Setting a Strong Foundation
New Beginnings Family Academy offers up to nine years of education -- from Pre-K, aged 3 -- through 6th grade.
NBFA understands the importance of a strong foundation to meet developmental milestones critical for learning. Our mixed-age Pre-Kindergarten (3s, 4s and 5s) classrooms are print and language-rich environments where children make sense of the world through exploration of materials, ideas, and the people around them. NBFA’s certified early childhood teachers recognize that children develop at their own pace and individualize learning to enhance the experiences of each student.
Classrooms are led by certified teachers and assistants who use research-based curricular resources, infused with their own creativity, to instill in students a love of learning and a strong work ethic. Mistakes are viewed as teachable moments that build resiliency.
NBFA parents are engaged accountability partners and advocates for their children's learning. Parents are active participants who serve as classroom buddies, volunteers, chaperones and more.
Early Childhood Program
New Beginnings Family Academy (“NBFA”) will construct its Early Learning Center, slated to break ground in spring 2024, following the phase-out of its secondary grades in June 2023. The Early Learning Center will enroll up to 160 pre-school students and serve as the feeder for NBFA Elementary. Located across the street, NBFA Elementary will increase enrollment of 1st through 6th graders. Together, the schools will have the capacity to serve up to 640 students, up from NBFA’s current approved enrollment of 499.
This plan was chosen to enable NBFA to focus on the formative years, thereby improving students’ social, emotional and academic outcomes by better aligning with Emotionally Responsive Practice (“ERP”). A relationship-based, trauma-informed approach to teaching and learning best suited for students in infancy through 6th grade, ERP fosters the social, emotional and brain development that underlies learning in young children. [1]
Under the ERP model, which has guided NBFA’s practice as a “school that heals” since 2016, teachers and leaders serve as developmental partners and use social emotional learning and mental health strategies to buffer the effects of poverty and other stressors on children. These techniques have strengthened adult-child relationships, enabled NBFA children to self-regulate more quickly, and kept challenging students who might otherwise have been issued suspensions in school learning.
NBFA will immediately double the number of Pre-K students, ages 3-5, that it currently serves by expanding into a new evidence-based, trauma-informed, Early Learning Center (“ELC”) with measurable, valid and reliable growth indicators. The ELC will serve as the feeder for NBFA elementary school, whose emotionally responsive practice model to teaching and learning is best suited for urban children in infancy through grade 6. Over time, the new facility will serve as a learning lab for childcare providers interested in ERP as a bridge to children's social, emotional and academic success. The facility will help NBFA move others toward education that is sustainable, transformational, outstanding and permissionless by training up an endless number of providers and parents.
The new ELC will be a two-story, 14.100 square foot facility with outdoor space for children. The first floor will house eight NAEYC-accreditable classrooms, a gross motor skills space and related offices. The second floor will house a conference room and non-instructional staff offices.
[1] Koplow, L. Emotionally Responsive Practice: A Path for Schools That Heal. Infancy-Grade 6. Teachers College Press. 2021.
Elementary School
New Beginnings Family Academy utilizes evidence- and research-based literacy programs grounded in the science of reading. Our math program is Common Core-aligned and develops students’ conceptual knowledge of math.
Teachers infuse projects, hands-on activities, and field trips into thematic units to help students make meaning of the world around them. To build empathy and self-control, students' days begin with a Morning Meeting and end with a Closing Circle. These community-building activities give children the opportunity to safely discuss and release big emotions while engaging constructively with each other and their teachers. A proprietary Bears Curriculum is used to help children form critical attachment bonds and develop essential self-regulation skills. Time is strategically built into students' regular daily schedule to interact with their individual bears.
NBFA’s Upper Elementary grades leverage the foundation laid in the early years and prepare students to transition into secondary and post-secondary institutions. Older students have greater choice of meaningful, project-based work that develops critical thinking, creativity and collaboration. Through a daily advisory program, students gain mastery in building affiliation, self-control, responsibility empathy, grit, and healthy work habits.
To ensure this, NBFA provides:
- Goal setting opportunities
- Engaging academics
- Exploratory curriculum
- Social-emotional instruction
- Self-reflection/ evaluation exercises
NBFA works closely with families to ensure students have successful life outcomes. Graduates can count on our continued guidance and support, if needed, when completing applications for admission into private middle schools, filing for financial aid, and seeking scholarships.
Since 2008, NBFA’s graduates have gone on to careers in teaching, medicine, the sciences, entrepreneurship, law enforcement, first responders and more.
