Circle Agreements
- Reflect the kindness you want to be shown
- Communicate openly, honestly, and compassionately
- Respect the NEIA community and the spaces we share
- Create an environment that provides support and opportunities
- Build and maintain friendships through trust and inclusion
- Be understanding and create a sense of belonging
- Everyone in our community is an equal
Our community in the Middle School at NEIA starts being built from the first day of school. We come together as a group, students and staff, to write what we value in others and ourselves and the standards we will use to hold each other accountable. These become our Circle Agreements. The final set of agreements represents the conversations we had to agree on the verbiage, the edits everyone contributed, and the acceptance that we all can live up to these year-long. They are hung in every shared space and read frequently at the start of classes or meetings to keep them alive.
We have created this circle agreement to define the culture we want in our shared spaces. The language we have chosen to have in this reflects who we want to be and how we want to be treated. We promise to live up to these standards and stand up when they are not being upheld.
"Students in our middle school are able to recognize, analyze, and understand their strengths and how to best utilize them now and in the future."
Our Middle School
CurriculumHere at NEIA, our Middle School experience answers the question for students; “Why do I need to know this?” Our curriculum leverages the interconnectedness of disciplines and allows our students to learn in new dimensions. There is no more compartmentalization of coursework and thinking, which helps spark creativity and free thought. Through the Middle School years, we build a strong foundation of knowledge and skills to help them succeed for years to come. Most importantly for this age group, we keep their wonder alive.
NEIA Middle School students will learn and understand how an entrepreneurial mindset can set them up to be resourceful and resilient. They have learned the power of communication and effective presentations. They are not plugged into or dependent upon screens. They are creators and innovators that dare to say there may be a better way. They are future-focused and engaged.
Middle School students are being pulled between the physical and the digital worlds. They need to be able to be creative in both. Our curriculum builds creativity through integration and future-focused thinking, and problem-solving. We also teach our students to create and design digitally and bring those to life in our Innovation Studio classes.
Being a Middle School student means being vulnerable. At NEIA, we do not hold grades over our student’s heads; we build their self-confidence through our competency-based education system. We track individual student progress through constant feedback and support our students develop and believe in their abilities.
Our focus on integration creates a unique curriculum that teaches students to be future-focused problem solvers. By blurring the lines between traditional disciplines, we open our students’ eyes to new ways of thinking. This allows us to create opportunities in classes where students can find, develop, or showcase their own passions. Through these connections in the curriculum, our students carry the energy and questions from one class straight into the next, keeping their wonder alive.
"Being a part of the NEIA community isn’t just about being here at NEIA, it’s about interacting with people and helping foster a sense of community for everyone."
"NEIA has been such a big part of my life since last year. I have made so many good friends, and I feel that it has helped so much with my social and emotional life."
"Being apart of NEIA is one of the greatest opportunities I will ever have!"
Middle School News
Check out some of the great things our upper school students have been accomplishing!