Middle School

About The Middle School

Our mission at St. Margaret's Episcopal School is to educate the hearts and minds of young people for lives of learning, leadership and service.

Middle School Program

Character

In the Episcopal tradition, we emphasize moral integrity, spiritual growth, compassion, and responsibility. We strongly support learning experiences which:

• Are genuinely responsive to students' intellectual, physical, social, emotional, and moral development.
• Deliberately and comprehensively attempt to develop morally sound reasoning and behavior.
• Uphold the dignity of the individual and stress our social responsibility.
• Above all, seek to develop good people, fostering caring for others, democratic values and moral sensitivity.

Community

• We seek diversity and acknowledge the dignity of each individual within a community framework that emphasizes teamwork, mutual respect, service and commitment to the common good.
• We Recognize that each child has a unique contribution.
• Involve students in meaningful and useful community service.
• Accommodate individual differences and celebrate diversity.
• Emphasize collaboration, cooperation, and community.

Balance and Breadth

We believe that personal growth and awareness are best fostered through the pursuit of a broad range of academic, artistic, athletic and co-curricular opportunities.

We strongly support learning experiences which:

• Open doors to new ideas, evoking curiosity, exploration, and at times, awe and wonder.
• Teach a full range of communication skills.
• Draw on varied forms of intelligence and multiple modes of expression.
• Nourish the imaginative life, cultivate initiative, responsibility, and encourage risk-taking.
• Are full of exploratory opportunities.

High Expectations

We guide and nurture our students as they discover and cultivate their unique gifts and talents, challenging each individual to achieve his or her full potential.

We strongly support learning experiences which:

• Are academically challenging but age-appropriate.
• Are integrated so that students see the connection to their life.
• Address students' own questions and focus upon enduring issues and ideas.
• Actively engage students in problem-solving and a variety of experiential learning opportunities.
• Significantly engage students in setting goals, planning and assessing their own learning.
• Encourage and challenge students to give their best as life-long learners and doers

Such learning experiences require environments in which:

• Achievement is honored.
• Community is emphasized and anonymity is eliminated.
• Parents are considered an integral part of the learning process.
• Teachers enjoy Middle School students and they are skilled in the appropriate pedagogy.
• The Middle School is separate from Lower and Upper Schools as an acknowledgment of unique qualities of Middle Schoolers.
• The school climate is safe yet stimulating, relaxed yet alert.
• Young adolescents are understood, cared for, and trusted.
• Knowledgeable, caring, inquiring faculty and administrators are employed
• Respect characterizes interpersonal relationships.
• Being and doing are regarded as important as knowing.
• The process of learning is valued as much as the content of learning.
• Multiple learning strategies are a blend of the traditional and progressive.