Playworks

Playworks provides an on-site Playworks Coach to teach students engaging and structured games to play during recess. All students have an opportunity to participate in Class Game Time for 45 minutes, twice a month, where they have an opportunity to learn the rules of various games as well as engage in community building with their class. As part of the Playworks program, our students are taught problem-solving techniques using Ro-Sham-Bo (Rock, Paper, Scissors) to solve minor disputes. This program has supported the social-emotional learning of our students and really been a game changer in Loma Linda.

Head out to the playground to watch our kids play in a kind, encouraging and respectful manner. If you have time, jump into a game of 4-Square. They love new faces and you’re sure to get a high five before you leave!

Jr. Coach Leadership Program

As part of our Playworks partnership, 5^th grade students have the opportunity to participate in the Jr. Coach Leadership Program (JCLP). Students apply to the program and those selected engage in an afterschool program 3-days a week with our Playworks Coach. As part of the program, students learn different curriculum in the areas of leadership skills, conflict resolution, anti-bullying, ect. Students then take what they learn in the afterschool program to help facilitate recess for kinder-fifth grade students.

Student Council

The Student Council is a student-run organization that you'll find on almost any middle school or high school campus across the nation. Here at Loma Linda, though, we take great pride in helping our Student Council members to become life-long leaders.

In order to be accepted into the Student Council or to run for office, students must prove academic integrity and show off their leadership skills in their interviews at the beginning of the year. After they have been selected, members of the council work to plan school dances, organize canned food drives on campus, run the Student Recognition Assemblies once per month, and meet every Wednesday to plan and approve budget requests. Our students are becoming amazing leaders!

Upward Bound Honors Program

The Loma Linda Upward Bound Honors Success (LLUBHS) Program was founded at the start of the 2012-2013 school year by Erica Lozano and Brandon Dale, two of our middle school teachers at the time, to meet the needs of our excelling students. In its first year, ten students applied and completed the program and have since then continued on to schools such as Brophy and North's IB Program. Now in its third year, the program has expanded to include Loma Linda's top-thirty seventh and eighth grade students who are continuously challenged to meet the demands of a challenging Common Core aligned curriculum, designed and implemented here at Loma Linda. In the past, students have researched the potential impact of robotics on society, have proposed academic excursions to teachers and staff, and have surveyed the community to determine common household problems for which they designed and presented a solution in the style of ABC's Shark Tank. The work is not easy, but it is well worth the effort!

LLUBHS is a one of a kind program in the Creighton School District and was named an Exemplary Program in 2013.

Junior Ambassadors

Junior Ambassadors is a program that allows middle school students the opportunity to explore different cultures and history around our country and the world. They spend their 7th grade year taking German classes and communicating with a pen pal in Germany. In September of their 8th grade year, they get the chance to travel to Germany for 2 weeks!

As an 8th grader, students apply to go to Washington DC for 1 week at the end of the school year. Because both trips are expensive, the junior ambassadors engage in fundraising activities to help earn money for their trip.

Battle of the Books

Battle of the Books is an after-school program for 6th - 8th graders in Loma Linda. Students meet once a week to read and discuss books. Twice a year, they compete with schools from across the district in a book trivia contest. This program motivates students to read for fun and gives them a place to discuss their books.

National Junior Honor Society

NJHS is a nationally recognized program that honors students in the areas of leadership, service, academics and character. Students must maintain a certain GPA and participate in service hours throughout the school and on their own. NJHS at Loma Linda allows our students to give back to their community and also be recognized for their outstanding leadership and academic success in the classroom.

Kids Rock Stars

Amongst our other amazing sporting committees in Loma Linda, we have an after-school running program called Kids Rock Stars. Supported by the local Phoenix Children’s Hospital, this program provides our students the opportunity to run in a local non-competitive running event. It fosters a healthy lifestyle and gives students the skills and knowledge to continue through life.

“I liked Kids Rock because it improved my running skills and inspired me to continue to run more” - Melissa Martinez 6th grade Loma Linda

iAchieve Program

Creighton School District is currently in its fifth year with the iAchieve Program through Apple Computers. Across nine schools in the district, there are twenty-four teachers who operate in what is called a “Flipped” Classroom where each student is assigned an individual iPad for the year. Teachers record their initial instruction for students to watch on their devices in the evenings so that, when they arrive at school the next day, the teacher can immediately differentiate for students to meet their individual needs. Loma Linda is proud to have seven of those twenty-four teachers at Loma Linda. These seven teachers went through a rigorous and competitive process to become a Flipped teacher.

Academic Parent Teacher Teams

Loma Linda’s teachers decided together to adopt the APTT model, campus-wide, during the 2010-2011 school year in order to address the lack of parent engagement and awareness that the school faced at that time. While many schools use this program to support K-3 classrooms, Loma Linda’s teachers decided to implement the program in all classrooms to formulate parent-teacher relationships for all students on campus.

Held three times throughout the year, all parents are invited to attend classroom or grade-level meetings where they engage in data analysis, goal-setting, and learning with their child’s classroom teacher. Bobby Kelley explained the impact that the relationships built during these meetings have had on student achievement, “Because my students have such significant learning disabilities, their parents sometimes think that there’s nothing they can do to help. For our parents who attend, they are able to see just how much their efforts at home are impacting their child at school.”

COPS Grant

School Safety Grant, Office Dalton is our campus watchdog, mentor to many students, and is truly a part of the Loma Linda community. While his role on campus is to ensure the safety of all, he takes pride in forming relationships with students in order to help influence positive life choices. From conducting class workshops on the negative effects of bullying, to mentoring troubled students, Officer Dalton truly adds a layer of safety and support to the Loma Linda community.

Parent Connections

Provided by the Community Education Department of Creighton School District, parents can attend monthly educational meetings where they learn about parenting techniques, strategies to support their students academically, and about new systems that directly affect students in the district.

Wake-Up Club

Sponsored by the Phoenix Police Department, Loma Linda is proud to host "wake-up" for our middle school students. Each year, our School Resource Officer, Officer Dalton, mentors twenty students in grades seven and eight. These students are responsible for working with Officer Dalton on weekends and throughout the summer to make improvements to the community. To remain a member of the Wake-Up Club, though, students must maintain a 3.0 GPA while also demonstrating exemplary respect and responsibility in their lives. If students begin to slip, Officer Dalton serves as a mentor to help them get back on track. Eighth grader Tre B. said, “Sometimes I have trouble with completing assignments, but Officer Dalton helps me with that. I don’t want to get kicked out of Wake-Up Club.”