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By strengthening the mother tongue the child forms a strong base to facilitate learning in the second language
Saint David School Foundation
Saint David School was born from the idea of developing a different, innovative, progressive and modern bilingual educational project that would meet the unmet demand for this type of service. This idea arose in December 1998, while Lic. Jennifer Gardner de Díaz (Miss Jennie to her students and colleagues, a British national who had emigrated to the Dominican Republic in 1985) and a group of professionals from different fields were analyzing a series of possibilities for educational work and its implementation in the Santiago market. Miss Jennie, its Founding Director, had worked in her country on various educational projects. In the country, she worked at the Bonao Educational Center for a year, teaching English and music. In 1987, she went to work at the Zambrana School, of the Rosario Dominicana mining company, SA (now Barrick), where she was the Director for ten years.
Efforts were concentrated on finding an alternative to work that would give Miss Jennie and her family the opportunity to live in a larger and more “normal” community, other than the mining camp nestled in the mountains of Monte Negro, in the town of Los Cacaos, Sánchez Ramírez province. As the months went by, the final project was drawn up, and the idea of a school that would begin to operate with early education became a reality. This school brought together the use of the latest technology and computer resources and all of Miss Jennie's experience.
For six months, the idea grew, took shape, and the necessary steps were taken to find a place that could be suitable for installing the facilities that would make up this school. A house was rented on Ponce Street in the Esmeralda district (see Fig. 1). It was also essential that in order to start this project (which, given the time of year when it was conceived, was already late for registrations for the following school year), there be a different attraction that would make interested people come to see the new offer that was opening up for the children. Then the Saint David '99 Summer Camp was held, which attracted the pioneers of the Saint David School, thus producing the official birth of the School.
SAINT DAVID SCHOOL (1999)
Place where Saint David began operating in 1999.
Development of Saint David School
On June 28, 1999, the Saint David '99 Summer Camp began and was a success. In August, the 1999-2000 school year began and, despite the fact that the school only had 5 students, a parallel project was developed in the afternoons with English as a Second Language classes, a Homework Room, Basic Computer Classes for Children and a Personalized Reinforcement Program in English and Spanish.
SAINT DAVID SCHOOL (2007)
Saint David's premises in the Estrella Sadhalá, Tavares Oeste district, 2000-2007.
At the end of the second year (2000-2001), the school had 45 children, one of whom was going to move on to fifth grade. Once again, Saint David took up the challenge and at the end of the third year, it already had 117 students and was preparing to receive students up to sixth grade. The fourth year came with the news that the 911 event occurred, which caused a massive migration of Dominicans living in New York back to their homeland. Thus, the mark of 200 students was surpassed. In addition, the neighboring premises were contracted, and the physical facilities were expanded. In addition, the hiring of foreign personnel brought in especially from abroad to support the English program began. The first person hired came from Wales, Great Britain. The fifth year brought the attraction that Saint David made the first contacts with a University of Wisconsin, United States (Wisconsin Lutheran College, WLC), to bring in teachers graduated in the area of Education. Since then, the number of teachers hired each year has been steadily increasing, and for the 2007-2008 school year, eight teachers came to Saint David's who graduated from three different universities: Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota; and Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois.
The New Squad
During the second half of October 2006, Saint David's School began construction of its new facility, which is located on the Carretera a Don Pedro, east of the city of Santiago (see fig. 4 for the location of the new facility). This facility has all the facilities of a modern school, with classrooms of adequate size to accommodate 25 students per grade; Library; Multimedia/Music Room; Science Laboratory; Computer Laboratory; Teachers' Lounges; Cafeteria/Dining Room/Multipurpose Room; Indoor Courts; Parking; Patio, etc. The move to the new facility took place in the first half of August 2007 and classes began there that school year. Since that year, the institution has maintained a plan to improve its physical facilities.
SAINT DAVID SCHOOL (2007)
Saint David's premises in the Estrella Sadhalá, Tavares Oeste district, 2000-2007.
Throughout the years that Saint David School has been operating, it has maintained a staff development plan to optimize classes and improve the working conditions of all its employees.