Learning

Our curriculum challenges learners to think, solve problems, and work individually as well as collaboratively while acquiring basic knowledge. We are teaching thinking that is disciplined, clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence.

SSV is committed to a holistic approach to learning. The purpose of holistic education is not only to prepare students for academic success, but to also enable them to learn the challenges of living as a whole (learning about themselves, about healthy relationships, about social responsibility, compassion, practicing managing time and competing priorities efficiently and effectively). Our educators strive to help learners find identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to humanitarian values.

Curriculum Framework

Our school curriculum is considered the entire set of experiences related to school and is delivered in two different ways: formally and informally. The Curriculum Framework looks at various curricular topics and states the school’s overall educational positions. It provides detailed positions on a wide range of curricular issues and guides all curriculum decisions.

The SSV Curriculum Framework is a comprehensive document that is grounded in the founding documents of the school. The mission and Core Values are at the heart of the framework. Each Core Value was dissected to determine key concepts and related educational terms. The key concepts were used to identify the educational positions for the written, taught and assessed curriculum. The educational positions provide the roadmap to identifying common instructional practices. It further articulates common language and learning experiences into a unified school approach to teaching and learning.

Primary

Our Primary program provides supportive, creative and dynamic environments for children. Students learn through play, hands-on experiences, experiments and quality instruction. Classrooms are organized into experiential centers with stations designed to support all learning styles. These centers provide a basis for learning through individual, small group and whole group experience. Children develop basic concepts and understandings exploring and discovering through various learning centers indoors and outdoors. Teachers implement a balanced curriculum which integrates language, social, emotional, physical, creative and intellectual/cognitive development. All students learn with specialist teachers in the areas of art, library, music and physical education.

Middle School

The joy of learning with students who are exploring their interests, developing their passions, beginning to see themselves as independent people ready to take on the world. That’s middle school.

When students enter middle school, they are excited by their new independence, the increased responsibility, and the new courses and activities offered to them. They are equally nervous about those very same things. Throw into the mix changing social relationships and puberty, and we can understand how complex middle school can be for students. The expert faculty members at SSV are ready to guide our students through the joyful years of middle school helping them learn more about themselves as they develop their subject matter expertise and learn about the world around them.