Dear Norfolk Collegiate School Parents,
The beginning of every school year is a time of anticipation and excitement. For Norfolk Collegiate, it’s especially so this August, as we begin to share with parents and students the early fruits of our strategic planning process. In 2009, we initiated a significant strategic analysis of the school, devoting the next two-and-a-half years to redefining our vision, re-evaluating our methodologies, and reallocating our resources to best meet the needs of our current and future student population today.
The NCS Spring 2011 magazine unveiled the strategic plan – its evolution, its goals and aspirations – and outlined steps that we’ll employ to ensure its success. This year you will see tangible examples of our investments and how they translate to the implementation of our mission in blending traditional and innovative teaching. But no document, however artfully crafted, can substantively communicate as effectively as witnessing this implementation– and so we urge you to come to Parents’ Nights on September 14 for the lower school and September 21 for the upper and middle school, to meet, in person and in conversation, the people of Norfolk Collegiate School: the teachers who will guide your children – the administrators who will work with you throughout the school year – and all of us at NCS to whom you entrust your children every day.
In our classrooms this year you’ll see more advanced technology – mobile learning labs with iPads and laptops, interactive SMART Boards and BrightLink projectors, along with student response systems– and you’ll see these being used in innovative, engaging ways, with special emphasis in our early childhood programs. In your students’ backpacks, you’ll see coursework that reflects best practices and acknowledges the learning styles of individual students. In each student’s performance, you’ll see the results of a student-centered program that values the individual learner.
In each child, you’ll see a Portrait of a Graduate:
• a child with the academic tools, a passion for learning and the flexibility to thrive;
• a self-motivated, inquisitive child;
• a confident child, an independent thinker, eager to pursue new endeavors and open to learning from successes and challenges as well;
• a child with an individual moral compass – a child for whom integrity, responsibility and respect are fast-held personal values;
• a child filled with compassion, ready and prepared to lead.
In each teacher, you’ll see Characteristics of Professional Excellence – as defined by faculty members themselves, and reflecting:
• a strong commitment to understanding and accommodating student individuality and needs;
• a lifelong and passionate dedication to learning and to sharing that learning with colleagues and students alike;
• a thirst for honor and integrity in all aspects of their lives;
• a dynamic teaching method that embraces innovation and creativity; and
• a personal mission to contribute to the school, its students and its vision.
On the campus, you’ll feel building excitement for the Center for the Arts. We are pleased to announce that we are over 95% of goal for the campaign and are hopeful to wrap up soon with a new matching gift opportunity: for every three dollars raised by September 1, the donor will contribute one dollar. With this added incentive for donors to complete the campaign, we turn to envisioning the groundbreaking which will welcome students and faculty to a state-of-the-art facility and opportunities for curricular enhancements for all students. Much attention has been given to the 425-seat theater, but the facility offers so much more than that. The communication arts suite will be a central gathering place for journalism, videography, graphic and computer-aided design. A gallery offers a professional setting to display the work of NCS students.
In the athletic arena, you’ll see innovation and structured planning that will enhance the experience of every student participant, as well as those in the bleachers. In this booklet, you’ll see why we’re so enthusiastic about the coming athletic year at Norfolk Collegiate, and why “Go Oaks!” is evolving into much more than just a rallying cry.
The accolades we received during the April 2011 Virginia Association of Independent Schools interim accreditation evaluation are due in no small part to the energy and expertise that our parents have brought to the educational experience at NCS. You add a great degree of value to our community through partnering with teachers and organizing or attending events. I look forward to seeing each and every one of you this year, and working with you to embrace this extraordinary time in the history of our school.
Sincerely,
Scott Kennedy
Headmaster