Middle School
While students in grades 5 and 6 are fully immersed in the curriculum and routines unique to middle school, teachers also work extensively on organizational skills—from keeping track of daily homework assignments and materials for morning classes to successfully completing longer term assignments and allocating study time for major tests. Students also learn strategies for handling short-term assignments and quizzes and managing the stress that typically accompanies yet another middle school change—the proverbial “grade.”
All middle school students change classes and enjoy the varied teaching styles of different teachers. History, literature and writing are integrated into a daily 90-minute Humanities format. Technology is, of course, integral to the curriculum; students are provided with new laptops in 6th grade and are permitted to take them upon completion of eighth grade. All middle school students participate in the Coriell Science Institute Science Competition and the Delaware Valley Regional Science Competition. (Our students are known to “clean up” with the top awards!) Eighth graders also have the opportunity to participate in the NJ Law Adventure. (In the last round, they placed 2nd in the State!)
Middle school also offers unique opportunities for students to partner with peers from other schools in special activities, like this year’s Peace Symposium at Doane Academy, which will be capped by dinner and a dance! Field trips are almost all overnight experiences spanning several days in exciting places like Mt. Misery, Cape May, the mountains of northern NJ, Washington D.C., New York, and the annual eighth grade trip to Mexico.
All of their collective experiences and opportunities at HFS set our Middle School students up for success. Not only do they successfully enter their schools of choice (Moorestown Friends; Friends Select; Lawrenceville Prep; Bishop Eustace Prep; St. Augustine Prep; Doane Academy to name a few), but they excel. We hear reports of students holding leading student government roles, winning the lead awards in academic competitions, initiating community outreach programs, and the list goes on…. They leave HFS with the confidence to make a difference, and from all indications, they do. Confidence uplifts!