Stimulating work is required in every class, with a maximum of twenty students per teacher. The goal is a child who can handle the responsibility of their own work.
Every grade also gets Spanish twice a week, music, art, a weekly hour in the computer lab, and a Chromebook or tablet in the classroom. Class size is capped at twenty.
We encourage students to reach beyond their known abilities. We do not push them. We present many situations for success and let them find out what they can do.
One teacher, no more than twenty children, so participation is expected rather than optional.
The same programs the public districts use, so a child moving in or out is never behind or repeating.
Solid direction first, then the responsibility to carry it themselves. Confidence follows.
Also taught: language arts and phonics, handwriting, spelling, social studies and Spanish.
Our own handbook puts it plainly: the experience of leadership is what distinguishes this school. Not a club, not an elective. It is how the place is run.
The Senate leads on behavior and attitude across the school, represents what students need, and is the link between the children and the administration. They co-sponsor the fundraisers that pay for programs.
Children learn to initiate, guide and direct while holding to the school’s three principles. Leadership shows up in the obvious ways and in a hundred small ones, and it is always learned by doing.
Every student is a significant participant in the life of the school. In a class capped at twenty, there is nowhere to hide and no reason to.
Small classes are good for learning, but children also need room to build their own friendships. Four supervised free-play breaks a day is how they get it.
Teachers supervise the playground on purpose, so they see how a child actually gets on with other children. That is where most of what a teacher knows about your child comes from.
Teachers hold extra help sessions in their classrooms after the day ends. Not a referral, not a waiting list. The same teacher, the same room, the same afternoon.
Our graduates go on to selective private schools and to public middle and junior highs. The standard we hold to is that they are top students wherever they land.
The California-adopted program. Children read with a pencil in hand and write about what they read, alone and in pairs, returning to the same text until they own it.
Covers California standards with a write-in student edition, practice pages and vocabulary work. Desert Sands Unified adopted the same program, so math skills carry over cleanly.
Houghton Mifflin, meeting the California Science Content Standards. Life, earth and physical science taught through inquiry and investigation rather than memorizing.
Kindergarten-Prep learns basic strokes before letter forms, using the A Beka ABC Writing Tablet with letter houses to guide placement. Kindergarten through 6th use Zaner-Bloser D’Nealian, with cursive introduced in second grade.
McGraw Hill Wonders spelling, Kindergarten through 6th. Words in context, think and practice, proofreading and writing, vocabulary, then the test. Bonus words are added weekly from the readers, and the spelling book runs one grade level ahead.
Modern Curriculum Press levels A through D for Kindergarten through 2nd, plus A Beka Language 1, 2 and 3 for 1st through 3rd. Short and long vowels, then comprehension and critical thinking, then the link between phonics, reading and writing.
Zaner-Bloser GUM for grades 2 and up, with the Scott Foresman grammar companion in Kindergarten through 5th. Fifty short lessons, each in five steps: see the skill, learn it, practice it, write with it, then reinforce it. Meets 100 percent of the California standards for English.
Scholastic News for 1st through 6th brings current events, science and social studies at a child’s level, in print and digital. Studies Weekly covers the California History and Social Science standards, one publication a week.
Thirty minutes, twice a week. Greetings, food, numbers, the alphabet, vocabulary and sentence writing, taught in a real setting so children hear the language as it is actually spoken.
Spatial relationships, perspective, design, composition, color, line and contrast, taught at the right level for the age. Watercolor, pastels, pen and ink, printing, colored pencil, scratch board, clay, collage, paper sculpture, three-dimensional projects and computer-enhanced art.
Singing, auto harp, rhythm and pitch. Twice a week for grades 2 and up, from Kindergarten-Prep onward, using Music and Me from Holt Rinehart. Every grade also reports on the performing arts and music appreciation.
Every grade from Kindergarten-Prep up gets an hour in the lab each week, and every child has a Chromebook or a tablet in their own classroom for independent and class work.
Every classroom has Chromebooks and tablets, with seventy added this year. The lab is run by a Microsoft Certified Professional.
Keyboarding, how a computer actually works, the basics of the internet, and real-world tools including Microsoft Office.
Specialized computer classes, yearbook cover design, science fair projects and graphic design work.
Staffed time after school for homework, extra credit, or quiet reading.
Tutorial programs run through our own teachers and outside instructors for children who need support in a particular area.
The Riverside County branch on Fred Waring Street is three to four miles away, and the Indio Public Library is on Civic Center.
Tours run every week — in person, or by video call for families abroad.
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