One of the unique hallmarks of Nueva’s curriculum is the Trips Program. At each grade level students participate in a sequenced, developmentally-appropriate, intensive, immersive trip to culminate learning through direct, hands-on experiences.

The Trips Sequence begins in first grade, when the entire grade has a sleepover in the Ballroom. Second graders travel to a beautiful site near Felton where they sleep in rustic cabins and investigate the redwood and stream ecosystems for two days. Third graders end their school year with a three-day expedition to Memorial Grove campground on the San Mateo Coast, where they sleep in tents underneath the redwoods and spend their days investigating watersheds, water quality, and orienteering. Fourth graders travel to Westminster Woods in Occidental for four days to camp and explore the highly varied biomes found in the area.

By Middle School, students are travelling for a week or more. The 5th grade goes to Crow Canyon in the Four Corners for a week, as part of their study of the American Southwest. At the beginning of May, the 6th grade travels to the East Coast to visit Colonial Williamsburg and Washington, D.C., which brings together key U.S. history themes studied in the spring semester. In the third week of May, the 7th grade journeys to Yosemite for a week-long backpacking trip, which abounds in SEL lessons, and then at the beginning of June they venture to Ashland to see the Shakespeare plays they study all semester during the drama conservatory.

Finally, in the culmination of the Trips Program, eighth graders head to either Spain or Japan for a two-week cultural immersion, participating in a homestay, attending local schools, and visiting historic sites. In 2011, the 8th grade will add a third trip to China. See the Trip Details page in the menu to the left for more information on each grade's trips.

Throughout the school year, students also take part in local trips related to their academic course of study. In addition, each advisory in grades 6-8 begins the year with an overnight camping trip to acclimate new students and to create bonding within the advisory group; and the eighth graders have a retreat, around the time that high-school acceptance letters are sent out, to relax after the intense high-school application process.

Like our other curricula, the trip program is a spiral one, in which children gradually increase their independence step by step. These steps ultimately result in Middle School students who are able to plan and carry out a backpacking trip and operate as self-sufficient travelers for two weeks in Japan and Spain.

At Nueva we provide many challenges to stretch children’s minds and promote their intellectual growth. We believe it is also important to provide experiences that will stretch them in other ways and foster their social and emotional growth. Of all these experiences, the trips are the most challenging. It’s a long way from that first uncertain night away from Mom or Dad to spending two weeks on the other side of the ocean. That’s why we structure a whole series of trips. We help your children increase their confidence in their competency and independence in a safe and supportive environment, where they are surrounded by their friends and by caring teachers who know them well.

Our returning alumni tell us that these experiences are among the most memorable and most important of their Nueva years. Our experiences as teachers confirm that the trips, like sleepovers with a buddy, can be one of the great joys of childhood -- and are one of the small steps toward the independence that will be crucial when you tearfully drop your child off at his or her freshman college dorm.