Middle School

Philosophy

The middle school experience at Mount de Sales is filled with wonder, energy, affirming relationships, and skill mastery. Rigorous academic standards and attention to individual needs thoroughly prepare students for the challenging college preparatory curriculum in our upper school.

Our philosophy incorporates the eight essential principles for excellent middle school education as described by the Carnegie Council of Adolescent Development:

  1. Creating smaller communities of learning for sustained individual attention.
  2. Teaching a core of common knowledge in ways that foster curiosity, problem solving, and critical thinking, based on core knowledge.
  3. Utilizing cooperative learning and other techniques suitable for this developmental phase to foster success for all students.
  4. Giving major decision making responsibilities to teachers and principals.
  5. Hiring faculty with expertise at teaching young adolescents.
  6. Linking the education and health of young adolescents throughout the curriculum and the activities of the school.
  7. Creating alliances between families and school staff through mutual respect, trust, and communication.
  8. Sustaining school and community partnerships in educating young adolescents.

In the Mount de Sales Middle School, a climate of community and mutual respect nurtures students through these transitory years, encourages independent thinking as it teaches them to live within boundaries, and allows students to reach their potential as they discover a sense of self and others.

Academic Coursesmds-academics-middle-school

Mount de Sales offers core courses in language arts, math, science, social studies, religion, and health/wellness education. Our middle school students can ignite their creativity with art, music, and theater classes, explore world languages, develop keyboarding skills, or design and create STEM projects.

Middle School students also have the opportunity to advance, where developmentally appropriate, into the high school curriculum. Eighth Grade students take a Level I world language course in Latin, Spanish, or French. They will begin high school at Level II in that language. Many students in the Middle School also matriculate into Upper School mathematics courses, such as Honors Algebra I, Honors Geometry, and Honors Algebra II while the eighth grade.

  • Poised to Discover

    Discover [dis-ˈkə-vər] v.  

    Find unexpectedly or during a search.

  • Challenged to Innovate

    Innovate [ˈi-nə-ˌvāt] v.  

    Make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods or ideas.

  • Motivated to Serve

    Serve [ˈsərv] v.  

    Perform duties or services for another person.