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Award Winning School

  ~ Northshore Christian Academy ~

A Six Time National Award Winning School

NCA has received the following Association of Christian Schools International Exemplary School Awards:

2009-2010, Teachers + Learning = Learning Students:  Northshore Christian Academy offers a comprehensive Professional Development Program that emphasizes collaborative learning. NCA seeks to enhance the traditional workshop model by utilizing God given gifts and expertise of its own staff members. This method uses 9 different avenues to enhance professional skills of our teachers. These various learning avenues provide creative ways for teachers to learn within the demanding school schedules as well as other pressing teaching responsibilities. These 9 avenues all require working with others in the learning process. They will provide ways for teachers to share their learning or discuss learning with others. The result is that learning permeates the school because teachers share and demonstrate their learning to each other through these 9 avenues. These 9 components of “Teachers + Learning = Learning Students” include: Professional Learning Communities (PLCs); Learning Teams; Teacher Strength Matrix, Observations, Videotaping peers teaching a lesson; Off-Site Conferences; On-Site Workshops using Staff Experts; Outside Speakers bringing On-Site Training and a Professional Lending Library. NCA’s professional development program results in learners whose excitement is contagious to their colleagues and their students. Passionate learners teach children to be passionate about learning. Our learning community starts with the teachers as they filter new knowledge through a biblical worldview, model creative ways to learn, apply what they learned to their classroom, and share their learning with their peers.

2008-2009, Teaming with Parents to Train Students:  The program objective is to train students for developing relationships using conflict management skills, to provide parents with a conduit for building strong relationships with their preteens and for preparing their preteens for the turbulent adolescent years, and to be proactive in addressing state mandates of health and sex education in Christian Schools. NCA builds Christian social and emotional skills in students by using three program components over five years. These components mentor parents and train students by teaching conflict management skills, addressing friendship issues, and preparing preteens for adolescence, including discussions about how to maintain sexual purity. This three part series provides students and parents with tools to build healthy and well structured relationships. In part one, the 4th graders learn about friendships and conflict management skills. In part two, the 5th and 6th graders participate in a study called, “Preparing for Adolescence,” which the parents teach in partnership with our school. In part three, the 7th and 8th graders are equipped with strategies to cultivate healthy relationships through the SHARE (Sexuality, Health, and Relationship Education) program. As each state education department decides whether to mandate health and sex education in Christian schools, our program is in place, reflecting biblical principles and working well. Through this program, parents receive the assistance to teach their own children essential material in a biblical framework. The program equips parents so that they can teach and model God’s purpose and plan.

2007-2008, Talking School Radio Project:  The goal of NCA’s campus radio station is to promote home and school communication, to maximize family awareness of and involvement in school activities, and to develop student leadership skills through a unique, innovative way of broadcasting news throughout the campus. As families arrive on campus, they tune into the NCA radio station to hear announcements and events occurring at Northshore.

2006-2007, Student-Led Parent-Teacher Conferences:  This program was introduced to NCA’s 5th grade in 2002 by one of NCA’s creative and dedicated 5th grade teachers, and now includes 6th-8th grade. Other 5th grade components that make NCA’s 5th grade program innovative include: Sail Away Simulation (each student is assigned a colony to research, create a travel brochure, a display board and teach others about their colony); Night of the Notables (each student acquires the identity of a historical figure and teaches others about this person); Writer’s Café (students share their creative writing work to parents in an evening ‘café’ event); Inventions (students invent a new contraption using scientific principles with ‘stuff’ found around the house; Class Meetings (weekly meetings that are led by students to discuss class dynamics); Math Game Unit (studying the latest research in math education, new math games and activities were added to 5th grade); and Spelling Mastery Exercise (physical movement and a large floor map is used to teach challenging spelling words).

2005-2006, Navigating the World – Student and Educators Exchange:  Students ranging from K-8th grade participated in making this multi-faceted, multi-cultural, multi-country outreach possible, this program reached Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala and South Africa (1) teaching students that God uses everyone (principals teachers, parents and students) to make an impact on ministries around the world and (2) to provide training and supplies through teacher-to-teacher, administrator-to-administrator, parent-to-parent, and student-to-student connections through Christian schools and other ministries.

2004-2005, NASA Science Files:  Partnering with NASA, Society of Women Engineers, Boeing and local scientists to provide a ‘hands-on’ science. This program utilizes the NASA SCIence Files curriculum and local engineers as teachers. Since 2002, Jackie Johnson, Boeing engineer and NCA parent, initiated and led this program at NCA.

Northshore has also received the following additional awards:

2004-2005:  UNOVA Foundation, K-12 Education Support Program

2005-2006:  Intermec Foundation, K-12 Education Support Program

2005-2006:  Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Career Guidance Media Award

2006-2007:  Washington Federation of Independent Schools (WFIS) Parent of the Year Award on behalf of Jackie Johnson, NASA SCIence Files - Program Leader

2008-2009:  Washington Federation of Independent Schools (WFIS) Parent of the Year Award on behalf of Marcia Alexander, R.N. – NCA School Nurse

2009:  Terry Husseman Department of Ecology Sustainable School Seed Award
Intermec Foundation, K-12 Education Support Program (two awards) for our Classroom Technology Project: digital projectors, document cameras, computers and Promethean Boards for 32 classrooms (K-8th Grade)

Northshore Christian Academy is a member of the following organizations:

• Association of Christian Schools International (Academy and Early Learning Center)
• Northwest Association of Accredited Schools
• Washington Federation of Independent Schools
• National Association of Accredited Schools
• Association for the Professional Development of Christian School Board Members
• Approved by the Washington State Board of Education

Calendar at a Glance