Middle School
Curriculum Overview
MAKING CONNECTIONS
That’s the intent behind our interdisciplinary approach to learning.
We know girls learn best when they can engage with each other and connect academic concepts to real-world experiences. That's why our faculty works across disciplines — connecting themes and topics in multiple subjects — to create a meaningful and immersive learning environment. When her school experience is created through the lens of what's best for girls, she feels empowered to stand up, speak up, and reach higher.
Signature Programs in Middle School
5th Grade Musical
FIFTH GRADE: Each year, the fifth grade class showcases their yearlong study of music, art, and theater with a culminating performance. Through this creative project, students build important skills: collaboration, problem-solving, cooperation, and communication. So when they’re working together to design sets and costumes, learning blocking and choreography, and practicing scenes for the final performance, they’re actively building foundational skills that apply to all academic areas.
Medieval Night
SIXTH GRADE: Medieval Night brings together English, history, art, and music. Students read books and texts set in the Middle Ages, explore feudalism in Europe, create large narrative paintings, and learn songs and dances of the era. Girls create family crests, craft costumes and giant puppets (think dragons and Attila the Hun!) and enjoy a feast with their families to celebrate all they’ve learned.
World-Building Week
SEVENTH GRADE: During Culture Week, small groups work together to invent a culture – exploring what makes a culture, how and where people live, their energy sources, and music and dance traditions. Each girl takes on an assigned role – architect, scientist, artist, marketer, and more – then develops a related aspect of their newly-formed society.
Building Biomes
EIGHTH GRADE: In their final year
of Middle School, students design sustainable biomes suited for particular locations on an Earth-like planet. Each plays a role in her group, from organic farmer to renewable energy engineer, as she develops food and power resources for the community of new-planet settlers.
About Our Schedule
Rotating Schedule
Middle School operates on a seven-day cycle. Over the course of the week, there are seven blocks identified by letter, A through G, with each block occurring five days out of seven. Class periods run 45-50 minutes, with first period serving as a "longer period" lasting 60 minutes, to allow for more hands-on learning opportunities.
Daily Schedule
(Class times vary by day)
Parliament at 8:00 a.m.
Academic classes
Midmorning snack
Academic classes
Midday Lunch
Study Hall | Chorus
Academic classes
Study Hall at 2:55 p.m. for grades 5, 6 or Sports for grades 6, 7, 8
School ends at 3:30 p.m.
Parliament
Middle School's advisory program, called Parliament (which is the name for a gathering of Owls), are small group forums where students build relationships with teachers and each other, discuss what it means to be a community, reinforce the school's values, and promote character education. Students gather daily in Parliament, and the weekly schedule may include a Middle School assembly, grade-level class meeting, activities and values lessons, and screen-free fun Fridays.
The teachers push you to work to your potential and support and encourage you along the way.
Sage, Class of 2026
Service Learning
Students continue to learn the importance of being engaged citizens through service learning. Highlights include: the eighth grade partnership with a West Philadelphia elementary school; supporting Cradles to Crayons by packing books, sorting toys, and writing notes to children who will receive the donations. All Middle School girls participate in a canned food drive, and our sixth grade students collect, pack, and deliver the donations to a local food pantry.
Middle School Language Program
Modern and Classical language studies in Middle School focus on writing and speaking skills, as well as the language's cultural influence. In fifth grade, students take a semester of Spanish and semester of French, and in the spring, decide which language they would like to continue to study in sixth grade. In seventh and eighth grade, students add Latin to their schedule, learning the distinctive rhythm and flow of the language, understanding Latin vocabulary terms and its influence on the English language, as well as an examination of Roman culture and civilization.