The Nueva School

Nueva is an independent Pre-K-12 school where gifted learners discover and develop their passions, and learn to make choices that positively and profoundly impact the world. At Nueva, we know gifted learners. Gifted learners want to know how and why. They constantly wonder and ask, and seemingly cannot quench their thirst for knowledge. They think big: they want to design, to build, and to test. They fall in love with topics and ideas, and are driven to investigate. They experience the world in complex ways and often have sensitivities that run deep. They are all this and so much more. While they share some characteristics and behaviors, gifted learners defy categorization.

When they arrive at Nueva, they learn quickly, no matter their age, that they can be themselves. Their gifts are embraced, their voices heard. They never have to quiet their questions or hide their passion for learning.

We meet their specialized needs through our unique, dynamic educational model, based on more than 50 years of expertise serving gifted learners. Their education is not detached from life; life beyond the classroom is integral to understanding. Our hallmark features include distinctive inquiry-based, interdisciplinary studies, a constructivist project-based approach, pioneering curricula in Social-Emotional Learning, the first precollegiate Design Thinking program in the country, and our Social Justice, Equity & Inclusion program, now in its fourth year.

The Nueva experience guides our PreK–12 students to become flexible thinkers, designers, mathematicians, artists, scientists, friends, and citizens of our community and far beyond. We’re growing gifted learners to be problem solvers today. At Nueva, our students learn to make choices that will benefit the world.

A Nueva education has never been more relevant or important for gifted learners and for our world. Nueva graduates know knowledge is theirs for the taking, and that their ideas and creations are meaningful and will have impact, no matter what their pursuits. Our students are empowered global citizens, and they fill us with optimism and excitement for the future.

Nueva's vision is to create a dynamic educational model where gifted learners are empowered to make choices that benefit the world. Our school community inspires passion for lifelong learning, fosters social and emotional acuity, and develops the imaginative mind. For over fifty years, Nueva has pursued its mission in two ways — Nueva provides students with an outstanding, tailored education (Mission I); and Nueva works to reach gifted learners everywhere by engaging actively within the Bay Area and the education community more broadly (Mission II).

We believe that diversity and inclusion are a fundamental part of an enriching educational experience and that all students benefit from learning to value, engage with, and understand difference. We celebrate our community’s multiple and intersectional identities, and welcome a diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. Accordingly, we believe our students will be equipped to become engaged citizens in our democracy and to participate and communicate effectively in our interdependent global community.

Finally, we believe that transformation is the ultimate aim of social justice and of education. In both arenas, the work often doesn’t reap immediate rewards and requires a profound faith in others. We know that our work at Nueva will be simultaneously rewarding and deeply challenging. Nevertheless, we believe that we are beholden to our students to build a better world. We do so by fostering a beloved community that openly acknowledges the ways in which all institutions, schools included, perpetuate inequality; and, in so doing, confronts this truth with the willingness and conviction to construct an entirely different system and world.

San Mateo Campus
Address: 131 E 28th Avenue
Postal Code: 94403
Phone: +1 650 2357100