Middle School
Building knowledge and mastery through inquiry in Middle School.
Middle school is characterized by remarkable growth, with students becoming more capable, independent, and confident as their knowledge expands across disciplines. Our expert teachers know students well and are skilled at finding the right balance of support and challenge to guide them. Students strengthen not only what they learn—but how they think, solve problems, and make choices. Moving from concrete to abstract thinking, they develop the discipline and organization skills needed for critical inquiry and reflection.
“Learning is a journey, and along the way our students need to feel supported and empowered as they navigate obstacles and grow.”
A Strong Foundation Across Core Disciplines
Course sequences start broad and become more specialized, adding breadth and depth over time—for example, from life sciences and physical geography in grade 5 to spiraled, concurrent biology, chemistry, and physics classes for grades 6–8.
Confidence, Readiness, and Life Skills for the Future
Students benefit from explicit guidance in organization, time-management, and scholarship skills. Learning, applying, and refining those versatile skills amplifies students’ confidence and readiness to take on increasing challenges as their academics progress in depth and complexity.
Essential Knowledge that Lasts
Year over year, our spiraled curriculum revisits and applies essential concepts in novel contexts—such as using textual support in essays, exploring ecosystems, and introducing variables in equations. This scaffolded approach deepens students’ understanding and knowledge retention.
In the Middle School Program, Students Will…
Grow from Mistakes.
By practicing new things, students discover that mistakes and tenacity are part of learning and growth. Expert teachers create encouraging environments for students in which perseverance, reflection, and revision build lasting confidence.
Empower Themselves.
Students build the skills, confidence, and self-direction to take ownership of their learning, identify resources to achieve goals, and grow steadily in independence and sense of purpose.
Chart New Paths.
As students progress each year, they gain greater agency, selecting a world language and electives, trying extracurricular activities, and exploring new avenues of interest. They can also propose new clubs and courses to further shape their school experience.
Leap Ahead.
Our spiraled curriculum provides scaffolding for students to retain and expand on key concepts. As a result, students enter high school with the academic grounding and confidence to handle new challenges and advanced coursework.
Year by Year
Grade 6
Grade 6 students shift from interdisciplinary sciences into distinct, concurrent courses in biology, physics, and chemistry: They discover how everything from ecosystems to industry can be investigated, while cultivating lab safety, measurement skills, and data analysis skills. In our spiraled world history and geography sequence, students compare civilizations from the Paleolithic Era to the Renaissance. From pre-algebra to performing arts, teachers help students hone inquiry practices to deepen understanding.
Grade 7
Grade 7 develops student agency and choice in their learning. Our accelerated algebra and geometry sequence goes beyond the basics, covering trigonometric ratios, functions and relations, linear equations, polynomials, expressions, equations and inequalities, and more. Students can stay with Latin or pursue Mandarin, Spanish, or French. They can also choose from electives like computer science, fine arts, and engineering.
Grade 8
Grade 8 uses our spiral curriculum to support AP readiness and success. U.S. History explores the nation’s peoples, government, economy, and conflicts, through historical inquiry, enabling students to make meaningful connections between eras. Students also learn to write in different formats for various audiences and purposes—document-based questions, lab reports, poetry interpretation, statistical analyses—and use primary and secondary sources.
Curriculum
Supporting Critical Thinking, Study Skills, and Autonomy
Curiosity builds into confidence and capability during middle school. Through a comprehensive, advanced curriculum, students solidify fundamental knowledge while investigating increasingly complex ideas across every discipline. Along the way, they begin driving their own learning: By managing coursework, selecting their own electives, deepening friendships, and trying new extracurriculars, students steadily increase their ownership, sense of responsibility, self-driven purpose, and investment in their futures.
Expert teachers with deep knowledge of their fields lead courses in subjects including U.S. history, chemistry, physics, and algebra and geometry. Drawing on their subject expertise and deep understanding of where students are, they inspire students to ask sophisticated questions, see challenges as energizing, and connect ideas across disciplines.
World Language
Through meaningful communication and increasingly complex language use, students build the skills and confidence needed for continued language study, intercultural competence, and global connection.
History
Spanning pre-history through today, these courses provide a framework for historical inquiry, including social, political, and economic systems; conflicts and resolutions; and interactions between humans and their environment.
Math
With every course in our accelerated math sequence, students improve mathematical reasoning and real-world application skills as they revisit and master core fundamentals.
English
Middle school English courses provide a robust foundation for success in writing, reading comprehension and annotation, literary analysis, rhetoric, and grammar.
Science
Reflective of our spiraled curriculum, biology, chemistry, and physics are required, concurrent science courses in grades 6 through 8.
Fine Arts
The arts inspire students to develop creative ideas, encourage self-expression, and make meaningful aesthetic connections between themselves and the world.
Engineering and Computer Science
Elective offerings include diverse opportunities for students to apply the engineering design process, study the logic of code, analyze data, and explore resources and technology for creative problem-solving.
Physical Education & Health
Cultivating positive relationships, perseverance, and foundational practices for lifelong health and wellness is the goal of all PE and health courses.