Elementary Schools

Amity Creek Magnet at Thompson School

About the Program:
The word amity means belonging, cooperation, togetherness and goodwill. This description builds the cornerstones for our lives at school as we emphasize community, choice-making, acceptance, risk-taking and the celebration of our social, emotional and academic journeys. Amity Creek at its core is a family.

Amity Creek is rooted in a sense of community and is a place where parents, children and staff are all valued and respected. The days at Amity Creek begin with Community Time, in which students, staff and parents gather together to celebrate the start of the day.

Amity Creek emphasizes academics and achieving high standards, while also helping kids develop social and emotional skills. Students learn they have a voice and advocate for their own learning and growing. Children are encouraged to take risks as they learn how to make good choices for themselves and their community.

The classrooms are designed to honor the community feeling, as students work at small group tables or gather together on risers to share and learn. Students and staff at Amity all know each other’s names and students call staff members by their first names. Students have several choice times throughout the day to mix between grade levels. Rather than giving grades, teachers create an end-of-the-year narrative for each student that includes information on academic and social, emotional growth.

Finding a good fit: Amity Creek is a good fit for parents and children who want a school with a close-knit community. Amity parents help support the school in many ways big and small. The goal of family engagement is to foster a true sense of community.

Highland Magnet at Kenwood School

About the Program:
Highland focuses on strong academic fundamentals and is committed to ensuring students reach their highest academic potential, with an emphasis on direct instruction in core subjects. Students develop strong basic skills in reading, writing and math. For a dedicated part of each day, students also learn through the Scottish Storyline Method. This innovative learning approach, which has been used internationally for more than 40 years, is continually adapted and updated to meet current standards. During each Storyline, students create a setting, become characters and solve problems as incidents in the story unfold. For example, students might become astronauts of the future with a mission to colonize Mars, create and operate a bakery or become pioneers on the Oregon Trail. The learning is hands-on and requires cooperative learning as students collaborate and work together.

Finding a good fit: Highland is a particularly good fit for students who are inquisitive and curious, as students can explore their interests to the fullest through open-ended Storyline activities. The school appreciates a high level of parent involvement in support of Storyline and all Highland activities.

Juniper Elementary School

About the Program:
Juniper is Bend-La Pine Schools technology magnet. Our vision is to create a learning environment that uses best practices and 21st Century tools to support academic excellence and create future-ready students. Juniper is a learning community of children, staff and parents that enhances student’s lives by engaging them in meaningful learning experiences through the integration of technology. These experiences empower the students to become creative, productive, socially responsible, life-long learners and problem solvers who successfully contribute to a culturally diverse and technologically evolving society. Technology will be the vehicle by which students can reach their optimal learning. We believe that using technology will maximize student engagement, increase feedback for growth, extend differentiation and prepare our students for the changing future. Many students have digital tools through the Bend-La Pine Schools digital conversion initiative. Juniper’s vision and goals are driven by technology. We spend many hours on professional training and development in technology to increase our “tech fluency” which translates to best practices in instruction. This effort directly benefits our students. In 2015, Juniper was named a Model School by the Oregon Department of Education for our academic growth and received a Level Five, the highest rating, on our school report card. Juniper is also an Apple Distinguished School and currently has one Apple Distinguished Educator on staff, in addition to the 2016 Oregon Teacher of the Year.

Finding a good fit: If your child loves technology and wants to be using tech as a tool for their learning on a day-to-day basis, then Juniper is a place for them.

Spanish Dual Immersion Program

Bear Creek Elementary School, High Desert Middle School and Bend Senior High School

About the Program:
Bend-La Pine Schools offers a Spanish Dual Immersion program located at Bear Elementary School and High Desert Middle School. Students enrolled in this program learn to become fluent in Spanish and English and learn to appreciate other cultures.

At both Bear Creek and High Desert, the Spanish dual immersion program is a strand within the school that involves some classrooms at each grade level. Beginning in kindergarten, students receive academic instruction in Spanish and English, with the goal of creating bilingual learners.

The rigorous curriculum matches the content taught throughout Bend-La Pine Schools; the only difference is that dual immersion students learn in both Spanish and English. About 80 percent of the instruction in kindergarten takes place in Spanish, and 20 percent takes place in English. This ratio gradually changes over time and by fifth grade, instruction is evenly split between Spanish and English.

The student population is divided equally between native Spanish and native English speakers. The research-based program allows Spanish-speaking students to learn English, while also retaining their home language. English-speaking students acquire Spanish at no cost to their academic achievement. The schools celebrate their multicultural atmosphere with the goal of creating global citizens who are bilingual and bi-literate.

Finding a good fit: Families should be ready to embrace the bilingual and bicultural nature of the program.

Westside Village Magnet at Kingston School

About the Program:
Westside Village Magnet School is a nurturing, stimulating and democratic learning environment. We are a true community, driven and united by our belief—all children can be academically successful, happy, hopeful, contributing community members. We inspire our students and parent community to be engaged, thriving citizens, striving together to make the future a better place. We personalize learning by meeting children wherever they are, and helping them to realize their infinite potential. We empower our students to think and advocate for themselves and others. We learn together by engaging in real world projects that help us become stewards of our community, the earth and its diverse cultures.

Our community is passionate about understanding the diverse needs of our learners. We are an inclusive mixed age K-8 school. Students are not boxed into individual grades or labels; they are fluidly and flexibly grouped throughout the day in a highly structured, well thought out, purposeful and meaningful way. Students are encouraged to solve rigorous real life problems by applying critical and creative thinking across the curriculum.

Students at Westside Village are encouraged to participate in a democratic school in a variety of ways. As they grow, they take on more leadership roles. For example, students may write proposals to solve problems, start new activities, help people in need or aid community issues. The school also focuses on community service and the outside environment. Ultimately, the goal of this approach is to help students learn to advocate for themselves, each other, our natural world and create a world in which they aspire to live.

Finding a good fit: Parents whose children attend Westside Village engage in the community, appreciate innovation and are prepared to engage in an education environment that is likely different than what they experienced as children.