Coastal Christian School is a

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non-denominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. Overview The term has been used in the context of various faiths including Jainism, Baháʼí Fait ...

Christian school from Kindergarten through

12th grade Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...

. The school's new permanent campus is in the Oak Park area of

Pismo Beach, California Pismo Beach (Chumash: ''Pismuʔ'') is a city in the southern portion of San Luis Obispo County, in the Central Coast area of California, United States. The estimated population was 8,072 at the 2020 census, up from 7,655 in the 2010 census. It ...

History

Coastal Christian School was originally incorporated in 1971 as Central Coast Christian Academy on the site of the First Presbyterian Church of Arroyo Grande. It was started by parents interested in providing Christian education and was established as a missionary outreach of the church. In September 1971, the school opened with four teachers and an enrollment of 39 students in grades K-6. In January of the same year, junior-high classes were added. In 1978, the academy added its high-school program and graduated its first four seniors in 1979. In 1980, the church separated from the Presbyterian Church and changed its name to Grace Bible Church. The school continued, but with a multi-church sponsorship. In 1986, the school became the Coastal Christian School. The old site became the

Lopez High School Lopez Early College High School serves as the magnet school of the fine arts as well as the agricultural academy at Brownsville Independent School District in Texas. In 2015, the school was rated " Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency. At ...

, and CCS moved temporarily to the Landmark Missionary Baptist Church. The school's new Oak Park Campus is off of Oak Park Boulevard in Pismo Beach. The campus is on a parcel overlooking the Arroyo Grande Valley, adjacent to the shared Pismo Beach and Arroyo Grande city limit line.

Curriculum

Coastal Christian School teaches grades Kindergarten through twelfth grade. Grade levels 1-6 provide an elementary education, and 7-12 cover secondary education topics.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a full-day, fully integrated program. Phonics and sight sounds of letters are taught, as well as social skills in light of God's Word.

Elementary

First through sixth grades teach an academic program emphasizing the fundamentals of learning. Traditional methods such as phonics, memorization, penmanship, grammar, and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

are used to teach the courses. Music, weekly chapel, intramural sports, and

field trip A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. When done for students, as it happens in several school systems, it is also known as school trip in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and ...

s add variety and fun to the academic program. Students may also participate in ACSI-sponsored academic competitions.

Secondary

The secondary studies at CCS form a college preparatory program. Seven 50-minute classes are taught each day. Students in seventh and eighth grade are required to take courses in the Bible, English, history, math, science, and physical education. Elective courses include the arts,

computers A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs ...

, horticulture, music, Spanish, and

speech Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses Phonetics, phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if ...

. During the ninth through twelfth grades, the focus on a college preparatory curriculum increases as students are prepared to meet the entrance requirements for the University of California system and other colleges and universities. The school provides career and college counseling and Biblical answers that students can use in their future endeavors. High school course options include: * Bible and religious studies * Biological sciences: anatomy, biology,

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

, and physiology * Communications: English and foreign languages * Mathematics: algebra through calculus * Physical education: California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) sports * Physical sciences: physics,

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, and geology * Social sciences and humanities * Special interests: choir,

student government A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

, and yearbook In addition to college prep courses, secondary students participate in a variety of activities, including weekly chapel services, a luau, a

winter formal A dance party (also referred to as a dance) is a social gathering where dancing is the primary activity. Some dance parties are held in a casual setting and open to the public, such as a rave, or those held in nightclubs. Other types of dance ...

, a spring banquet, an end-of-the-year

BBQ Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...

, several day trips to beaches, hiking areas, and other outdoor learning areas. Each fall, all of the secondary students travel to the nearby Lopez Canyon Conference Center for an annual Spiritual Emphasis Camp. On alternating years, the eighth and ninth grade students travel on an educational trip to Washington D.C., and the eleventh and twelfth grade students take an educational trip to Europe. The twelve graduating seniors in 2008 had shared classes since elementary school.

References

External links

Coastal Christian School official website

California School Directory entry

California Department of Education DataQuest Report

Great Schools profile
{{Coord, 35.1373, -120.6048, display=title Christian schools in California High schools in San Luis Obispo County, California Education in Arroyo Grande, California Private schools in California