Our Redeemer Lutheran School is the best pre-school and kindergarten in the Valley at any price. If you have high expectations for safety, curriculum, cleanliness, professionalism and overall environment look no further than Our Redeemer School, which while modest in cost is not outmatched by the most expensive schools anywhere. Period. The school sets well back from the street and is shielded from street view by both a fence and foliage. You gain entrance through a secure door to which the parents have the code and enter directly to the office, with friendly, knowledgeable staff. Passing though the office you enter onto the school grounds with a park-like, well equipped playground with plenty of grass for children to run and play along with a shade tree or two.
My daughter's pre-school classroom was well organized with individual labeled bins for each child's backpack, a dedicated space on the back counter for each child's lunchbox or snack, a play corner with wooden kitchen and toys, a brightly carpeted area for circle time with an upright piano for sing alongs, and a long table next to the windows with beautifully printed name cards neatly arranged for desk work, art projects, and lunch/snacktime/parties. The walls are filled with colorful pictures and sayings related to character values like honesty, kindness, and cooperation. The bathrooms are immaculate with gorgeous handpainted murals depicting sea life with child size, individual stalls. (Many schools I visited had one open bathroom where the children could come and go as they please).
The pre-K and Kindergarten curriculum is academic-based and developmentally appropriate. After one year, my daughter will be entering kindergarten already sounding out words/sight reading, printing,, adding and subtracting. She knows multiple songs, days of the week, months of the year, holidays and their meanings.
The Director of Our Redeemer is warm, friendly, and caring as demonstrated on my daughter's first day of school: The director was observing the playground outside her classroom when we arrived (she's also a teacher) and called over my daughter's future classmates that were playing at recess and introduced her as their new friend and them to her as her new friends. The children held her hand as they showed her around, which contrasted sharply with our experience at a previous school where my daughter was left to wander alone on an asphalt playground, without welcome or notice.
If you are searching for a safe, beautiful, dynamic school and/or child care in the San Fernando Valley, you will not be disappointed with Our Redeemer Lutheran School. It is first rate - I only wish they continued beyond Kindergarten.... read more
