Laurel Elementary School

Harris Bilingual School's dual language approach does not work well to teach native English-speaking students to communicate in Spanish. From first grade through third grade, students focus mainly on their native language (English or Spanish) in two separate groups. Starting in fourth grade, there is an attempt to merge the two groups and increase the amount of Spanish instruction, however, at that point, native English-speaking students do not have the Spanish-language foundation necessary to understand the grade-level texts that continue to be used year after year. Students are not encouraged to make an effort when it comes to speaking in their non-native language. Teachers often translate texts into English to "help" students understand. This doesn't help students to step outside their comfort zone of their native language. Harris switches between English weeks and Spanish weeks, the goal being to speak the language of the week. However, there is very little Spanish spoken in either week by teachers - particularly to native English-speaking students.

My husband found Rivendell online when we decided to relocate to Fort Collins several years ago from out of state and it, honestly, felt a little too good to be true. We wanted a school that perpetuated a JOY for learning while challenging our kids to push beyond their current abilities. We wanted a school that understood the importance of social-emotional learning, was rooted in kindness and partnered with us to help instill confidence in our kids. Since we were coming from out of state, we also wanted a place to start building our community. Flash forward several years and now our older son is on his third year at Rivendell and our younger son is in his first year. We actually ended up moving our younger son to Rivendell earlier than we intended since he was being bullied at another school and the administrators refused to address the issue. Now that he is at Rivendell the bullying has stopped and he is thriving! We also have developed great friendships with other families at Rivendell - it is at the core of our community.The administrators, teachers and staff continue to blow the high expectations we had going in out of the water. As we hear about the ups and downs that others have experienced at other schools within Fort Collins, we continue to feel grateful for this gem of a school and that our boys get to have these precious and formative years there.