California - Private Catholic Independent Schools

Kolbe Academy is celebrating its twenty-third year as a private, independent Catholic school. Located in the beautiful Napa Valley, the school adheres to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. The Board of Trustees, administrator, faculty and staff of Kolbe Academy make an annual Profession of Faith to the Holy Roman Catholic Church and Oath of Fidelity to the Magisterium.

Kolbe Academy embraces the principle of doing all things for the greater glory of God - ad majorem Dei gloriam. Detailed outlines of these principles can be found in Implementation of Ignatian Education in the Classroom by Francis Crotty, derived principally from the teachings of the Jesuits and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola.

The ultimate end of Ignatian education is Christian perfection here below. At Kolbe Academy, we are called to assist those committed to our charge to an understanding of the vocation that God has called them. To that end we help these young people to be firmly Catholic with the consent of all their faculties, and to express their Catholicity consistently in though, judgement, and action.

Both the day school and the home school programs of Kolbe Academy are fully accredited and offer classical curriculum for grades 1 through 12.

At Trinity Grammar and Prep we offer a superior classical education to every child willing to learn. Trinity's students represent all children, not just the most talented , and we challenge all of them to the limits of their abilities. Trinity recognizes that parents have the primary duty of educating their children and seeks to assist them toward this end. Although we uphold the highest standards of academic achievement, our purpose is to educate the whole child.

We emphasize Christian character formation through a program of common sense discipline and respect for all, in accordance with the mind of the Catholic Church. Our faculty advisors assist students in setting and meeting worthy personal, spiritual, and academic goals. Our students learn to think clearly, to speak eloquently, to write persuasively, and to calculate accurately.

They have the tools necessary to learn from others, and, in turn, to teach others. They develop an appreciation of the arts and an apt expression of artistic and musical talents. They become fit instruments for Christ, who destines them at the beginning of the third millennium for the mission of bringing mankind and society back into harmony with the Triune God, Creator, and Lord.

The grades 1-6 curriculum includes fluency training. Students practice fundamental reading, handwriting and math skills during a 40-minute period four days a week. Fluency means that skills can be performed at high rates with very little effort and nearly without error. Achieving fluency is very valuable for Trinity students. Studies have shown that fluent skills are maintained longer and generalize better. Students who are fluent in basic reading, handwriting, and math skills learn new skills more easily, have greater endurance, and tend to persevere when new learning is challenging. School becomes more fun and rewarding for students who are able to achieve fluency in basic skills.

The High School curriculum is a mixture of classes taught in progressive order and classes taught in a four-year cycle. Progressive courses include science (physical science, biology, chemistry, physics) and math (algebra I, geometry, algebra II-trigonometry). Latin I & II are taken freshman and sophomore years. Religion, history and literature are taught in four-year cycles. Religion covers faith, sacraments, morality and prayer/apologetics. History covers ancient and medieval, modern civilizations, Church history and US history and civics. High school students also have a four-semester fine/performing arts credit which can be satisfied through choir, drama, art or computerized art and design.

The purpose of St. Monica Academy is to provide a classical liberal education in the Roman Catholic tradition in a manner consistent with the principle that parents are the primary educators of their children. It is our goal, therefore, to promote intellectual excellence and aesthetic development within an atmosphere that respects and promotes the virtues of family, civic, and spiritual life: love and respect for others, responsibility, honesty, and integrity.

Children learn in conversation with parents, peers, teachers, nature and God in prayer. These relationships are enhanced by the world open to them in books. The pedegogy of St. Monica Academy reflects this conversational nature of human learning: discussion and experimentation is the pattern for instruction, with no more than 18 students in a class. By this method, we seek not only to inform our students but also to form them for a lifetime of seeking goodness, truth and beauty.

The Academy follows a liberal arts curriculum. Classically, the liberal arts are divided into the trivium consisting of grammar, logic and rhetoric and the quadrivium consisting of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. The liberal arts provide the young mind with the tools of learning and an introduction to the intellectual life. The trivium strengthens the young mind with the tools of learning; the quadrivium provides an arena appropriate for the young mind in which the tools can be used. Growth in knowledge and wisdom requires experience. The studies of literature, geography, history and natural science are added to the trivium and quadrivium to broaden the students’ experience.

The crowning discipline of the curriculum is theology. Each discipline prepares the mind for a contemplation of God. The theology tutorial formally considers our relationship to God by presenting the Church’s perennial teachings.

In 1995, a group of committed parents had a vision for a school: It would not only teach the authentic Faith of the Catholic Church, it would stress academic fundamentals. The result of that dream was Sierra Madre Academy, now a rapidly growing K-12 school. Sierra Madre Academy was established in response to the Second Vatican Council’s call for greater lay witness in contemporary society. Teaching in accordance with the Magisterium of the Church, our mission is to form young men and women who, committed to live by Catholic principles, will transform and advance human culture.

We aim to accomplish this by offering a traditional learning environment that harmonizes faith and reason in educating the whole child. Man was created by God in His image and likeness and therefore is destined for Him who is infinite perfection. In the spirit of the Divine Master, amid a world of material preoccupation, the mission of Sierra Madre Academy is to prepare each child for what he must be and do on earth in order to gain the sublime end for which he was created.

From kindergarten through twelfth grade, Sierra Madre Academy builds an academic and spiritual foundation that will enable each student to further his life and career as well as prepare his soul for its ultimate destiny: eternal life with God in heaven.

Independent evaluation of our programs has confirmed our academic excellence. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges has granted full accreditation for grades K-12. In the yearly Iowa Test of Basic Skills, our students consistently average in the 80th to 90th percentile for core total scores. Our high school curriculum includes Advanced Placement and honors courses approved for acceptance by the University of California system. We also have an established California Scholarship Federation and National Honor Society chapter.

Cultivated in the essence of the Faith, students naturally develop a vibrant and active desire to love and serve Jesus Christ and His Church. Through a well-rounded education we prepare our children to take up their lives as responsible, charitable and professional men and women, energized to live out their vocations in society.

In fidelity to the truths of our Holy Catholic Church, the mission of Saint Augustine Academy is to assist parents in their duty of fostering within their children growth in the theological, intellectual, and moral virtues.

We strive in every task to inculcate in our students the profound insight of Saint Augustine: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord,
and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

The Academy follows a liberal arts curriculum. Classically, the liberal arts are divided into the trivium consisting of grammar, logic and rhetoric and the quadrivium consisting of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.

The liberal arts provide the young mind with the tools of learning and an introduction to the intellectual life.

The art of grammar teaches the student to compose sentences well, necessary for understanding. Logic teaches reasoning and the methods that yield science and wisdom. Rhetoric teaches persuasion and discourse used when bringing the truth to others. Grammar, logic and rhetoric are basic tools of the mind.

Since the young student is familiar with quantity, yet less familiar with the order and structure of nature, the mathematical sciences are especially proportioned to the young mind. Hence after the trivium, the student studies the quadrivium containing mathematical disciplines. Arithmetic and geometry consider number and magnitude respectively. Music uses number and ratio to produce harmony. Astronomy applies the properties of magnitude to explain the motions of the heavens. In addition to these, Latin is studied to practice the art of grammar. The trivium strengthens the young mind with tools of learning, the quadrivium provides an arena appropriate for the young mind in which the tools can be used.

Growth in knowledge and wisdom requires experience. The studies of literature, geography, history, and natural science are added to the trivium and quadrivium to broaden the student's experience of humanity. Geography and natural science broaden the student's experience of nature.

The crowning discipline of the curriculum is theology. Each discipline prepares the mind for a contemplation of God. The theology tutorial formally considers our relationship to God by presenting the Church's perennial teaching free of dissent.

2640 Third Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95818
TEL (916) 451-4963
email: info@napcis.org