The NOVA Experience
Design in action
NOVA’s curriculum and teaching strategies are designed very specifically
for this age group and our highly capable student population. Each course
and year is carefully designed to build on what students already have
mastered and to further deepen our students’ skills, attitudes, and
body of knowledge as they mature through the program.
Moreover, our goal is to keep the students actively engaged in school work and interested in learning, challenging them to stretch and reach beyond what they are used to accomplishing within a nurturing and supportive setting.
The 6th grade program is designed to bring our very bright students who come from many different settings into a cohesive learning community, to fill gaps, and to develop the skills and self discipline necessary to be successful in our 7th and 8th grade classes.
The 7th and 8th grade program, which
we call the Advanced Classes, are carefully 
designed to continue with
skill building, preparing the students for honors and accelerated classes
in high school, but without teaching exact material that we believe they
will encounter there.
NOVA’s educational strategies are active and applied. We address the most important concepts and skills in each subject area. Textbooks are used only as resources rather than as the framework, and we “adopt” no curriculum series or textbook. A variety of activities in each study area act as vehicles for teaching and learning important skills and content.
Students
learn as individuals, partners, participants in small groups, and members
of the full school community, where creativity, artistic talent, and
effective problem solving are integrated throughout the daily activities.
Varied experiences and educational techniques are used to reinforce learning:
debates, video productions, journal writing, simulations, role playing,
mock trials, fine art experiences, experiments, technology applications,
Socratic discussions, field trips, individual and group presentations,
and academic competitions.
Academic fields naturally overlap and interrelate in our classes, as they do in the larger world. NOVA teachers often integrate the different academic disciplines while ensuring that essential subject matter is maintained. Our students’ quick minds easily see and enjoy the connections and threads between subjects without us needing to over-teach one inter-disciplinary theme in many classes.
The
NOVA School curriculum is designed to develop a mastery of important
process skills through their application. As the body of knowledge has
increased beyond what any school can realistically teach, it has become
clear that the skills involved in how to learn, how to think critically,
and how to communicate are even more important than content.
Students are taught to acquire and organize information, question and synthesize, and communicate their ideas and findings to others in an articulate manner. They are encouraged to think critically: to solve problems, reason, find answers, see multiple perspectives, and seek alternatives.
Students are also taught to value their own individualism and diversity as learners. The NOVA School experience promotes individual strengths and an appreciation of individual differences. While all students at NOVA are expected to learn at a relatively rapid pace, and some are exceptional, they will exhibit individual differences. NOVA endeavors to refine student talents and also to lend extra support where needed.
At NOVA School, technology is fully integrated into the curriculum. Students are taught to understand and use a wide variety of technologically advanced methods and equipment to research, analyze, organize, and communicate information. The school's technology laboratory is used across all subject areas, and students do much of their homework digitally.