Few parenting decisions are as pivotal as how to educate your child. With an ever-growing number of options for South Florida schooling, including public and private school environments, it can be overwhelming for parents and guardians to decipher which is the best option for their child’s immediate needs and future. Fortunately, there is ample evidence that private schools excel in all essential areas of a child’s developmental needs across all ages.

Read on to discover how private schools achieve an intentional and balanced school environment for students’ academic, socio-emotional, and creative success. And learn how JLP Inspiring Minds Private School in Tamarac can help children of all ages thrive.

Providing Quality and Innovative Education

When you consider your child’s school options, one of the first criteria you’ll look at is educational value and curriculum. Did you know private school children score higher on test scores across all subjects than public schools? This elevation in student outcomes is often due to the increased flexibility a private school has over its public counterpart. From flexible classroom layouts to less rigidity for standardized testing compliance, private schools can offer more customized approaches to learning. This freedom allows private schools to structure classrooms according to how children naturally learn and engage.

Private school classrooms are often more creative, explorative, interactive, and child-development-focused. At JLP Inspiring Minds Private School, for instance, learning is centered around individualized attention, creativity, freedom of expression, and critical thinking. “Our staff fosters [children’s natural curiosity] by encouraging innovative ways of thinking: a skill that will serve them well in all facets of life.”

Developing Emotional Intelligence

In addition to traditional pedagogies of academic learning, a private school environment will also support your child in developing emotional intelligence. Emotional development and learning also prepare students to decode their own and others’ emotions, reduce anxiety, advocate for themselves, work well with others, and accept constructive criticism and new ideas.

At JLP Inspiring Minds Private School, we focus on the five elements of emotional learning:

• Self-awareness
• Empathy
• Social skills
• Self-regulation
• Motivation

Emotional intelligence skills grow and change as students do, and private schools are equipped with the flexibility and attentiveness to continue to meet students’ evolving needs. For example, preschoolers need to learn emotion regulation and cooperative play, while third graders require guidance for a healthy sense of self and social relationships. When classroom instruction supports these skills alongside academics, it creates a balanced learning environment.

Offering Individualized Support in Smaller Classrooms

Growing class sizes are an increasing concern that has fueled teacher shortages and, ultimately, struggling students. Private schools continue to thrive with their intimate classroom settings and well-supported educators. Small class sizes meet students’ immediate and long-term needs because issues can be addressed more quickly.

As BCTF (BC Teachers Federation) points out, teachers can spend more time getting to know each student in smaller classrooms, building those supportive relationships in a more customized way. Smaller classrooms across all grades have proven higher student test scores and greater numbers of on-time high school graduation.

Smaller classrooms also support collaborative learning, more inclusive learning environments, and improved student mental health. Other proven benefits of smaller private school classrooms include:

• Reducing class size by just three students can increase a student’s lifetime earnings by about 3%.
• Students in smaller classes outperformed their peers in larger classes on standardized tests through eighth grade.
• Students who were assigned to smaller classes in grades K-3 had better college outcomes.
• Students in small classes have better attendance, engage more, and exhibit fewer behavioral problems.​​​​​​

Offering Creative and Artistic Expression

Education guru Charlotte Mason discovered that a child’s learning is most successful when their imagination is engaged. Written memorization and text-book-heavy instruction offer minimal retention or interest. But when stories come alive and creative outlets are available, children of all ages become more wholly engaged and excited, and their brain actively stores what they are learning.

While many of the nation’s public schools struggle with funding their arts and extracurricular activities, private schools prioritize their programs. Art, music, sports, and dance are important for kids’ learning and development. They engage all the senses, they activate both the right and left hemispheres of the brain, and they tap into children’s mental, emotional, and physical states simultaneously. When the whole child is engaged, the whole child is developing and improving.

Children are naturally creatively inclined, so integrating artistic elements into academic learning is an exceptional technique. JLP Inspiring Minds Private School subscribes to this strategy by implementing creativity and free expression in the classrooms. Students get to choose options such as favorite colors and activities. Physical fitness, play, and art projects are common with all our programs. And private school settings encourage age-appropriate ways to maintain the support of creativity and imagination for all students.

Facilitating Good Character Development

What we know is not more important than who we are. Adolescent learning ought to foster the development of a child’s mind and character. As important as literacy and arithmetic are, integrity, ingenuity, respect, and confidence also weigh heavily on being a well-adjusted, successful human. Private school environments emphasize positive character traits and dedicate themes and activities to teaching them.

Character traits are successfully taught both directly and indirectly. Literal discussions and active goal-setting help students comprehend the concepts. Real-life applications in classrooms and during students’ free time, like lunch and recess, help to conceptualize and implement them. Private schools can achieve both of these tactics with their strong character focus. They also have the advantage of attentive student observation with a greater staff-to-student ratio, allowing them to step in and help students apply the character traits in their interactions.

A Private School Provides Overall Whole-Child Learning and Well-Being

Private School environments create an incredible learning atmosphere and whole-child development for children of all ages. The many intricate needs of children are complex and ever-changing. Having these needs accurately assessed and effectively tended to in private schools is what sets them apart and allows students to thrive.

Discover all the exceptional methods of JLP Inspiring Minds Private School. Bring all the benefits of private school learning to your children this upcoming school year. Contact our school online or call 954-746-5437 with and questions you have or to set up a school tour!