Head of School, Robyn Green welcomes 2nd grader, Adeyemi Ekundayo, 7, back to school as his father Adesina looks on. First day of classes at the Naval Academy Primary and Secondary School, welcoming their first ever 8th grade class on their 75th Anniversary. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Capital Gazette)
(Tribune News Service) — The Naval Academy Primary and Secondary School, which started the school year Wednesday, is marking its 75th anniversary by adding an eighth grade.
“I’m excited for the families. Having a middle school gives them the opportunity to have multiple kids, from kindergarten to eighth grade, all the way through in this sweet, loving school,” said Robyn Green, head of school.
Parents walked their kids up Dream Big Drive, the driveway to the school named this summer to commemorate the inaugural eighth grade class, for drop-off early Wednesday morning.
Located on the U.S. Naval Academy’s campus, NAPS was granted additional space during the COVID-19 pandemic, which they used to add sixth, seventh and now eighth grade programs.
NAPS is not a Department of Defense school or under the jurisdiction of the Maryland State Department of Education. Instead, it is an accredited member of the Association of Independent Maryland Schools.
There are 260 students in the school. For first through seventh grades, the average class size is 18. Of the 240 families, 212 are military-affiliated. Active-duty military, USNA employees, Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security employees, and retired military personnel are given priority, but the school also accepts families with no connection to the military.
Sheri Green, the president of the NAPS Parent Teacher Association, and her family are not part of the military. She toured several schools in the Anne Arundel County area but decided on NAPS.
“It’s small, so you feel like a family,” said Green. “It’s a very welcoming and sweet school.”
Jennifer Moore, whose husband was in the Navy, has two kids in the school. Her daughter is starting sixth grade, and Moore credits the environment at NAPS for her daughter’s minimal struggles with bullying and cliques.
“She’s not getting caught up in the rigmarole of the mean girl stuff,” said Moore. “This is a nurturing, sweet environment where my kids can still be kids.”
Moore said she is grateful to see her daughter taught leadership skills and manners. The school also values teaching kindness and following routines, according to Green.
“We ask a lot of our students, even the three-year-olds,” said Green.
After morning drop-off, parents hung out on the front lawn to chat with each other and watch the annual first day of school flag ceremony. At 8:30, all the students lined up on Dream Big Drive to say the Pledge of Allegiance and watch the seventh grade students raise the American flag.
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