La Jolla Country Day School

La Jolla Country Day School (known informally as "Country Day" or "LJCDS") is an independent school in University City, a community of San Diego, California. The school contains a lower school (consisting of nursery through fourth grade), a middle school (grades 5–8), and an upper school (grades 9–12). The school's motto is "Scientia Pacifica" (peace through knowledge). La Jolla Country Day School was voted the best private school in San Diego in 2007 by the San Diego Union-Tribune. History In 1926, Louise Balmer moved to California from Illinois with her four children after the death of her husband, and earned her teaching certificate. Establishing the Balmer School, she used a one-room cottage on Coast Boulevard as a makeshift schoolhouse for four students and three teachers. Balmer, an alumna of Bryn Mawr College, was an expert on the Winnetka Plan, a learning model that advocated for innovative pedagogies in the classroom, expanding education to include creative activities and an emphasis on the socioemotional development of each child.