Middle School

At St. Mary’s Academy, we celebrate your middle school student as a blessing to our community. Our caring teachers partner with parents during these formative years, where academics are coupled with the social/emotional components of the school environment. In addition, the small class sizes and personalized attention provide opportunities for your middle school student to pursue new interests and explore new peer groups. Our inquiry-based learning approach from the Lower School continues into the Middle School and transforms student curiosity into developing critical thinking skills. Our students learn to apply knowledge from one domain to another and draw connections among ideas.

The middle school years usher in myriad dynamic structures into students’ lives ranging from as young as 11 years and as old as 15 years. Maturity looks different and is paced differently in each child. This pacing is often a source of anxiety and stress for our children. Growth spurts are common and result in students needing more rest. Brain growth continues with students advancing in cognitive and social-emotional skills. Our students are further developing fine and gross motor movements–the type often used in team sports.

St. Mary’s teachers are skilled at scaffolding and building learning platforms to help our students understand challenging academic material. Our teachers are constantly spiraling through previously taught concepts to confirm true mastery. We are preparing them so that at the end of 8th grade, our students are prepared to tackle a college-preparatory high school program at St. Mary’s high school.