William Penn Charter School

Allegheny West Consortium

William Penn Charter is involved in a neighborhood consortium comprised of public, charter, and independent schools in the Allegheny West neighborhood of Philadelphia. The goal of the partnership is to bring together schools, teachers and students from pre-K through college in this small area of the city and offer a greater source of opportunities for local students and their families. Events include a neighborhood cleanup, a leadership program run by Temple University as well as the development of an Intranet platform across which teachers from the various schools can communicate. The overall mission of this consortium is to share resources amongst the schools, serve as advocates for one another and help young people lead productive and purposeful lives.

Bayard Taylor School

William Penn Charter School and Bayard Taylor School (a bi-lingual K-5 school in the School District of Philadelphia) have been involved in a partnership for over 18 years. Seniors studying Spanish at Penn Charter work with Taylor 4th graders on writing and reading original stories.  Through this activity, both groups of students are able to improve their language skills, establish friendships, and experience each other's classrooms first-hand.

Urban Issues Class

The Urban Issues class of seniors at Penn Charter works with one of Penn Charter’s public school partners, the Lingelbach School.. Seniors are placed in the K-8 classrooms of Lingelbach and serve as mentors, tutors and friends to the students. These classroom visits coincide with the Urban Issues class the seniors are taking at Penn Charter.  Through this study, they can examine more closely the opportunities and challenges public schools face.  As a result of this interaction, many Penn Charter students stay on at Lingelbach in the spring for their Senior Project in the same classroom where they worked during the year.

Widener Memorial School

Penn Charter has partnership with Widener Memorial School, the only school in the Philadelphia School District exclusively devoted to physically disabled students. Students entering Penn Charter in pre-K will have at least four different service learning experiences with Widener before they graduate: in the 4th grade, students from both Widener and Penn Charter pack food together at a local food recovery agency, Middle and Upper Schools students work at Widener during their Days of Service and the Penn Charter Varsity Basketball team plays an annual game against Widener’s Varsity team.  Finally, the seniors at Penn Charter can take a class titled “The Art of Caring; working with physical disabilities.”  Through this class, the students focus on disability issues as well as work directly with students in the Widener classrooms.