Who are we?

Northern Discovery Academy is a private Christian and will be opening enrollment for the 2024-205 school year starting on June 1st. We accept students of diverse backgrounds and beliefs but require that they respect Northern's Christian foundation.  

Continue Below to Discover:

• Where is the School?
• What is Your Educational Model & Philosophy?
• What Does It Cost to Attend?
• How Can I Learn More?
• How Do We Register?

Our campus is in Newaygo, a 10-acre wooded campus in the heart of Manistee National Forest, where all our students benefit from the space, access to nature, and the opportunity to investigate God's world in an active and hands-on way. Our address is 5490 E 48th St, Newaygo 49337.

Northern Discovery Academy exists to build a transformative educational and social experience. We seek to foster a culture of curiosity, where kids love waking up each day to learn more about the world around them.  They love it because they are involved with the learning hands-on, trying new skills, and enjoying educational experiences.  We are here to provide those experiences inside a Christian worldview, and in a small-group format with a low ratio of students to teachers.

Who Founded the School?

WinterPromise has been providing interactive, hands-on curriculum to charter schools and homeschoolers for over 20 years (www.winterpromise.com).  We desire to offer this educational experience to as many children as we can, and this school is a product of that vision.  The model you've learned about here on our website is an extension of what our curriculum facilitates -- an active, engaged educational process.  

Are Your Teachers Certified?

As the state of Michigan requires, our teachers have their degree.  Each one is passionate about their subject area, and our founding teachers are fluent in the function, priorities, and requirements of our unique model!  As we continue to grow and add teachers, they are likely to be a mix of degreed teachers who are and are not certified, teachers who can adapt and adopt our interactive model.  This results in a mix of teachers.  Why?  The path to certification focuses on different objectives and frameworks that align to traditional school priorities, developed to manage large classrooms and demonstrate student success through testing and pre-set outcomes.  This type of approach is not how your student is taught at NDA, and therefore, even a certified teacher would have to learn new techniques to master our model.  We can teach the model.  You can't teach the kind of passion that stirs up a love of learning in a child, and truly educates them.  That is what we look for in teachers of excellence!

How do You Measure Success?

Our measurements of success are unique because they flow from the truth that God has made each child uniquely. Therefore, based upon the study of multiple intelligences and our understanding of the variety of learning styles that each of us have, we created a unique blend of assessment tools. We can do this because of our high teacher-to-student ratio in which we can offer individualized feedback and assessment that is based upon where each student started, their areas of strength, their areas of weakness, and the work they put into the variety of learning experiences they are offered. Each student experiences unique challenges and a traditional-listen-memorize-regurgitate-test model rarely offers a true assessment of success for each student. 

It's so affordable!  We focus on keeping our costs low and furnishing top-quality learning experiences for your family!  Our tuition is much less than that of similar private institutions.  You can take a look at our 2023-2024 tuition costs below:

Forest School -  1st Student $4375

K-6th Grade - 1st Student $4175, 2nd Student $3875, 3rd Student $3775

7th-12th Grade - 1st Student $4375, 2nd Student $4075

We offer 9- and 11-month payment plans as well as flex payment options where families pay a larger amount in a Spring month (usually due to tax returns) which makes their payments through the year lower.

We have a set amount of scholarship funds available each year and want work with our families as much as possible. So, please reach out if there are challenges financially for your family.

First Step - Submit an inquiry by reaching out to michaelb@northerndiscoveryacademy.com. Once you submit the inquiry we will follow up with you as soon as possible to get to know you. Once we get into contact, you can set up a visit, meet with a teacher, and see our facilities.  

Plan a Summer Campus Visit, explore our campus, walk our trail, and more when you schedule a visit.

Read our Handbook here, or Call Us at 231-527-9683.  We'll tell you all about us! 

FOR NEW STUDENTS:

Reach out to the email above to set up a time to go over paperwork.