Principal

Dear Wyncote Families-

Welcome to Wyncote Elementary School! I am so delighted you have found your way to our landing page and I invite you to take some time to explore our website. You will undoubtedly discover what a special place Wyncote is for children, families, teachers and staff.

Mr. Fred Rogers, founder of the fictional Neighborhood, was an amazing educator in his own right. His work continues to inspire me. He said, “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else,” emphasizing that endings can be new beginnings. As we welcome the 2026-2027 school year, we are clearly at the beginning of “something else” at Wyncote. We will welcome a new group of young learners into our kindergarten cohort and new students in all grade levels. I am excited to have all these new faces and families become part of our school community. Along with these students, we will welcome new staff members and teachers. We will grow and change together, which is the beauty of building community.

It is the honor of my professional life to serve as the principal of this school, which is where I also taught for over a decade. We hold high expectations for learning and behavior for every child. These expectations are communicated through the relationships we build and our shared philosophy that every child matters. A priority this year will be to redouble our efforts to build confident readers with the implementation of new high quality instructional materials and the use of common assessments to help us use data for intervention, remediation and extension opportunities.

As part of Wyncote’s mission to focus on the whole child, your child’s social and emotional well being is essential. As part of our PBIS practice, Wyncote ROARS with positive behavior: we respect others, own our actions, accept responsibility, rise to the challenge and spread kindness. All of our conversations and daily experiences are grounded in kindness and respect. For the fourth consecutive year, Wyncote was recognized by the PAPBS Network for fidelity in implementing supports for all students.  In 2025-2026, 89% of our students had zero or one behavior referrals. We continue to build our Tier 2 interventions for children who need an additional layer of support to make positive choices. 

Wyncote has a rich history of active partnerships with our families. Through the efforts of our dedicated PTO, we provide assemblies, occasional field trips, grants to teachers to support innovative work in the classroom and community building activities. I hope you will consider lending your support for the PTO as the group supports our shared mission and vision of “children first.”

Thank you for entrusting your greatest treasure, your child, to our care at Wyncote.  As my hero Fred Rogers reminds me, “Anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero.” Wyncote Elementary School is full of heroes. Welcome to the neighborhood, to this new beginning and to another great year of teacher and learning at Wyncote Elementary School!  And remember, let’s be kind to one another.

Fondly,
Mr. Jim Taylor
Principal