Area Private Schools offer Strong Academic Programs for All Grade Levels

The old adage “live and learn” is alive and well here in the Wellington area. The living is wonderful, and the learning opportunities include some of the best private schools in the nation at all grade levels, preparing students for the next stage of their education.

 

American Heritage School

As one of South Florida’s top private schools, the nationally recognized American Heritage School teaches knowledge, integrity and compassion to pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students, with a low student to faculty ratio of eight to one.

The fully accredited school features a 240-acre campus in Delray Beach, as well as a 40-acre campus in Plantation in Broward County. The co-ed, non-sectarian college preparatory day school has an enrollment of approximately 4,300 students.

“One of our strengths is the broadness of our curriculum with almost 300 different course offerings in the high school alone, including 30 different Advanced Placement courses, with the highest passing rate in Palm Beach County, a 92 percent passing rate,” American Heritage Vice President Dr. Douglas Laurie said.

One key strength of the school is its strong specialty programs. “We have a pre-medical program and a pre-law program,” Laurie said. “Right now, we are building a multi-million-dollar science research and engineering building for our engineering, robotics and science research program.”

A key strength of the programs is who is teaching them.

“All three of these programs are taught by medical doctors, attorneys and engineers who are on staff teaching the courses,” Laurie said. “These are courses that no other school has, like medical terminology, embryology, pathology, electrical engineering, trial advocacy, moot court, criminal law, mock trial, family law, business law, civil engineering — and they’re all advanced courses.”

American Heritage students also get real-world experience outside the classroom. “Students can serve internships and visit with doctors and lawyers and engineers, and see the practice of medicine and law and engineering to help them decide if that’s what they want to do,” Laurie said. “That’s one of the unique things that we have.”

The school also has an extremely accomplished math competition program. “We are the number three private school in the nation in math competition, and the number one school in Palm Beach County,” he said. “In the science competition, we’re one of the best in the country.”

All these programs make sure students have the ability to shine academically.

“We’re wont to find competitive outlets for students with high academic standards to be able to compete, and so we make sure that we challenge them in the classroom and we treat these academic competitions as a team, like a lot of schools might treat a sports team, because the students are competitive and highly intelligent,” Laurie said. “We want to make sure they have a chance to shine, and it bodes well for the college resumes.”

Students from the school, representing the United States and 43 other countries from around the world, have three times the national average placement at prestigious U.S. colleges and universities.

There is also an award-winning fine arts program with 75 choices for students. “So, if someone’s interested in the fine arts, it’s also a great place to be,” Laurie said.

The school provides a rigorous private school education with participation in community involvement, a wide variety of service activities and a technologically advanced and well-rounded environment. Express bus transportation is offered from the Wellington area, which is home of many American Heritage students.

Each campus features athletic teams with a no-cut policy, extensive after school activities, a gymnasium, Olympic-size pool and tennis complex. The school seeks to graduate students prepared in mind, body and spirit to maximize their potential and meet the requirements of the colleges of their choice.

For information about American Heritage School, call (561) 495-7272 or visit www.ahschool.com.

 

Wellington Preparatory School

The Wellington Preparatory School offers an accelerated program for kindergarten through sixth grade. Its mission is to deliver a top academic education while providing supportive co-curricular activities in a co-educational, non-sectarian, private school environment.

The school was founded by Jeffrey Altschuler after a successful career growing Meritas Schools, a premium kindergarten through 12th grade family of college preparatory schools around the world.

Wellington Prep follows an accelerated program that encompasses a modified gifted curriculum with various supplemental programs.

“We are an advanced college preparatory school always staying one grade level ahead, with a small ratio of 15 students per teacher,” Principal Sandy Montoya explained.

The core curriculum includes math, science, social studies and language arts, including reading, writing and phonics.

“Co-curricular activities provide for the study of violin, art, karate and Spanish,” said Montoya, adding that Wellington Prep students also learn about health and nutrition. “The program is highly focused on academics with an emphasis on security.”

As academic performance is directly related to instructional time spent on each subject, the school devotes specific hours to core subjects. Additional co-curricular activities are available before or after school for parents requiring additional time at the beginning or end of the school day.

Each student learns conversational Spanish, as well as how to read and write the language, and students take a violin class. In addition to helping with the music education and coordination, the study of a non-fretted instrument has been shown to assist with math and reading skills.

Children are exposed to the lives and art of the great masters at each grade level, with a more in-depth experience as they grow older in the Meet the Masters art curriculum.

For more information about the Wellington Preparatory School, call (561) 649-7900 or visit www.wellingtonprep.org.

 

Education Place

When a flexible schedule is of paramount importance in a student’s life, Education Place in Wellington is on hand to meet their educational requirements.

“We provide for professional children, athletes, those whose parents have constrained schedules and students who find other environments too overwhelming or prefer flexibility in their education,” explained Judy Blake, director of the Lower School at Education Place. “The school is by no means easy. There’s a lot of accountability for the student.”

Nationally and internationally accredited, the school covers grades one through 12 and teaches many equestrians in the Wellington area from around the world, allowing these students to continue their educations by working from outside a traditional school.

“We have students who participate in polo, jumping and dressage, plus child actors and athletes,” Blake said. “They work individually or in small groups, on-site or as they travel. We have a very small population of about 100 students with a small ratio of seven students for each teacher.”

The Education Place program is tailored to each student.

“These teachers can provide a lot of instructional support depending on what works best for the student,” Blake explained. “They get to know the students very well. The program is student-driven with the children managing their time and their academics. They take personal responsibility, learn to be independent and manage their time and their academics, even in the first grade. As they grow older, they are given more demands and responsibility. Our high school graduates find they can go to any college they want and frequently have scholarships available to them.”

Education Place runs 12 months a year because students travel with their sport or career, and this maximizes their opportunities to learn.

“The school also serves the general population, as well as students who are professionals and children of professionals,” Blake said. “It succeeds whenever flexibility is a big factor.”

For more information, call (561) 753-6563 or visit www.1educationplace.com.  

 

Temple Beth Torah’s Leonie Arguetty Preschool

Temple Beth Torah’s Leonie Arguetty Preschool for children ages 2 to 5 is a place where little learners thrive academically, in an atmosphere of joy, curiosity, self-esteem, friendship and respect.

As the only NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) and Gold Seal accredited program in the western communities, its educational strategies are based on cutting-edge research in best practices for young children.

“Our mission is to provide academic readiness, and to instill cultural identity, Jewish values and character development in all of our students,” said Sandy Wilensky, the school’s director.

The program offers a combination of secular and Judaic developmental curricula, designed to empower all children to reach their potential. Challenges that exceed the level of present mastery are offered throughout the day, providing opportunities to learn, practice and expand newly acquired skills and recognize and nourish individual variations.

The preschool’s integrated academic program embeds all of the learning objectives in children’s experiences so that each child’s learning is unique and meaningful. “For children under 6, the research on early learning shows that more of what is learned must be meaningful on the day it is learned, in addition to its context for future learning,” Wilensky explained.

In addition to the indoor classrooms with centers for learning, extensive outdoor spaces include gardens planted and cared for by the children and materials to learn fine motor control, such as outdoor chalkboards and drawing boards.

Throughout the day, the school’s teachers combine carefully framed learning objectives with the spontaneity that emerges from children active in the learning process.

Themed areas of study, including problem solving, scientific exploration, math, language, writing and literacy, along with creative art, music, movement and dramatic play, are an integral part of every child’s day. The Assessments Teaching Strategies GOLD method assures that the children are progressing in all areas of kindergarten readiness.

For more information about Temple Beth Torah’s Leonie Arguetty Preschool, call (561) 793-2649 or visit www.templebethtorahpre school.com.––