Overview
Stoneleigh-Burnham Middle School girls experience the best practices of middle school teaching and learning in an environment that privileges girls education and development. We honor and advance this commitment in three ways that inform each aspect of a girls experience. We:
- enhance each girls self-awareness and self-reliance as she identifies her interests and pursues them rigorously;
- connect the many strands of her experience into a whole in advisory group;
- cultivate an understanding of the ways knowledge connects between disciplines.
The multi-faceted program cultivates in each girl an appreciation for all aspects of a liberal arts education and stretches her to understand the multi-sensory, collaborative process by which she learns about herself and her world.
Program and Schedule
A girls day typically includes integrated instruction (Humanities, Math/Science) in the morning and more discipline-specific classes in the afternoon (Language, Arts). Classes meet four times each week. The class day ends at 3:30, and daily athletics and community service (one afternoon once every two weeks) span two hours in the afternoon. A student will study one to two hours during the day and/or evening in order to complete her homework for the next day.
While most programs are exclusive to middle school students, others include students from both the upper and middle schools.
Dedicated middle school programs include:
- Advisory
- Humanities
- Math
- Science
- MOCA (middle school student government)
- Visual Art, Vocal and Instrumental Music
- Theater
- Dance
- Community Service
- Study Hall
Stoneleigh-Burnham faculty carefully direct programs that blend middle and upper school students to ensure that expectations and relationships are always age-appropriate.
Blended programs include:
- Language Study (Chinese, Spanish & French)
- Athletics
- Big Band
- Chorus
- Housemeeting and other all-school events (e.g. Convocation, Mountain Day, Day of Awareness/Winter Thaw, Spearth Day).
Assessment
Teachers employ a variety of assessment methods to evaluate each girl's progress. These methods help teachers assess the growth of each girl as an individual and in relation to the unique standards of each course. Teachers communicate student progress and performance in reports sent home six times during the school year.