Santa Cruz Children's School

My daughter started 1st grade at SCCS last fall, and she has been having a wonderful experience there!  We love the personalize core subject learning that allows everyone to move on on their own pace without feeling either bored or overly challenged.  We also love the wealth of high quality enrichment classes that the school provides.  How lucky the kids are to have classes in Spanish, music instrument, singing, dance, drama, drawing, STEAM, history, biology, cooking, etc every week! I wish I had this diversity of learning when I was in elementary school. The school has mixed age classes, and the kids get to have rich interactions with both older and younger kids so that they not only learn to learn from adults, but also learn to learn from each other. This will in time proves to be a more important kind of learning as they grow older.The teachers and staff are wonderful at the school.  They are both very kind and very firm in setting boundaries and help students learn to have healthy interactions with others.  We love that they do actively teach positive characters in school, focusing on one character a month.  So far they have discussed characters such as punctuality, empathy, positivity, inclusiveness, etc. I also found the teachers all very conscientious, and very devoted in helping each child learn and grow.  Our daughter loves her main teacher Angelique.  She always runs to give her a bear hug when she goes to school each morning.  All the other teachers are great too.The families are wonderful too.  Everyone is very kind and supportive of each other, and many parents devote a lot of time to help at the school. Overall we feel very lucky to have found SCCS for our kids.
Jan 8th, 2020

I Love this school! I feel so fortunate that my kids are a part of this amazing unique school/community. The faculty are so dedicated and care for each child in such a personal way, my kids have thrived in this caring community of learners. The school mission really sums it all up and is 100% accurate regarding what makes this school so special: SMALL SCHOOL-BIG HEARTEducation can help children lead creative, constructive, and thoughtful lives.Schools should be beautiful, clean, and healthful.Children should have regular contact with the natural environment.Every child has the right to literacy.Art and music are important parts of human expression.A child's understanding is enriched through first-hand experience.Science, math, and technology are tools that help us think about and describe the world.Each child brings a broad range of experience and knowledge.Students need the support of teachers who know them well.Teachers must have time to help each child individually.Parents are an important part of the educational community.Learning is intrinsically enjoyable.
Feb 4th, 2016

Terrific school. Our two kids love it and are getting a great education. Our 2nd grader currently gets instruction in math, reading, astronomy, biology, history, singing, recorder, drawing, movement, PE, Spanish, and origami art. Older kids do school newspaper and put on a play; everyone plays an instrument. It's more affordable than other private schools. Great value.
Jan 24th, 2016

My son has attended SCCS for the last two years and loves it. On the drive home from school he says, "I love my school!" over and over and generally does not want to leave. He begs to stay for aftercare so that he can play with his friends who range across the grades (this is one of the many wonderful things about the school and its small size). The school itself has a wonderful and balanced approach to academics from an early age. There is an emphasis on reading, math and writing from kindergarten onwards but every child moves at their own pace. They all do, however, spend time working on these skills (and parents should be aware of this). Our son is quite excited to learn math and to read so this seemed appropriate for him as a child but it may not work for all children. The school and teachers are also open to scaling back on feedback from parents. When we thought the academic demands were getting a bit intense, they changed the schedule to allow for more recess.My son also loves the enrichment classes. Some of these are taught by talented parents and the subjects range from history to astronomy (as other reviewers have mentioned, taught by the chair of one of the top astronomy departments in the country) to the amazing ethno-biology class, sewing, mindfulness - the list goes on. All these classes are taught across the grades so that the children are learning the same things at the same time but at different levels of sophistication. The result is that I regularly hear my son talking about his classes with older children and listening in on their conversations. Generally, having contact with the older kids stimulates my son to learn and be curious about a range of things from math to chess to meditation.The school also has a wonderful arts program. Music, singing and dance instruction are central parts of the school curriculum and the whole school works toward the production of a year-end concert or a play, alternating every year. All around, this is a wonderful school. We visited many of the area schools (Westlake, Davenport, Gateway, Spring Hill and Santa Cruz Montessori) and this was by far our first choice. Our final decision was not made based on finances but it should be noted that SCCS is also by far the most affordable of all the schools mentioned.
Feb 3rd, 2016

We have our son in 1st grade and plan to have our daughter there too. This school is an amazing hidden treasure. Before enrolling in kindergarten, we toured *and* visited during class time (9 am) Spring Hill, Gateway, Santa Cruz Montessori and Santa Cruz Children School (in terms of public schools, we also visited Westlake and Davenport Elementary). We had an opening in all of these schools. We also went to the independent school fair. Santa Cruz Children's School (SCCS) really stood out. In the tour, we were amazed to hear the teachers describe their pedagogy - we are both UCSC faculty - and these people are geniuses. In particular, Andrea, the kindergarten and first grade teacher has developed an incredibly innovative and effective method for teaching and engaging students. We visited this school last, and when we heard the teachers speak, we knew there would be magic in the classroom. This impression was confirmed when we visited the school during class time. More than in any other school we visited, kids were working diligently, composed, with engagement and focus. What really stands out for me is the passion and respect for learning that is core to this school - and the positive expectation each student reach "excellence" - wherever that might be for each individual. This is a place where children believe learning is the coolest thing possible. When you enter the building in the morning, before classes start, some kids are chatting, some are playing, many play chess, or practice their instruments. The level of teaching is targeted to each child and a variety of abilities. You have first graders who read at first grade levels and first graders that read at 5th grade level, for example. Each child has a communal learning time, but is also individually followed. That said, the goal is to impart the highest academic standards you will find anywhere. In particular, the emphasis on science and writing is remarkable. For us, getting this "basics" right and at a high level of proficiency was essential in choosing the school. As many others have commented, a great plus of the school is the wide class offering. Our son loves his classes, and the variety is amazing: geography, astronomy, botany, two different art teachers (painting and manual arts), singing in English and Spanish, Spanish language, mindfulness, the newspaper, history... you name it! Instructors are extremely talented and work in tandem with teachers. (I mean: my sons is being introduced to astronomy by one of the top astronomers in the world! How cool is that!)  And this is all from kindergarten onwards. We can't even recall all the great things he is constantly exposed to, and every day at pick up he tells us what he has learned - whether it's about the reason for seasons, or the construction techniques employed by the Aztecs, or origami animals, or sewing a felt bag... Finally: discipline is very taken seriously. Action is immediately taken in the face of disruptive or anti-social behavior. They don't have a special need staff on site - with 50 students, they simply don't have the resources for that. The school founders were committed to a fairly strict approach to discipline (e.g. misbehavior was punished with skipping recess). This was problematic for some parents, including us, who come from a positive discipline background - yet the founders were clearly much loved by the students, as our son misses them and loves when they pop in for a visit. They retired in June 2015. The negative reviews refer to that period (please note, reviewer AB left in Fall 2014).  The new director takes a very different approach. While discipline is still important, of course, the approach is much closer to positive discipline, and works well. I encourage interested parents to visit the school during the tour and during class time. Direct observation was extremely helpful in our choice.
Feb 3rd, 2016