Curriculum

The Priory Middle School offers rich academic courses with a broad array of dynamic electives. Each grade level has one Humanities teacher who teaches both English and History. This teacher acts as a “homeroom” teacher for the grade and provides a consistent structure for middle school students. In addition, we offer a wide range of electives from various departments, including Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Computer Science and Physical Education. Students in all grade levels have the opportunity to select electives each year to explore their interests and talents. We currently offer the following electives in our Middle School program:

Book Arts, Ceramics 1, Ceramics 2, Drawing & Painting, Geometric Designs, Printmaking, Improvisation, Musical Theater, Play Performance, Swords, Words & Mayhem, Beginning Winds, Guitar, Music Theory, Percussion, CAD & 3D Printing, Python Programming, Visual Design, Hiking & Outdoor Games, Sport Skills, Creative Writing, Garden, Plant to Plate

• English: Three years
• History: Three years
• Math: Three years
• Physical Education: Three years
• Science: Three years
• Theology: Three years
• World Language: Three years
• Required & Choice Electives:
• 6th Grade: One quarter Computer Science required, one semester Study Skills required, three quarter choice electives
• 7th Grade: Four quarter choice electives
• 8th Grade: One quarter each of both Health and Project Step Up required and two quarter choice electives

Our middle school teachers are dynamic and engaging. Learning is highly collaborative and “hands on.” We believe in innovative lesson planning that includes putting our students in the center of their own learning. Student-centered instruction allows students to feel connected to the material and enhances student learning. We want our students to think critically, problem solve, discuss and synthesize, and investigate the world around them. We are mindful of our growing global community and incorporate global issues and discussions with our students.

Our middle school student body is approximately 100 students with a balance of boys and girls. With a student-teacher ratio of about 9:1, teachers really get to know each student well. Students develop strong relationships with their teachers. Each student is “known and loved” in our nurturing school environment. Students benefit both academically and socially from the community feeling of this learning environment. We offer several leadership opportunities for our middle school students including our executive middle school council positions, grade level class officers, as well as, participation on middle school committees. All middle school students can join committees to take on a more active role in our sporting events, extracurricular community events (dances, pool parties, movie nights, etc.) and our daily school life activities (like running our snack shack, the Cub Shack). Our students are actively involved in the daily happenings of our school community. This makes all the difference.