Saint Jeanne de Lestonnac School prides itself on the academic rigor built into the curriculum throughout the educational journey of its students. Students who started in preschool and are now graduating high school from Saint Jeanne’s are getting into universities such as MIT, Stanford, Yale, Berkley and UCLA.
So, how do you prepare a student who enters school at three years old for an educational journey that will lead them to great success? Erna Cortez, the Little Vineyard Coordinator, has some great insight into how to start.
“At Saint Jeanne’s, we can offer a customized educational model for each student. As these children are still in their core developmental stages, we want to allow them to not only succeed in a standardized curriculum, but we want them to excel and develop their God-given natural talents from a young age,” said Mrs. Cortez. The Little Vineyard uses several educational models to create a tailored curriculum for each student. A Desired Result Developmental Profile (DRDP) is established for each student, focusing on self-regulated approaches to learning, social and emotional development, literacy, cognition, and English language development.
The DRDP is then paired with materials provided by the Quality Start Riverside County (QSRC). “The QSRC program looks to promote teacher development so that we are up-to-date in what it means to assess our children meaningfully, present the information in an easy-to-understand manner, and keep things academically and culturally aware. The program has a tiered system that offers educational materials based on the thoroughness of a curriculum. As Saint Jeanne’s has a successful early childhood curriculum, QSRC was able to provide us with Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics materials so that we could further bolster the education,” explained Mrs. Cortez.
Understanding that the first five years of a child’s life are incredibly important for educational development, the Saint Jeanne’s Little Vineyard teachers continuously assess their own teaching methodology. First, the teachers analyze how they introduce and guide students through various subjects with regular meetings. They then build an educational binder that follows the students through their journey in the Little Vineyard so that they stay on track with their social-emotional and academic stages.
“Our teachers work really hard to learn a variety of strategies that need to be implemented to educate these students. They then go above and beyond that by personalizing each student’s curriculum. The Little Vineyard truly plants the seed for a successful whole-person education,” said Mrs. Cortez.