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Curriculum

Our Middle School program is built around our curriculum, geared to the varying interests of our students while providing a solid foundation in basic skills. The curriculum includes subject area studies as well as social and emotional learning. We also foster growth through physical education and athletics, service, and opportunities in the creative arts.

From the earliest days at Carolina Friends School, student groupings have been intentionally built to allow for both same-age and mixed-age groupings. In the Middle School, students begin as First Years, age equivalent to fifth grade, and end as Fourth Years, age equivalent to eighth grade. The program includes classes taken as grade-level cohorts, outlined below, as well as elective courses and advisory opportunities that span all ages.


MATH PROGRESSION

We have a sequence of three integrated math courses, Math 1, 2, and 3, to prepare students for Algebra. First Years are placed into skills-based, flexible groupings, many of which complete the curriculum for Math 1. The pace of progression is determined by student readiness, and most students are enrolled in algebra during their third or fourth year. We also offer a geometry course in the Middle School for advanced math learners.

 

VOICE AND CHOICE

Throughout the year, we offer approximately 90 elective courses, with students enrolling in two electives per trimester. The wide-ranging subjects of these courses allow students to explore interests such as podcasting, electrical engineering, comic design, journalism, musical theater, and American Sign Language.

 

First Year 

First Year Block is a structure that allows us to weave together content across language arts, social studies, and visual arts. Each student also takes a math course, a yearlong Spanish course, and a course called “Synergy,” a co-taught science course incorporating elements of physical education and dance to explore body systems and establish lifelong healthy habits rooted in scientific understanding.

 

Second Year

Each student takes yearlong courses in language arts, math, science, Spanish, social studies, and conflict resolution. Anthropodyssey explores social studies through the study of ancient cultures, the history of indigenous peoples, an introduction to religions, and an examination of mythology. Methods of Science is a project- and lab-based course exploring the many ways scientists ask and answer questions about our world. Conflict Resolution is foundational to our mission as a Quaker school, and is meant to provide adolescents with the tools to respond in difficult situations; at this crucial time in their social development, students examine how conflict escalates and acquire the tools to de-escalate and build healthy relationships.

 

Third Year

Each student takes yearlong courses in math, language arts, and science as well as participates in a rotational model allowing for intensive deep-dives in other subjects. Rotational trimester courses include a civics course, an identity course, and a visual and performing arts course. This rotation allows students to explore their own identity and their relationship with their community, key to adolescent development, while learning to express their sense of self through movement and the visual arts.

 

Fourth Year

Each student takes yearlong courses in math, science, language arts, and American history. Ecology and Physical Science is a lab- and project-based course that explores environmental issues from ecology, chemistry, and physics perspectives, illustrating the ways in which challenges are interconnected. Language Arts Literati is the apex of our Middle School language arts program, at which point students are able to construct persuasive arguments and enter into seminar-style discussions. Students in this course read more complex works of literature from a variety of diverse authors. In addition to their course of study, our program has built-in leadership training and mentorship for all Fourth Years, providing the skills to feel confident in serving as role models within the Middle School community.

Quaker Values

We are both intentionally secular and deeply informed by principles of mutual respect, a search for truth, and a desire for social justice.

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