Our History

In 1941, founding parents Persis Lane and Judith Glaser sketched a plan for what would become The Langley School. They wanted a place where their children would have an opportunity for companionship with other children of the same age. A year later on September 22, 1942, The McLean Playschool, housed in the basement of the Franklin Sherman School, first opened its doors to 19 children.

An initiation fee of $4 was charged to each family to purchase supplies and a tuition payment of $6.25 per child per month was set to pay the school’s first director, as well as three part-time teachers who would be helped by two volunteer mothers each day.

Langley has always been a pioneer in early childhood education. We are renowned for our creative, well-rounded, and challenging program that educates students in a nurturing and stimulating environment. From our beginning as a modest cooperative school, Langley has evolved into one of the premier independent elementary schools in Virginia with more than 470 boys and girls in preschool through eighth grade.