Dear Parents,

As we make our way toward the end of the second week of the year, I wanted to share some of the exciting learning and news I hear resonating from nearly every corner of our campus.

In the Science Department, Barbara Farrell is field-testing a pilot program called Geniverse through which students learn about genetics with interactive simulations on the computer. Students are taking on the role of collaborating scientists and getting a feel for bioinformatics. Meanwhile, the seventh graders are adding an overnight experience to their fifth annual study of the biodiversity and water quality of the Royal River. To culminate, students will compare their data from the Royal River in Yarmouth with data from the Royal River in North Yarmouth, as well as with the mouth of the river at Cousins Island. They will camp out at Cousins Island to celebrate their field studies and reflect on what they have learned.

Several faculty members in the English Department are helping to organize a Visiting Writers Series which will debut with Yarmouth-author Lily King on October 13. Ms. King will visit some classes, address students, and give an evening reading open to the public. In addition, Mike Gengras, Heidi Grant, and Ross Markonish will attend a Folger Shakespeare Workshop at Yarmouth High School in October.

From the Visual & Performing Arts Department, we hear that Linda Vaillancourt is excited to have the biggest Upper School Strings group in the history of the school. Arts faculty have already been visiting each other’s classrooms and taking video for the NYA website; and the steelband, after two rehearsals, has mastered their first piece.

The Math Department notes that 98% of the Upper School is enrolled in a math course, with several students choosing to take two math courses this year. Not only do we have many students exceeding the three credit requirement, but we have 31 seniors enrolled in AP-level mathematics this year – an all-time high for NYA.

In history, there are great conversations coming out of the new freshman curriculum. The students seem eager to tackle some of the timeless questions the course addresses such as “What is human nature like?” and “What makes a meaningful life?” which will no doubt inform many of their studies throughout the school.

In the Modern and Classical Language Department, fifth graders are now entering the world of language learning through the Latin-based curriculum of our Classical Foundations course. Other Middle School students have the opportunity to begin their study of French, Latin, or Spanish a year earlier, beginning in grade six. Due to our revised schedule, new eighth graders now have the option of enrolling in a level 1 language course. Two ninth grade students are working in collaboration with L’Ecole Française du Maine / The French School of Maine to prepare for the French National Exam: Diplome National du Brevet. They will be the first students from Maine to take these exams. And a quite amazing feat, for the first time in recent memory – or maybe ever, an NYA senior is studying three languages at once, including two at the AP level.

And in athletics, there has been great energy, enthusiasm and participation in many areas, with an impressive 31 students involved in girls’ volleyball. This week, all NYA home athletic contests involve the Middle School and we look forward to cheering on our younger athletes. We recently learned that the latest cross country coaches’ poll puts the NYA Boys’ team third in the state for any size school, public or private, and that same team defeated Class B power Greely on Friday by a score of 26-29.

I hope you find this news as heartening as I do. Within the first two weeks, it is clear that NYA’s classrooms, athletic fields, studios and rehearsals are places where students and teachers are already pushing themselves to learn and experience as much as they can. I look forward to sharing more developments as the term progresses.

Finally, I would like to thank you for the hard work so many of you put into articulating your thoughtful comments in the recent parent survey. This process yielded a great deal of useful and pertinent information. There is still much to distill and analyze, and as we do, I plan to be back in touch with you as to how its results will improve and inform all of what we do at NYA. In the meantime, thank you for helping our community get off to such a positive and powerful start to the school year.

Yours truly,

Brad Choyt
Head of School