How Kids Learn at NCCL School
Wonder, Explore, Share
Wonder Our talented teachers create environments and relationships that capitalize on children’s interest and curiosity. With guidance and direction, our students become fully immersed in their work, enjoying their pursuit of knowledge.
Explore The NCCL curriculum is filled with integrated investigations and projects. By exploring themes in depth, children learn facts, theories and skills in contexts which are meaningful to them.
Share The easy mingling of all ages fosters a child’s social growth. We help students develop skills to express their ideas and feelings. We encourage them to be aware of and respect the needs and feelings of others.
Cooperate, Nurture, Create
Cooperate Students develop responsibility by active involvement in the day-to-day government and maintenance of the school. The oldest students participate in our apprentice program and run the all-school meeting.
Nurture NCCL groups children in multi-age classes according to their developmental levels. Multi-age grouping lends us the flexibility to offer appropriate opportunities for each individual. We do not evaluate student work with letter grades. Instead, evaluation takes the form feedback from teachers during class, written reports, self-assessment, and parent conferences.
Create From the beginning, NCCL has been an organization of parents, teachers and students responsive to the community and committed to sending forth creative and productive citizens. Parents find that their active involvement plays an important role in their children’s education.
How Children Learn
The average retention rate after 24 hours by instructional method is:
Lecture: 5%
Reading: 10%
Audio-Visual: 20%
Demonstration: 30%
Discussion Group: 50%
Practice by Doing: 75%
Immediate Use of Learning: doing a dramatic skit, presentation, making a video, teaching others: 90%
Getting kids to explain and teach information to each other, such as in cooperative learning groups, is one of the best ways of ensuring long-term retention of information.
—Sousa, How the Brain Learns, 1995.
Our Curriculum
We design our CURRICULUM:
To be child-centered.
To be age appropriate.
To include open-ended learning experiences which have many solutions to one problem.
To be integrated.
To respond to children’s needs and interests.
Our Goal
Our GOAL is to create an independent learner who:
Loves to learn.
Has age-appropriate basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics.
Is developing social responsibility and community awareness.
Exhibits creativity and imagination.
Uses problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Possesses positive social interaction and communication skills.
Has self-confidence.
Is achieving his/her full potential.
The Role of our Teachers
The role of our TEACHERS is to:
Develop curricula to teach core concepts and skills, academic and social, using children's interests and activities. Provide the background and structure.
Gather materials, resources, etc., to meet needs and interests of the group.
Plan different kinds of learning experiences.
Foster co-operative learning.
Work with children to develop activities, plan trips, etc.