Academics
The Rivers Middle School brings together enthusiastic, caring teachers and a dynamic and collaborative atmosphere in its goal of educating early adolescents. With generally 120 students in grades 6, 7, and 8, the Middle School offers a personal, integrated, and exciting program, creating a community of learners in which young people feel comfortable taking intellectual risks and growing both as students and individuals.
The core group of Middle School teachers and administrators has spent years working with early adolescents and perfecting a program that best suits the age group. Early adolescents are just discovering how to move from concrete to formal thinking. They begin the middle school years learning through direct contact with ideas, events, and people as they transition into being more formal and creative thinkers able to visualize, conceptualize, hypothesize, reason, and deal in the abstract. Our program is designed to consider the many needs of this age group and is structured in a way to grant students a level of freedom to explore. This type of environment provides students with more opportunities for responsibility so they can be challenged in a rigorous environment while also learning through experience.
The core group of Middle School teachers and administrators has spent years working with early adolescents and perfecting a program that best suits the age group. Early adolescents are just discovering how to move from concrete to formal thinking. They begin the middle school years learning through direct contact with ideas, events, and people as they transition into being more formal and creative thinkers able to visualize, conceptualize, hypothesize, reason, and deal in the abstract. Our program is designed to consider the many needs of this age group and is structured in a way to grant students a level of freedom to explore. This type of environment provides students with more opportunities for responsibility so they can be challenged in a rigorous environment while also learning through experience.
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Learn more about our advisor system
Middle School teachers value the partnership between home and school. Every sixth, seventh and eighth grader is assigned an advisor who will serve as a mentor and friend throughout their Middle School experience. Each multi-grade advisor group consists of one advisor and approximately eight students. Daily contact between advisors and advisees promotes trust and friendship. Agendas and activities within meeting times vary but include goal setting, portfolio organization, check-ins, thought-provoking conversations about world and community events, and other group-building initiatives.
The Middle School Program
Students in our Middle School will find a day filled with stimulating classes, exciting labs, playful interactions, and artistic discovery. In addition to the core classes, students in grades 6, 7, and 8 take yearlong visual arts and performing arts courses. At the heart of the middle school experience at Rivers are the relationships students make with their teachers. With that in mind, students do not receive formal grades but instead receive detailed comments from their teachers about their strengths, abilities and opportunities in and out of the classroom. At Rivers we strive to teach students strategies and skills for the ways needed to approach their individual learning. The Middle School program taps into these key attributes to maximize each student’s growth. From mock trials to writing poetry to building boats, this kind of learning takes on many shapes. Early adolescents love to experiment and explore with their vivid imaginations at Rivers this is not only encouraged it is expected.
The Rivers Middle School offers an engaging, innovative, and challenging program that encourages students to become their best selves.
MIDDLE SCHOOL FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
CURRICULUM
Within the close-knit Middle School community, our students tackle a comprehensive curriculum that includes the exploration of individual identity and the development of empathy. Classes are student-centered and invite ample opportunities for risk-taking, problem solving, creativity, and project-based learning. Our Middle School program is designed to stimulate and challenge the active minds of students in grades 6, 7, and 8. Our goal in the Middle School is skill mastery, which is achieved through a meaningful integration of academic disciplines.
View the full course catalog.
View the full course catalog.
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Rivers admits academically qualified students and does not discriminate against students or families on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or ethnic or national origin in the administration of its educational programs, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic programs, and other school-administered programs.