El Montecito School San Roque

The middle school at Riviera Ridge is incredible. The program is extremely thoughtfully designed with this age group in mind. Everything from the honors program, office hours and elective choices are designed to give kids agency and offer ample opportunities for every child to thrive and develop skills needed in high school and college. The children are encouraged to develop relationships with their teachers and ask for help on their own, without a parent intervening. This is all done so sweetly and thoughtfully in a safe, caring and forgiving environment where taking risks are encouraged. The program is run by an incredible administrator and she really understands this unique and vulnerable age group. Likewise, the teachers are all so wonderful and really want the students to succeed. They love working with middle schoolers and love seeing them have aha moments. Unlike other local private schools, the school offers the kids so many choices - they take an elective class 3x per week and the elective choices are vast. There’s an array of optional honors classes to choose from - math, creative writing, philosophy, model UN, Spanish, coding are performing arts and studio art are some of the options. This really allows the kids to dive deep and/or prepare themselves for advanced classes in high school. Three days per week the kids get to go to office hours, where they work 1 on 1 with their teachers to get help on their schoolwork and/or complete homework. They also have the option to take PE at school, play on a school sports team or do independent PE and get out of school earlier if they play a sport outside of the school. I wasn’t so sure how my son would like block scheduling, but he loves it. It allows for more time to do things like labs and tests. He has fewer classes per day, so he’s more organized. Because he doesn’t have the same classes everyday, he has a couple days to do his homework. It also offers him more time to get help if needed. Social emotional learning is woven into the program - they truly take care of the whole child and care about their development as a person. Each child has an advisor and the advisor monitors their progress and keeps keeps accountable. Little things, such as the “no penalty for late work” policy is so helpful for kids of this age group. It cuts down on stress and anxiety. This program truly prepares kids for high school and we are so thankful we found it for our son. What a wonderful school!

My child absolutely thrives here! She has strong friendships with students in many grade levels, as well as the teachers (who are so fantastic!). The staff is welcoming and as curious and open-minded as the kids are. In her previous school, my child said she wasn't learning anything. "It was a lot of standing in line and waiting." Now she pursues passions projects, has her ideas listened to, and learns at her own accelerated pace. Everyone at the school--teachers and students alike--seems so happy to be on campus, learning and playing together. It's a wonderfully compassionate, inclusive, intellectually stimulating environment.