Building on the rich visual art foundations learned in our Lower School arts program, students in Middle School make creative decisions and take risks in the art studio to deepen their understanding of the process of creating. The studio classroom is focused on individual and collaborative projects which are assessed through ongoing discussion and critiques. This process helps our students draw upon the different aspects of themselves as young artists as they grow into more accomplished and self-assured artists. The art studio celebrates student work and this work is on display year round on the walls of the Middle School.

Arts Program

Middle School classes in Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) include 5th through 9th grades. The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) is committed to developing an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset in every student at SCH. While CEL extends to students pre-k to 12th grade, CEL in middle school focuses on courses from Digital Storytelling-Audio to Money Matters to Intro to Coding. The CEL program prioritizes the development of four key traits that comprise the entrepreneurial mindset: opportunity seeking, creative problem solving, resiliency, and resourcefulness. These traits are woven throughout any SCH student's curricular experience. 

CEL Program

In the Middle School, engineering and robotics serve as an introduction to facets of design and engineering, a step above what was instilled in Lower School. It emphasizes the evolution and history of design, the design and engineering process, the importance of proper sketching techniques, measurement and tools used in design, and the use of those tools and techniques to innovate or invent solutions to problems. Through this learning and tinkering, students identify problems and seek solutions. Short projects throughout the course are designed to build skills, teamwork, resiliency, and curiosity. Middle School students can join the FLL team and use after school clubs and activities time, paving the way for a chance to become a part of the Upper School Team 1218.

Engineering & Robotics Program 

The ability to read critically, to interpret figures of speech and characters’ motivations, to analyze narrative and poetic structures, to speak with conviction, to listen with empathy, and to write clearly and confidently are not only crucial to literature studies but also invaluable skills for understanding this ever-changing global community. Our English program is skill-based but also fosters a lifelong love of reading whose foundation is an investigative, curious spirit and a desire at every turn to respond with the student’s own observations, beliefs, and analysis. SCH students graduate with the critical-thinking tools, writing abilities, and questing spirit that will make them confident to face whatever the world places in their paths.

The Middle School English program strives to solidify a lifelong love of reading and writing. We reinforce and build upon our students’ reading fluency and comprehension, develop their interpretive reading and analytical writing abilities, and expand their grammar and syntax mastery. The books we read are chosen for their literary quality, diversity of voices, and appeal to all Middle School students. Common books between the boys’ and girls’ curriculum include classics like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Number the Stars, and The Giver. More contemporary tales offer students windows into other worlds and experiences, including texts such as A Long Walk to Water and I’ll Give You the Sun in the boys’ curriculum and Incantation and Brown Girl Dreaming in the girls’. Writing assignments embrace expository, poetic, narrative, and analytic writing forms. Our students leave the Middle School as budding analytical thinkers, critical readers, and dynamic writers with the confidence and toolbox to help them thrive in Upper School English.

Students learn about important topics related to healthy living and emotional wellness. Topics include nutrition, exercise, strategies for mindfulness and stress reduction, anatomy, puberty, human reproduction, sexual education, and drug education. With separate classes for boys and girls, each feel comfortable to ask the necessary and important questions that shape them into healthy, caring adults. All middle school teachers and staff are a resource when it comes to physical and emotional well-being for our students. 

In today’s dynamic global environment, a strong knowledge of history and the ability to think critically is an essential part how and what we learn. Middle School students study history in inquiry-driven classrooms that promote experiential learning and develop historical empathy. Understanding the perspective of historical figures and their diverse experiences allows students to reflect upon their own lives to understand more fully the world and cultures that shape them.

In Middle School, the history curriculum is tailored to the passion, curiosity, imagination, and energy of our students. 5th and 6th graders examine the geography and history of the ancient world, exploring themes with contemporary relevance. In 7th and 8th grades, students participate in a two-year study of American history using the resources of Philadelphia to engage in real-life, hands-on learning. Students deepen their ability to analyze and create a wide variety of traditional and digital technologies, write in many formats, and present and speak publicly.

The mathematics program at SCH aims to develop students’ problem-solving skills and logical thinking. At all ages, this is accomplished by applying standard skills and concepts to real-life applications as much as possible. We want our students to be willing and eager to tackle a new problem, regardless of the problem's challenge or ease.

Middle School math emphasizes process over results as it exposes students to the fundamentals of algebraic thinking. While reinforcing basic arithmetic skills with fractions, decimals, and percents, in 5th grade we use variables in mathematical expressions and equations, culminating in 8th grade with formal algebra and the solving of systems of equations as well as quadratic equations. We emphasize multistep problems to teach the importance of doing work on paper rather than in your head. Algebraic thinking is taught in the context of real-world problems which helps students grasp the relevance of what they are learning. Middle School students gain confidence and expertise in tackling multi-step problems and translating words into mathematical expressions while learning good processes along the way.

In the Middle School, students may elect to begin their ensemble experience in choral or instrumental music or they may choose to study music through the general music curriculum. Starting in 4th grade and culminating in 7th, students of instrumental music are divided into a string ensemble and a band. In 8th grade all instrumentalists come together to form an 8th grade orchestra. All members of ensembles are exposed to a vast repertoire of musical eras, styles and cultures. The progression of the general music curriculum covers studies in world music and music composition and progresses to a survey of ensembles from many cultures.  

Music Program

In 5th through 8th grades, students develop problem-solving and collaboration skills within the digital realm through their CEL/New Media classes. Building on their Lower School New Media experiences, Middle School students continue to learn to code, design and fabricate, use and interpret data, and tell stories through media rich presentations and digital media. Our goal for Middle School New Media students is to encourage them to become digital creators through the CEL/New Media curriculum.

New Media Program

Formal Performing Arts education begins in Middle School when students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade elect to participate in Middle School Drama—one of their first coed activities for our middle school students. They may participate either as actors or stage crew (including set design, props, costumes, lighting, sound, publicity, and more). Students may also apply for leadership positions as stage manager or technical director. In this experience our Middle School students develop a well-rounded foundation to theater, focusing on collaborative scene-building, script analysis and character development, acting techniques, improvisation, and technical design.

Performing Arts Program

The science curriculum offers students in every grade challenging and exciting learning experiences that help them develop the skills of scientific inquiry and an understanding of the laws, systems, and structures that define our natural world. Classes provide students with opportunities to use the most up-to-date equipment and technologies as they ask questions, design experiments, explore, collaborate, and become efficient and effective problem solvers. Our interdisciplinary curriculum integrates engineering principles in meaningful and relevant ways and asks students to quantify their work using appropriate mathematical and statistical tools and to use the arts and new media to model their work or creatively and richly display what they have synthesized.

Teachers are guided by the Next Generation Science Standards, PA Science Standards, the National Science Teachers’ Association, and local curricular materials. In addition, all divisions make extensive use of the surrounding Wissahickon ecosystem, as well as the school’s work in sustainability, as part of our dynamic, real-world curriculum.

Our project-based approach to learning challenges students to design their own investigations by forming hypotheses, investigating in the lab or field, quantifying and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. These projects involve them in meaningful, open-ended, inquiry-based problem solving from designing and constructing solar-powered cars, to engineering earthquake-resistant towers. In 7th and 8th grades, students have an opportunity to gain greater exposure for their research projects by entering outside competitions such as the Christopher Columbus Awards and the Junior Solar Sprint at the Franklin Institute. Through these experiences they strengthen their scientific skills and begin to think of themselves as scientists and engineers.

The SCH language program pre-K to 12th grade is shaped by two important beliefs: the first is that it is essential for our students, in an ever more interconnected world, to develop an awareness of and appreciation for cultures other than their own. The second is that they can accomplish this goal more thoroughly and meaningfully by developing the linguistic competency to navigate life in these cultures.

In Middle School students may choose either to continue their Chinese studies (started at SCH’s Lower School program) or begin a Romance language track. Fifth and 6th grades offer a Language Explorers course course in which they study the linguistic features found in Romance language structure and grammar. In seventh grade, those students not continuing to study Chinese may choose to begin to study French, Spanish, or Latin. 

What's unique about the SCH foreign language program is that the students who started in Lower School take Chinese and students in Middle and Upper can make the choice of switching to a Romance language as they transition to Middle School.