Norwood Fontbonne Academy

Curriculum

Curriculum The Norwood-Fontbonne Academy curriculum includes a Montessori Program and a Primary Program. The Montessori pre-school serves three-four and five-year-old students. The Junior Level Montessori program serves students in first, second, and third grades. The Primary program originates in the Kindergarten year and extends to eighth grade. The Montessori and Primary programs merge in the fourth grade.

NFA students study Religion, Integrated Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. The curriculum is enriched by Music, Art, Physical Education, Library Science, Technology and Spanish. Spanish is formally introduced to students in grades pre-school through grade six. Spanish is taught as a major subject to students in grades seven and eight. Additional grade level enrichments include: Keyboarding, Organization and Study Skills, "Analyze This" (a mathematics enrichment), "Write All About It" (an ILA enrichment), and Media Science, a team teaching of library and technology. A Norwood-Fontbonne student experiences cooperative learning, individualized instruction and experiential learning. Field experiences and assemblies are designed to support the students' curriculum.

The curriculum programs at Norwood-Fontbonne Academy challenge all students to maximize their individual potential. Class size is small enough that teachers can tailor instruction to meet individual learning modalities. Student achievement is celebrated with Academic Achievement Awards and Vision Awards every trimester. Academic excellence and consistent good conduct and effort are criteria for these awards.

The Service Learning curriculum, which is an integral part of our Religion curriculum, evolves from the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and the central mission of the Sisters of Saint Joseph: "to live and work so that all may be united wit God and with one another". Students are immersed in grade-level themes and perform service around those themes at various mentor sites. The grade level themes include sensitivity to the elderly, to children of immigrants, to children of the poor, to children who learn differently, and to the homeless and hungry. Some Service Learning mentor sites are: Holy Name School in Camden, Saint John's Hospice, The Artman Home, Saint Hugh of Cluny School in Kensington, Our Lady of Confidence School in Willow Grove, Archbishop Ryan School for the Hearing Impaired and Saint Joseph's Villa. Students, at assigned grade levels, visit these sites twice a year. Persons from the mentor sites visit NFA once a year.

Norwood-Fontbonne Academy provides an Office of Learning Support to serve children who have mild to moderate learning differences. Learning Support teachers are trained in the Wilson an Linda-Mood Bell methodologies of teaching reading.

Overall, the curriculum of Norwood-Fontbonne Academy is structured at grade level according to the scope and sequence of our chosen programs. The decision to place a child in a particular class or group rests with the Administration in consultation with the faculty and parents. NFA meets and exceeds all national and state standards of elementary education. Consistently the focus is on preparing NFA students to be faith-filled and responsible participants in a 21st century multi-cultural and technological society.

Norwood-Fontbonne Academy is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and The American Montessori Society.

Norwood Fontbonne Academy • 8891 Germantown Avenue Philadelphia PA 19118
Phone (215) 247-3811 Fax (215) 247-8405