Notre Dame Academy (Middleburg, Virginia)

Notre Dame Academy is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Middleburg, Virginia. It is associated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington.

Background

Notre Dame Academy was established in 1965 by the Sisters of Notre Dame. However, Notre Dame Academy broke from the Sisters of Notre Dame in the early 2000s and is now run by a Board of Trustees. Formerly, the school was all-women's, and featured boarding rooms in Mary House, the on-campus stone chapel and home of the offices. However, in the early 1990's, Notre Dame went co-educational and became a day school.

Some of Notre Dame's faculty and headmaster still lives on campus, and it is offered to teachers when they begin teaching at the school.

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Education and Extracurriculars

Despite being no longer run by sisters, NDA still emphasizes a Catholic education, including celebration of Mass on school grounds, observation of Lent, and so on. They also have a Catholic retreat mid-April to help students stay committed to Christ, even though the school is less than 50% Catholic.

Notre Dame uses block schedulling for their students. There is an on-campus drama troupe, dark room for photography, and pottery room. Students are encouraged to fulfill the Virginia State Physical Education requirements via school sports such as soccer or lacrosse, or via "alternative courses" such as skiing or whitewater rafting. Students also are allowed to join chorus, band, Yearbook, Student Council, Mock Trial, debate, SADD, and the Lunch Bunch, which is a community service group of students that mentor lower-income students at the local Middleburg School. Students are also required to complete a certain amount of hours towards community service each year.

The school also holds a short, winter semester class to help "cure the winter doldrums" between Christmas break and Spring break. Here, students can take a class in anything from the Winter Ski Class, to Cooking, to scrapbooking. Notre Dame also starts off their school year with "Adventure Bound", a week of bonding for students where they are allowed to dress down and go on whitewater rafting trips, hiking, etc, with other students in their classes to help them bond with each other. They also give senior students special "rights", such as different colored dress shirts, off-campus lunches, and an unauthorized Senior Skip Day. Seniors also tend to take over the "Ski Lounge" area of the school, which is on the second floor and features an area of chairs for students to relax and converse.

Notre Dame implements a strict school uniform code, based on the blue and gold school colors, and khaki dress pants or pleated skirts (Depending on gender, though women are allowed to wear pants). They do a "Catillion-style" graduation, where women wear white ball gowns and men wear tuxedos. Students must attend both bacchelaurate mass and graduation to receive their diploma, and all students must be accepted into one four-year accredited college to graduate. They also partake in a number of other Virginia private school traditions, and many students are actively involved in horses and horse racing. The Notre Dame gala and auction is a popular school fundraiser that many local residents look forward to as a major social event that usually occurs around Mardi Gras. [Notredameva.org]

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Athletics

Notre Dame Academy features a track, basketball, field hockey, soccer, lacrosse, cross-country, baseball, golf, and tennis teams, all of which offer a female equivalent or, as in the case of track and cross-country, are co-educational. Cheerleading is the only non co-educational sport. Their basketball teams and baseball teams have been nationally recognized. [ [http://www.notredameva.org Notre Dame Academy Middleburg, Virginia ] ]

It is accredited by the VAIS. (Virginia Association of Independent Schools)

External links

* [http://www.notredameva.org/ School Website]

Notes and references