Learn Hardcore Russian: Начальная школа находится рядом с парком. - The elementary school is located next to the park.

So the sentence is talking about that early level of schooling, not a specific named school like Greenfield Primary School. It’s a common noun, not a proper name here.

Why is it начальная школа and not начальный школа? What’s going on with the endings?

In Russian, adjectives agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

школа is a feminine, singular noun in the nominative case.
The base adjective is начальный (initial, primary).

Feminine, singular, nominative form of начальный is:

masculine: начальный
feminine: начальная
neuter: начальное
plural: начальные

So we must say начальная школа (primary school) because школа is feminine.
If the noun were masculine, we’d say, for example, начальный класс (primary/first class).

What is находится grammatically? Is it a form of “to be”?

Находится is the 3rd person singular, present tense of the verb находиться.

Infinitive: находиться – to be located, to be situated, to be found (in a place)
Form in the sentence: она находится – it is located (because школа is feminine: она)

Grammatically:

person: 3rd
number: singular
tense: present
aspect: imperfective
reflexive: yes, because of the -ся ending

Even though it’s related in form to находить (to find), находиться in this sense is a separate lexical verb meaning to be (located), not something like to find oneself in everyday speech here.

What does the -ся at the end of находится do?

The -ся (or -сь) ending marks the verb as reflexive or middle voice, but in many common verbs it has become part of the standard meaning and is not obviously “reflexive” anymore.

For находиться:

Literally, a reflexive form from находить (to find), but
In modern usage, it simply means to be located / to be situated.

So, находиться is learned as its own verb with the basic meaning to be (in a certain place), not as “to find oneself” in everyday usage.

Do we have to use находится here? Can we just say Начальная школа рядом с парком?

You can say Начальная школа рядом с парком without находится. That is a perfectly grammatical Russian sentence and very natural in speech.

Comparing the options:

Начальная школа рядом с парком.
– Neutral, common, especially in spoken language. Literally: The primary school (is) next to the park.
Начальная школа находится рядом с парком.
– Slightly more explicit and often a bit more formal or descriptive in style. Literally: The primary school is located next to the park.

Russian often omits “is” in the present tense, but when talking about physical location, speakers frequently use находиться to make it clearer that you’re talking about where something is.

Why don’t we use есть for “is” here, like Начальная школа есть рядом с парком?

In standard Russian, есть (present tense of быть, to be) is normally omitted in simple present-tense sentences:

Он врач. – He is a doctor. (not Он есть врач.)

If you say Начальная школа есть рядом с парком, it sounds either:

unnatural, or
very marked/emphatic, as if you’re stressing existence (like “There is a primary school near the park”), and even then most speakers would phrase that differently.

So for normal “X is Y” in the present tense:

either omit есть: Начальная школа рядом с парком.
or use находится when emphasizing location: Начальная школа находится рядом с парком.

What does рядом mean, and how does it work with с парком?

Рядом is an adverb meaning nearby, next to, close by.

The common pattern is:

рядом с + [instrumental case]

So:

рядом с домом – next to the house
рядом с парком – next to the park

In your sentence, рядом с парком literally means side by side with the park, i.e. next to the park / close to the park.

Why is it с парком? Doesn’t с usually mean “with”?

Yes, с very often means with, but it has several uses in Russian depending on context and the words it combines with.

Some common uses of с:

с + instrumental:
- with (together with someone/something):
  - с другом – with a friend
- in fixed expressions of proximity like рядом с:
  - рядом с парком – next to the park
с + genitive:
- from/off: с крыши – from the roof
- since (time): с утра – since morning

In the expression рядом с парком, с is part of a fixed pattern рядом с + instrumental meaning next to / by / near.

Why is it парком and not парк? What case is that?

Парком is the instrumental case of парк.

Declension of парк (masculine, inanimate, hard stem):

nominative singular: парк
genitive singular: парка
dative singular: парку
accusative singular: парк
instrumental singular: парком
prepositional singular: парке

The preposition с in the construction рядом с requires the instrumental:

рядом с парком – next to the park
рядом с домом – next to the house
рядом с рекой – next to the river

So the -ом ending on парком shows the instrumental singular.

Can we change the word order in this sentence?

Yes, Russian word order is more flexible than English. All of these are grammatical:

Начальная школа находится рядом с парком.
– Neutral, straightforward.
Рядом с парком находится начальная школа.
– Slight emphasis on рядом с парком (the location is what you’re focusing on).
Рядом с парком начальная школа.
– Verb omitted (understood), more elliptical, common in speech or headlines.

The basic meanings stay the same; changes in word order mainly affect emphasis or style, not grammar.

Are there other ways to say “next to the park” in Russian, and how are they different from рядом с парком?

Yes, some common alternatives are:

возле парка
около парка
у парка

All of these use the genitive case (парка), not instrumental.

Rough nuances (all mean “near the park”):

рядом с парком – next to / right by the park, neutral, very common.
возле парка, около парка – near the park, in the vicinity of the park; also common and neutral.
у парка – by the park / at the park; can sometimes feel a bit closer, like directly at the boundary, but often overlaps with возле/около in everyday usage.

In your sentence, рядом с парком is a very natural choice and sounds completely standard.