Greetings from the Golden Valley Secondary School Administration,

At Golden Valley School our mission is to "Educate for Life: Forming Better Men and Women."

In addition to a rigorous academic program based on the American Education Reaches Out curriculum, our students also participate in a wide variety of Fine Arts courses, extracurricular activities, and the Formation for Life Program. The Formation for Life Program is an institutional program that includes Philosophy for Life, Health, Home, Physical Education, and Character Education.

All of our courses are taught fully in English with the exception of Spanish, German, and Costa Rican Civics and Social Studies. The majority of our Secondary teachers are native English speakers from the United States who have relocated to Costa Rica to work with our school. We ask for long-term commitment from our teachers in order to keep teacher turnover limited and therefore to maintain stability in excellence in all aspects of our school and its programs.

We are members of the Schulen: Partner der Zukunft (Schools: Partners of the Future), a program from the German government that is designed to effectively spread the teaching of the German language around the world. Our students begin receiving German language lessons in the earliest years of Primary School. By the time they are in Middle School, German is considered a core subject area, and all students take yearlong courses in German during sixth through eighth grades. In High School, all students are required to take at least four core courses in German, and many additional elective courses are available. By the completion of middle school, all of our students take the A1 exam to certify their fluency in the German language. High School students have the opportunity to take additional exams for certification, including the US College Board's Advanced Placement Exam, which earns them international college credit that is recognized by hundreds of universities around the world.

Advanced Placement exams will also be offered in Human Geography, World History, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English, Spanish, and Studio Art. Golden Valley students have the opportunity to graduate from twelfth grade and enter into some of the world's top universities with the university level General Education courses already complete. This means our Seniors complete their twelfth grade year of high school and at least their first semester of the university simultaneously during their last two semesters at Golden Valley Secondary School.

Please look to the navigation bar on the left to see teacher's websites, a history of the school, an activities calendar, directory of faculty contact information, and much more.

If you have questions about our Secondary School or our programs, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Patrick R. Miller, M.Ed.
Director of Secondary School
Golden Valley School
Heredia, Costa Rica