The curriculum at SJND is a challenging four-year sequential program consisting of core studies and a broad range of electives. The SJND core curriculum provides a sequence of courses fundamental to a contemporary high school education for college-bound students. 

SJND has high expectations for all students, encouraging them to maintain consistent, high-level performance in academics while emphasizing personal and spiritual development and active citizenship. The school requires its students to participate in its community service program. All students are encouraged to participate in the athletic program, with options to pursue a complete array of competitive athletics.

Classes allow for individual attention. Begininning freshman year, students are placed in sections appropriate to their abilities. Through the availability of honors and Advanced Placement sections, students have the option of progressing at a rate commensurate with their own abilities and ambitions.

Students normally carry seven courses per semester. A minimum of 270 semester units over four years is required for graduation. In the four-year program, students should distribute these courses to satisfy the following departmental requirements.

Upon acceptance, freshman students are assigned a course of classes, based on grades and their scores on the High School Placement Test. For sophomore, junior and senior students, course requests and registration is in early spring, and each class has specific recommendations:

• Sophomore Course Recommendations
• Junior Course Recommendations
• Senior Course Recommendations

Additional courses to complete a student’s program may be selected from electives in the academic departments.