There is an entire world, beyond textbooks, that a great school allows you to discover!

Overbrook School for the Blind gives students the opportunities to have amazing lives both in and OUT of the classroom! As part of the Expanded Core Curriculum, students are supported by a community that helps to foster friendships and navigate growing up. Social Skills study and acquisition is a key component of the ECC. 

It is more challenging for students with visual impairment to get information about their environment, facial expressions, social environment, or why they are involved in certain activities. All of these factors make it quite difficult for a student to understand social nuances or appropriate behaviors. Appropriate Social Skills need to be taught as part of the curriculum so that a student can be successful in their home and work environments. Overbrook holds Social Groups in addition to curriculum integration. In addition to educational focus during school hours, our students have the ability to make friendships, develop socially, and feel good about themselves in extracurricular activities. 

At Overbrook School for the Blind, we provide a breadth of services that focus on the whole student. We follow the guidelines of the General Curriculum, the Expanded Core Curriculum and provide consistent related services for each student. Students are an integral part of our decision making -- not just for students, but with the students. Students who are exceptional have never been the exception at Overbrook School for the Blind.

Our students are members of the Student Government; they make decisions about social functions and philanthropic projects. Our students sing in the Choir, Mixed Ensemble, and Jr. Choir and travel to places like Boston and North Carolina to sing with our sister schools. Students take voice lessons and learn about music, its history, and its structure. They ring handbells and take part in educational music residencies, like Alex and the Kaleidoscope, or Alex Day.  Our students dance with the Pennsylvania Ballet and paint statues of Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Our school prides itself on offering kids the chance to grow in a variety of ways, by exploring new ways of perceiving the world, and new ways of understanding each other. 

Our students grow vegetables, sell produce and are very 'hands-on' with the Farm to Table Program. They weed and water the beautiful food and flowers that grace our campus. They learn money skills and how to provide good customer service. They learn how to choose healthy food and make good decisions about what a balanced life-style should include. The students will continue to develop their horticulture skills with the launch of the M. Christine Murphy Horticulture Education Center. We bring the world to our students, and we support them in exploring the world beyond our Malvern Avenue address.

Our students are athletes, and they also take college courses. They learn about activities of daily living and get real-life experience living in their own apartment if they so choose. They go on a variety of trips locally and some that are far away. Our students are given opportunities for adventure and exploration. They see plays and symphonies. They go fishing and visit amusement parks. They are given the freedom to be exactly who they are -- because exactly who they are is perfect.