Peninsula Heritage School – Tucked away off Palos Verdes Drive North and Rolling Hills Road is the woodsy little three acre campus of Peninsula Heritage School. The school is both a high-achieving academic setting and a magical kingdom of a kind for the 108 kids who are students at Peninsula Heritage.
“One of the things that makes us unique is our children are immersed in academics and the arts in small classes for full days,” said Joan Behrens, the school’s director of advancement. “We have excellent teachers who are passionate about education. There is a feeling on our campus that is warm and loving and inclusive and very esteeming for the individual student, as well as for everyone who comes here – the parents and definitely the teachers. We appreciate the individuality of children, their diversity, and we have child-specific learning.”
The school, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, emphasizes six character qualities: caring, respect, self-control, positive attitude, perseverance, and gratitude.
“Those six character qualities just permeate our whole school,” Behrens said. “You hear teachers talking about them, each grade put on an assembly during the year that takes one of those character qualities, they have songs, they have different presentations…and we see it in the way children act. They have a lot of fun here, but they are very well-balanced and they are happy.”
Behrens says that interested parents and students can visit the school any time to get a first hand glimpse of what makes Peninsula Heritage such a longstanding and successful school – one that counts among its alumni current students at Princeton, Yale, MIT, and Cal Tech.
“Our tag line is ‘Celebrating Childhood through academics and the arts’ and that really summarizes what we do here,” she said. “We feel children should have wonderful, beautiful childhoods, which sets the basis for their whole lives, really. There are happy children here, and they are doing wonderful academic work.”
Peninsula Heritage School, 26944 Rolling Hills Road, Rolling Hills Estates, 310-541-4795, peninuslaheritageschool.org
Runner-up: Chadwick School, 26800 Academy Dr., Palos Verdes Peninsula. 310-377-1543.
