The Nueva School

The Nueva School
Location
Hillsborough and San Mateo, California United States
Information
Type	Private, coeducational
Established	1967
Head of School	Diane Rosenberg
Faculty	118 full-time
Enrollment	713 (PreK–11)
Average class size	16–18
Student to teacher ratio	6.5:1
Campus	Combined area: 33 acres (130,000 m2)
Color(s)	Blue and white
Athletics	baseball, basketball, cross-country, flag football, rock climbing, soccer, softball, squash, tennis, track and field, volleyball
Activities	robotics, debate
Elementary and middle school mascot	The Nueva Wave
High school mascot	The Nueva Mavericks
Website

The Nueva School is a private school, with two campuses, one in Hillsborough, and one in San Mateo, California, serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. Nueva was founded in 1967 by Karen Stone McCown.

The school was originally located in Menlo Park but now is located on the site of the former W. H. Crocker Skyfarm mansion, which was purchased and donated to the school by the late W. Clement Stone. The school moved to the mansion in 1971.

The remodeled mansion houses the lower school, grades prekindergarten to fourth. The head of lower school is Emily Kolatch. The middle school and classes for grades five to eight are located in modern buildings elsewhere on the main campus by the gym and cafe. The head of middle school is Liza Raynal. Other campus buildings include a gymnasium/performance space, science labs, a library, a cafe, and a research and design space known as the "I-Lab" (an abbreviated form of innovation lab). Nueva's upper field includes a track and two soccer goals, as well as a scoreboard that was installed in 2013.

A high school was established in 2013 and a new campus was built as part of the Bay Meadows development in San Mateo, opening in August 2014. The inaugural ninth grade class was housed at the College of San Mateo.

Nueva is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and the California Association of Independent Schools.

Notable Curriculum

The school's music program was designed, in part, by Sir Yehudi Menuhin working with Dr. Genevieve Fitzmaurice. The school's mathematics program owes much of its approach to the vision of Mary Laycock. The school's social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum was developed in large part by Janice Toben.

Annual School Trips

Towards the end of the year for grades one through twelve, students have a school trip. For first grade it is a one-night sleepover in the ballroom-turned community space. For second, third, and fourth, students go camping (separately). The second grade trip is two days long, third is two days, and fourth is four. Fifth grade students visit Mesa Verde National Park and the Four Corners region. Sixth grade students travel to Washington, DC. Seventh grade students backpack in Yosemite National Park for five days, and then take a four-day trip to Ashland, Oregon, to attend the Shakespeare festival. Eighth grade students travel to Spain, China, or Japan, and participate in a homestay. Ninth grade students go to Peru to visit Machu Picchu. Tenth grade students travel to Costa Rica to work with the Leatherback Trust and the Monteverde Institute in conjunction with their biology curriculum. Eleventh grade students break up into several groups and travel to various locations in the United States as part of their American Studies curriculum.