We are thrilled to announce that, in partnership with the Alliance for Catholic Education at Notre Dame University and the Archdiocese’s Office of Catholic Schools, St. Mary of the Angels will expand the Language Immersion Program in all of our early childhood programs to engage families in our community.

This program will provide Spanish language instruction every day, to connect students with the language and culture to support their learning. Learning in two languages helps students’ mental health, academic performance, and career readiness. We are excited to begin offering this educational enhancement to some of our youngest SMA students.

• For the 2022-23 school year we will be offering a Language Immersion Program for SMA’s Early Childhood Programs!
• The program will use a cross-linguistic instruction model in the classroom that will strengthen children’s literacy skills in both languages.  Studies show that, at an early age, learning two languages helps students’ mental health, academic performance, and career readiness.
• The program focuses on sharing faith, knowledge, language, and culture in the Spanish language.   By celebrating the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Catholic church, children will grow in their faith.  This program is a creative way to build and share language, for children at an early age – when they can most easily absorb languages.
• The program will not be a dual-language program.  Rather, students will receive at least 30 minutes of daily instruction in the Spanish language, during a specified time of the day.  The students will receive instruction in English for the remainder of the day.
• The Language Intensive Program will be led by a native Spanish language speaker. Trained from the University of Notre Dame and in the coming year on a monthly basis.
• If you know a family interested in learning more about our wonderful school community and this exciting Early Childhood Language Intensive Program, please email our Admissions Office at admissions@sma-school.org.