Our Mission

Notre Dame Elementary School, an independent Catholic School founded in 1851, is committed to developing and educating our students in the tradition of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. We embrace the teaching of our foundress, St. Julie Billiart, and her philosophy of, “Teach the children what they need to know for life.”  From these teaching, we have created The Hallmarks of a Notre Dame de Namur Learning Community. 

​NDE is a diverse, caring, and compassionate community dedicated to service. We strive to provide a quality education through Gospel values rooted in Catholic tradition, along with mastering skills needed to succeed as life-long learners.

At Notre Dame Elementary School, we provide an environment that fosters the opportunity for our students to discover a love of learning, embrace their spiritual life, and form a dedication to community service.

"Be like the sunflower that follows every movement of the sun, and keep your eyes always turned towards our good God. ”

- St. Julie Billiart

Philosophy and History

Philosophy
As a school in the tradition of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, we embrace the charism of St. Julie Billiart which focuses on the steadfast reality of the goodness of God as articulated in The Hallmarks of a Notre Dame de Namur Learning Community. We teach our students to see and honor God’s goodness in themselves and the world.
Notre Dame Elementary School welcomes families of diverse cultures, backgrounds, socio-economic circumstances, and faith traditions who desire a Catholic elementary school education. Involving the parent community through consistent communication is an integral part of our educational process.

We are a learning community committed to providing a strong academic foundation for our students using a comprehensive approach to educate the whole child. Our varied teaching strategies and respect for diverse learning styles build the self-esteem of each student. We educate our students to become reflective thinkers, effective communicators, and life-long learners.
We develop curricular, extracurricular, and spiritual life programs which expand our students’ knowledge and understanding of the diversity in our world community and teach them to become global citizens.   In our programs and teaching, we promote Gospel values, intellectual excellence, and commitment to service

​History

Notre Dame Elementary School is conducted by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a congregation of teaching religious founded in 1804 by Saint Julie Billiart. The congregation was founded in Amiens, France, and the seat of government was transferred in 1809 to Namur, Belgium.

In 1851, at the invitation of Most Reverend Joseph Sadoc Alemany, O/P., The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur established themselves in San Jose, California, where, at the suggestion of Jesuit Fathers, the Sisters erected a school for girls designed to give them educational opportunities similar to those provided for boys by the Society of Jesus in Santa Clara.

 By 1923, the San Jose foundation included the Provincial House, a novitiate, a college, secondary and elementary schools for both resident and non-resident students. But the expanding commercial district of the city of San Jose had virtually surrounded the sisters’ property making a move to a less congested area imperative.

Thus the historic Ralston estate in Belmont was purchased and it became the nucleus of Notre Dame, Belmont, which was eventually to include a four-year liberal arts college (Notre Dame de Namur University), a college preparatory high school (Notre Dame High School), an elementary school (Notre Dame Elementary School, K-8) and a Montessori school for young children (Early Learning Center at Notre Dame de Namur University).

The elementary school was housed in a wing of the high school until the present building was erected in 1957. The next big step was the admission of boys into the school in 1963.​

Education at every level from pre-kindergarten through graduate school and in parishes comprises the apostolate of the Sisters of Notre Dame, who now number over 2000 with foundations in North and South Belgium, Brazil, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Kenya, Scotland, Peru, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nicaragua, Haiti and the United States. 

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