Curriculum Overview

Our curriculum provides students with age-appropriate educational and developmental experiences that encourage them to learn by making connections–between subjects, between home and school, and between each other. Rather than imposing a finite, generalized body of knowledge, we stress experience and the application of skills, tools, and understanding as the most effective way to build confidence and character. In order to make these connections, our students still need a foundation of knowledge from which to grow. From an early age we begin to provide this, but then with guidance, we let our students’ own curiosities lead them as they progress through the school.

Click the Turning Points below for more information on each curricular focus.
Featured
Program

Santa Cruz Island Trip

The Level 7 study trip doesn’t take our students far, but they feel as if they are half a world away. This camping adventure to Santa Cruz Island, part of the pristine Channel Islands National Park, gives students a chance to become fully immersed in a living ecosystem right in their own backyard. As an extension of the environmental biology curriculum, the trip features rock climbing, night hikes with astronomy study, and guided tours with expert naturalists. Students find their home base for the week in a carry-in, carry-out campsite—students learn to get by on essentials, and take all waste with them when they depart, leaving the site as pristine as when they arrived. Activities on the island are designed to build self-confidence, teamwork, and trust. Students return, knowing that they have passed through a life-altering experience.