The faculty suspends regular classes in grades 10-12 four times a year for Seminar. Seminar devotes an entire school day to small group discussion about a selected piece of literature. Past selections have included Forrest Carter's The Education of Little Tree, Martin Luther King's A Letter from the Birmingham Jail, Leonard Bernstein's The Infinite Variety of Music, and excerpts from the book of Genesis. Seniors must research, write, and deliver to the student body and faculty an original persuasive speech as a part of their graduation requirement. In an effort to encourage all students to seek exposure to the arts, Studio Art, Chorus, Dance, Drama, Orchestra and Band are offered as non-academic credit courses.
Students receive credit for course work completed during the summer.
Grades in Summer School are not computed into the grade point average. The National Merit Program traditionally recognizes between one quarter and one third of our senior class as semi-finalists or commended students. Norfolk Academy no longer ranks its students. Rank neither provides a valid measure of performance nor offers a true distinction between members of a highly talented class. We do offer a variety of other data that should assist in the evaluation of performance.