Introduction to the School
Southwark is a neighborhood school in South Philadelphia that serves about 600 students in PreK through Grade 8.
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Catchment Zone
Southwark students are drawn from the neighborhood surrounding the school (green). 7th and 8th grade students from the Francis Scott Key catchment zone directly south of the neighborhood (orange) also come to Southwark School. Southwark feeds into South Philly High School and Horace Furness High School.
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Study Body
Like the surrounding neighborhood, Southwark School is home to an exceptionally diverse body of students. As such, students bring a wide range of primary languages to school, including Spanish, Nepali, Burmese (Chin, Karen), Vietnamese, Indonesian, Khmer, Pashto, Swahili, and Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese). Over half of Southwark students are learning English as a second (or third, or fourth) language.
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School Organization
Southwark School is led by Principal Andrew Lukov, who began his tenure in 2013, after several years of rapid principal turnover. The school has two to three teachers per grade, and is organized into a lower school (K-5) and an upper school (6-8). Students learn in contained classrooms through 6th grade, and move between teachers for literacy/social studies, math, and science beginning in 7th grade. Students also take music, art, physical education/health, dance, and computer science.
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ESOL InstructionSouthwark has six ESOL teachers, three who work with students grouped by English proficiency level and three who teach grade level ESOL classes. Seven BCAs provide translation services at the school in Chinese, Spanish, Nepali, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Burmese, and Kymer. In 2014, Southwark began its Dragón TWI Program, a Spanish-Language dual immersion program, in cooperation with the District's Office of Multilingual Curriculum and Programs and the University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Nelson Flores. An inaugural kindergarten class was the first group of students in the program, and Principal Lukov plans to add another Dragón TWI class each year.
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Physical StuctureSouthwark School remains in its original building, which was built in 1909. Before the school was constructed, the lot housed the headquarters of the Elkinton family soap and candle company. Next door to Southwark sits the Edward Bok Vocational High School, which closed in 2013.
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