SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Bijou Community School brings together English and Spanish speaking students in kindergarten through fifth grade in our two way bilingual immersion program (TWBI) by supporting them to learn to read, write, speak and listen in two languages.

Our program has three goals: bilingualism and biliteracy, high academic achievement in English and Spanish and sociocultural competency.

The TWBI program at Bijou is a 90:10 model, meaning that 90% of instruction in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten is in Spanish and 10% is in English. Each year the percentage of English increases until in fifth grade 50% of instruction is in English and 50% is in Spanish. One of the strengths of our TWBI program is our assets based approach.  All students in our program are language models for their peers. We intentionally balance the program with 50% Spanish speakers and 50% English speakers. In doing so all students get the opportunity to be leaders in the classroom.

We are proud of the warm and welcoming school environment at Bijou. At Bijou, parents are an important part of their child’s education. Parents sign up to volunteer in their child’s classroom and can choose from 16 different volunteer committees – such as helping in our school garden or leading  monthly art lessons. We have a Boys and Girls club on site for after school care, run after school clubs for our students and find ways to positively recognize students for positive behavior and character traits at monthly assemblies and through weekly announcements. 

The Bijou TWBI program admits students by lottery. We have 66 spots for Kindergarten and 22 spots for TK. Additionally, we host an English mainstream TK program for families within the Sierra House and Bijou boundaries. This year, students with birthdays between Sept. 2, 2018 and April 2, 2019 will receive priority enrollment for TK. Students born after April 2 will be admitted with space availability. 

Interested parents should call Martha Ubias or Julia Cedano at 530-543-2337 and submit a completed TWBI commitment form to the office. Tours are available and commitment forms are due on March 23.

Source: LTUSD