By Kate Oczypok
Delicia Webb and her husband love that Waterfront Academy offers a nurturing and fun educational and academic environment for their daughter.
“The community of both students and staff are great and we have seen significant developmental growth in our daughter since she has been attending the Waterfront Academy,” Webb said.
The Webb’s daughter started in the toddler program at the age of two and is currently in the Primary class. This is her third year attending Waterfront Academy.
The Webbs believe that the Montessori education the school offers is ideal because it focuses on the comprehensive aspects of development, and they feel that learning is a 360-degree process.
Webb also mentioned how much their daughter loves the dual immersion aspect of Waterfront Academy.
“Our daughter loves to sing and learn new songs in Spanish,” she said. “We are always so tickled when she comes home singing songs in Spanish with so much excitement and enthusiasm.”
There’s also the community aspect that drew the Webbs to the school. They love activities that require the community to be physically active, so the jog-a-thon is a favorite of theirs. They’re also enjoying the Montessori Miles these days.
“The Christmas pageant is always great too as this is our favorite time of the year!” Webb added.
Webb looks forward to her walks home with her daughter after school. The daily updates include lots of animation and theatrics from her daughter that keep her laughing.
“It’s so funny that I now categorize it as the daily Waterfront Academy ‘tea,’” Webb said.
The teachers at the school are also exceptional to the Webbs. They value the attentiveness and ongoing feedback regarding their daughter’s academic, emotional and social development are what makes Waterfront Academy’s teachers special to them.
“We like that the teachers pay close attention to her strengths and weaknesses,” Webb said. “We appreciate when they provide specific examples about areas where she is doing well or can use improvement.”
The Webbs like that the feedback is received on a regular basis, not just during parent-teacher conferences.
Last year, learning during the pandemic ended up working out well for the Webbs. They were very impressed with the Waterfront Academy’s ability to execute a learning plan quickly at the beginning of the pandemic. Their daughter looked forward to the virtual learning activities and enjoyed the zoom interactions with her teachers and friends.
The family first learned about the school while living nearby. Waterfront Academy is in their neighborhood, so over the years they either walked or drove by the school often. They stopped by to learn more about Waterfront when their daughter was an infant. During their visit they were impressed with students’ ability to respond to and speak in Spanish. They also liked the various aspects and components of what the school had to offer, like being faith-based in the Catholic tradition, Montessori and Spanish-immersion.
“We made sure that we enrolled our daughter as soon as she turned two and met the age requirement to start,” Webb said. “Our family is Catholic, so providing a faith-based foundation for our daughter in both the home and school settings is very important to us—we believe that providing such a foundation will aide in her ability to think, reason, and create from a moral perspective.”
Post-pandemic, the Webbs are excited for a social and community event that includes parents, staff and students. “It has been a very long time since we had a community event in the traditional sense, so we are hopeful that we will be able to partake in an activity post-pandemic.
If Delicia Webb had to describe Waterfront Academy in three words she replied: “Awesome, nurturing and multifaceted.”
The Webbs live in D.C. and Delicia is a native third generation Washingtonian. Her husband is from Boston but grew up in New Hampshire. They’re diehard Patriots fans, love spending time with family and traveling.
You can learn more about Waterfront Academy and apply online.