and WHIN.
Read more about our program here.
For further information please contact the Director.