Middle School

At Gill St. Bernard’s Middle School, we offer a welcoming, caring, and academically challenging experience designed to complement the developmental strengths of preteens and adolescents.

Our Middle School, which utilizes several buildings on our campus, comprises students in Grades 5-8. Contributing to a vibrant environment centered on nurture and academic rigor, our team of teachers strives to appropriately challenge students both in and out of the classroom.

Academics

Our curriculum is broad-based, academically challenging, and child-centered. At every turn, the program is designed to foster a love for learning in our students. In combination with our core values and emphasis on character education, the Middle School program engages and motivates young people to be their very best and discover who they might become.

Highlights include:

  • Lab-based Science classes that utilize our 208-acre campus
     
  • Singapore Math Program™ into 6th Grade; Algebra and Geometry offered in 7th and 8th Grade
     
  • The choice of French, Latin, or Spanish beginning in 6th Grade
     
  • Robust electives in the Fine and Performing Arts
     
  • Required Physical Education/Athletics built into the school day
     
  • Regular Health & Wellness classes for every Middle Schooler
     
  • The STREAMS Science Program for 4th through 6th Grade
     
  • Robotics, Engineering, and Computer Science classes in the Middle School Makerspace

Middle School Class Schedule

For young learners, especially growing minds in the Middle School years, balance is the key to success. Through this guiding principle, Gill St. Bernard’s employs an innovative, rotating class schedule that provides our students with thoughtful flexibility and vibrant student-life opportunities while maintaining a rigorous academic curriculum.

The Middle School schedule centers on a seven-day rotation with classes meeting five out of seven days. This class rotation, which aligns our Middle and Upper School academic days, is designed to create a healthier balance among subject areas while creating added time during school for students to partner with peers on group projects or to meet with their teachers for extra support. 

STREAMS Program

A hallmark program at Gill, STREAMS is a year-long, comprehensive course that uses Home Winds Farm as a landscape for studying sustainability.

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Student Life

Our wide-range of clubs, advisory program, and co-curricular activities allow students to not only discover new passions, but discover more about themselves. 

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Athletics & Physical Fitness

With guidance from coaches and teachers, our young student-athletes develop the skills to create a healthy lifestyle and to value balance as part of their education.

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Recent Middle School News

Middle School Director Kyle Armstrong

Kyle Armstrong serves as the Director of Lower & Middle Schools. He holds more than 25 years of experience working in independent schools.

Prior to joining GSB, he was Associate Head for Academics for a K-8 independent school. He also has experience as a history teacher, baseball and basketball coach, and eighth-grade team leader.

Mr. Armstrong holds an M.A. from Lesley College in Massachusetts, and a B.A. in History from Trinity College in Connecticut. Kyle’s wife, Kristen, is GSB’s Upper School Librarian. They have two children at Gill.

Explore Our Middle School Curriculum

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Algebra 1

Depending on their readiness, students take this course over a single year (accelerated) or over two years (enriched).

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Community Service

Community service is a natural extension of our emphasis on character awareness, citizenship, inclusion, kindness, and respect.

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Grade 5 French

This class is designed to introduce and expose all students in the grade to the sounds, structure, and basic use of the French language.

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Grade 5 Latin

This introductory course develops and strengthens good vocabulary and grammar skills while teaching students the fundamentals of a classical language.

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Grade 5 Makerspace

This class focuses on introducing design thinking and engineering, allowing students to tinker, collaborate, craft, and build.

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Grade 5 Spanish

The goal of this class is to expose and foster topical and functional communication and to raise cultural awareness of traditions and daily life in countries where Spanish is spoken.

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Grade 5 Technology

Students learn a range of computing skills, including keyboarding, word processing, working with spreadsheets, and creating presentations.

Read More about Grade 5 Technology
Grade 6 French

This is the first of three consecutive years in the Middle School language program, corresponding to the Upper School Level I French course.

Read More about Grade 6 French
Grade 6 Language Arts

Students study a range of literary genres, including historical fiction, science fiction, and non-fiction (memoir), as well as short stories and poems.

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Grade 6 Latin

This is the first of three consecutive years in the Middle School language program, corresponding to the Upper School Level I Latin course.

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Grade 6 Mathematics/Pre-Algebra

This year-long course continues the Singapore Math program, building pre-algebra skills, and focusing on conceptual understanding and application of skills to solve problems.

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Grade 6 Spanish

This is the first of three consecutive years in the Middle School language program corresponding to the Upper School Level I Spanish course.

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Grade 6 Technology

Much of the focus of computer instruction at this level is on the Google Apps for Education, with additional projects requiring the use of Apple apps, such as iMovie and iPhoto.

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Grade 7 English

As they learn to discuss and write about increasingly complex literature, students develop critical-thinking skills in seventh-grade English.

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Grade 7 French

This is the second of two consecutive years in the Middle School language program, corresponding to the Upper School Level I French course.

Read More about Grade 7 French
Grade 7 History

Students continue to investigate early civilizations by exploring Greece, Rome, Europe during the Middle Ages, and Islamic culture.

Read More about Grade 7 History
Grade 7 Latin

This is the second of two consecutive years in the Middle School language program, corresponding to the Upper School Level I Latin course.

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Grade 7 Makerspace

Seventh-grade students continue their engineering and design skills and build on their previous experiences in the Makerspace.

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Grade 7 Spanish

This is the second of three consecutive years in the Middle School language program, corresponding to the Upper School Level I Spanish course.

Read More about Grade 7 Spanish
Grade 8 English

In  eighth  grade,  students  become  more  independent  in  their  reading,  writing,  and  thinking  skills.

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Grade 8 French

This is the third of three consecutive years in the Middle School language program, corresponding to the Upper School Level I French course.

Read More about Grade 8 French
Grade 8 Geometry

This is the highest-level math course offered to Middle School students and is open only to eighth-grade students who successfully completed a full year of Algebra I.

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Grade 8 Latin

This is the third of three consecutive years in the Middle School language program, corresponding to the Upper School Level I Latin course.

Read More about Grade 8 Latin
Grade 8 Makerspace with Tech Ed

Projects in this class are hands-on learning opportunities that incorporate circuitry, robotics, and electronics, as well as using a variety of materials and devices to design, build, collaborate, and tinker.

Read More about Grade 8 Makerspace with Tech Ed
Grade 8 Science

Exploration of physics, chemistry, and evolution frames this course, with hands-on activities that challenge students to design and build, analyze, evaluate, and draw valid conclusions from data.

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Grade 8 Spanish

This is the third of three consecutive years in the Middle School language program, corresponding to the Upper School Level I Spanish course.

Read More about Grade 8 Spanish
Grades 5-6 Woodworking

Beginning with formal instruction of proper safety procedures and with basic drawing and design to elicit creativity and to build confidence, students discover how to use a variety of materials in different ways.

Read More about Grades 5-6 Woodworking
Grades 5-8 Physical Education and Athletics

A variety of physical activities and sports are introduced in physical education classes that emphasize fitness, skill development, teamwork, sportsmanship, and cooperation, in addition to strength and conditioning.

Read More about Grades 5-8 Physical Education and Athletics
Grades 7-8 Drama

Drama class meets weekly and offers students the opportunity to study all facets of theater, from theater games and acting, to history and stagecraft.

Read More about Grades 7-8 Drama
Grades 7-8 Music

This one-semester elective class is designed to give students a deeper understanding of music, while continuing to engage them in a choral setting.

Read More about Grades 7-8 Music
Grades 7 Ceramics

Seventh-grade ceramics teaches the basic skills of working with clay while focusing on sculptural projects and hand-building techniques.

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Grades 8 Ceramics

Eighth-grade ceramics explores how we interact and utilize clay and pottery within our daily routine by utilizing foundational ceramic techniques to create functional pottery pieces.

Read More about Grades 8 Ceramics
Makerspace Classes

Stocked with art supplies, building materials, several 3-D printers, Arduino boards, and other technology resources, the Makerspace hums with activity before, during, and after the academic day.

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Room to Grow

Middle School at Gill St. Bernard’s fosters students’ growing independence, understanding that preteens and adolescents are naturally driven to explore and experience the larger world.

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Spring Unit Program

Held at the end of May, the Middle School Spring Unit Program allows students to immerse themselves in a subject outside of the core curriculum.

Read More about Spring Unit Program
STREAMS

Students in fourth through sixth grade take part in STREAMS, a yearlong program that brings together work in sustainability, technology, research, engineering, agriculture, math, and service.

Read More about STREAMS

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