MIDDLE SCHOOL
ACADEMICS
Pennington’s Middle School has its own dedicated faculty, curriculum, and full slate of co-curricular activities as well as all the resources of a larger, grades 6–12 school. Our Middle Schoolers have access to a 55-acre campus, extensive arts and athletics facilities, their Upper School student mentors, and much more.
ACADEMIC PROGRAM
COURSE PLACEMENT
Courses in math, science, English, social studies, and world languages make up the core academic experience in Middle School. Each of these core courses develops necessary time-honored and twenty-first-century academic skills, exposes students to new content and approaches to learning that connect to their world, and challenges students’ perceptions to help them reach new, more sophisticated understandings. These core classes are also where students learn to access and apply technology with increasing purpose, efficiency, and responsibility.
Students in the Middle School benefit from small academic classes to take full advantage of their varying levels of interest, areas of strength, unique perspectives, personal experiences, and motivation. These environments, bright with diversity, enrich the overall student experience. Mathematics and language courses are assigned with the individual student’s current content knowledge and application of skills in mind. Through placement testing, teacher recommendations, and consultation with students and parents, course placement and subsequent sequencing can be modified as students’ competencies change and grow. All placements are purposeful and intended to help students meet and/or expand their academic potential.
Because Pennington focuses on developing the whole child, the Middle School curriculum features a dynamic Arts program, through which students take quarter-long courses in visual and lens-based or performance-based art, as well as music. Although some courses are taken in specific grades, students have the opportunity to choose from a variety of classes throughout the year, ranging from printmaking to ceramics to identity-based art exploration. Students also take one quarter of Health during this period. This comprehensive approach to learning ensures that the entire campus becomes a classroom.
ADVISORS All students have faculty advisors in their lives who provide unconditional support as well as the resources to best support academic and personal growth. Students meet with their advisors in the mornings during our robust Morning Advisory Period (MAP). This helps students set themselves up for a successful day, get organized, practice and apply time management skills, and set and achieve long-term goals. MAP is also an important opportunity for community-building, group activities and discussions, one-on-one time, and check-ins. Because advisors are considered the “hub” of information related to a student, they also serve as the main point person for families. In addition to MAP, advisors can meet with their advisees during the Thursday advisory period, common free periods, lunch, or at any time as needed.
Office of Admission | 112 West Delaware Avenue, Pennington, NJ 08534 | pennington.org | 609 · 737 · 6128
MIDDLE SCHOOL ACADEMICS by Grade
English
Social Studies
Mathematics* Life Science
Spanish or French** Arts
Study Hall
English
U.S. History and Government Mathematics* Earth Science
Spanish or French** Arts
Study Hall
English
Global Perspectives Mathematics*
Introduction to Physical Science
Latin, French, German, Spanish, or Chinese** Arts
Study Hall
*
**
GRADE 6
The sixth-grade program was developed with two critical understandings in mind. Academically, students need both specific and general skills to participate in more formal studies in content disciplines at Pennington. Individually, students are developing their sense of self and place within our community, from the sixth grade through the Middle School and into our larger Pennington community. Therefore, the sixth-grade program seeks to meet all Middle School students where they are in both their academic and personal development and to help them grow in all the ways their potential allows. The school year is defined by the joy of learning, both as individuals and as a group engaged in exploration and the practice of being scientists, historians, writers, readers, presenters, mathematicians, artists, world travelers, and classroom citizens.
GRADE 7
The seventh-grade program was created with developmentally significant academic and personal needs in mind. Seventh-grade students learn to become increasingly self-reliant as learners and accept ownership for knowledge, engagement, processes, and outcomes. Students are experiencing social, physical, and cognitive changes that profoundly affect their academic and personal lives. Therefore, the curriculum allows students to tap into the complexities of this stage of development to think more deeply and purposefully, connect with content, learn the reward of perseverance, and develop a level of character and citizenship of which they can be proud.
GRADE 8
Two pronounced themes drive the eighth-grade experience: identity and leadership. Through personal and intellectual interactions with peers, faculty, and advisors, students learn more about themselves and their connection to the world. As the oldest students in the Middle School, eighth-graders learn what it means to be leaders and role models, accepting responsibility for co-creating the culture and community and leading the way for others. The academic program challenges students to apply their growing sense of independence and purpose to their coursework through critical thinking, curiosity, intellectual risk-taking, novel applications of knowledge and skills, sound research practices, new connections, the development of their personal voice (both written and spoken), and reflection. Students develop the skills and habits of mind that enable them to be confident, engaged leaders in any classroom and in any club or activity in the Upper School, regardless of discipline or level of challenge.
A math placement test, teacher recommendation, and parent input help determine which course best meets an individual’s needs. Math courses for Middle School students include grade-level math as well as Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1A and 1B, and Algebra 1. Grade 8 students can enroll in Upper School math courses, which generally include Geometry, Geometry Honors, and Algebra II. The study of a language is not required for students enrolled in the Cervone Center for Learning.