Overview

Students Connect, Collaborate and Create in shaping their own understanding and in developing the person they will become.

Our Middle School program is designed for children between 11-14 years and is a unique educational experience based on the developmental needs of early adolescents. Our graduates are prepared to take on higher education with the tools they need to succeed while maintaining a passion for learning and a drive to explore, create, and collaborate. A Montessori middle school education offers an experiential, dynamic approach to each subject area; integrated studies between programs; and a focus on character development and self-exploration. We extend the learning environment to the larger world through international and local trips, Montessori Model UN, and other unique offerings designed to engage, excite, and educate the middle school-aged child.

Developmental Milestones

Early adolescence is a time of great change, intellectually, psychologically, and physically. Except for the first three years of life, there is no other time where growth is so noticeable, varied, and significant. There is a new awareness of self in relation to community, a need to find one’s place in the world, the ability to reflect on educational experiences, and a desire to make a personal connection to what is learned. This stage can be a ‘fragile’ phase in a child’s life with the child often alternating between feeling vulnerable and feeling secure. Our Middle School program supports the student in this stage of development as the process of self-construction occurs—socially, emotionally, and intellectually. We emphasize, model, and teach core values of respect, responsibility, and resilience.

Curriculum Highlights

The Middle School curriculum cycles through three years of dynamic studies. Learning becomes meaningful when students see connections across disciplines and can relate their learning to real-world situations and personal experiences. Core and enrichment content is taught in a way that ignites curiosity and wonder. Through guided reading of such literature as Gilgamesh, Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, Dickinson, Douglass, and Thoreau, students enter high school ready to further explore these important works. By experiencing history through experiential activities; science through experimenting, hypothesizing, and researching; and mathematics through stress-free exploration, practice, and collaboration, students keep their love of learning and confidence intact.

The team of teachers set consistent, age-appropriate expectations academically. Guiding questions allow for discussion of the larger themes of study relevant to this stage of development. Teachers collaborate and coordinate on assignments and expectations, and check-in with students regularly in order to promote individual growth and self-awareness. Students work toward mastery of each subject with the focus on developing intrinsic motivation.