Middle School
	Welcome to the Middle School at LREI

A Time for Intellectual and Academic Growth. The Middle School continues a strong commitment to active, experiential education. Academic challenges grow and multiply. We emphasize the development of study and research skills and demand even higher levels of excellence as children learn through close study of literature and texts, as well as through individual and collaborative projects.

A Time for Emotional Growth. At the same time as we stress individual achievement, and the intensive development of academic and intellectual skills, we also believe that children who are entering the transitional stages of adolescence require a setting in which their needs are supported each step of the way in which to test who they are. We carefully provide a consistent, predictable environment that both counterbalances and validates each student's experience of so much personal challenge and change. Our Middle School curriculum provides opportunities for students to gain increasing independence. Each year, youngsters are challenged through stages of independent thinking and decision making, balanced by a level of support which is sensitive to the concerns and needs of children this age. This dual approach helps students intellectually and emotionally to move into the world of High School.

Expanding the Classroom Experience. Middle School students have a busy week. In addition to all the academic classes -- math, language arts, social studies, science, foreign language, computer, art, music and drama we enrich their lives through special events such as:

• Regular field trips in and around NYC
• Overnight trips to upstate New York, Williamsburg, VA and Washington, DC
• The Fifith Grade Egyptian Tomb and Grecian Festival
• The Sixth Grade Medieval Pageant and Poetry Potluck
• The Seventh Grade Colonial Museum and Constitution Works program
• The Eighth Grade Forensics Evening and Day of Learning
• The Middle School drama and musical productions
• The Middle School chorus and band programs
• Weekly Middle School assemblies
• Sports: soccer, volleyball, cross country, basketball, softball, trach, and tennis
• The Middle School Robotics and Rube Goldberg teams
• The Model Congress program
• The Middle School Literary Festival
• Student Government
• Middle School Dances
• Friday Avtivity period

The skills of managing so many academic demands balancing daily responsibilities, long term projects and special events are carefully developed throughout the Middle School years and are an essential part of our program.

A Commitment to the Community. Through community service projects, cooperative learning and all-school activities, Middle School students learn about individual responsibility and their role as members of a larger community. This careful development of the skills of active citizenship is a thread which runs through the entire school's program. The idealism of young adolescents too often goes to waste; in our view it amounts to a national resource, to be treasured and nurtured at all costs.

A Commitment to the Whole Child. In the Middle School, we continue our strong commitment to serving the whole student. We honor the many opportunities and challenges students face when entering the transitional stages of adolescence, and we actively engage them by:

• Providing a consistent, predictable environment that both balances and validates each student’s experience with academic challenge and personal change.
• Designing a rigorous curriculum, that through incremental stages, provides students with essential knowledge and skills and challenges them to become independent thinkers. It is a
  curriculum that is balanced by supports that are sensitive to the social and emotional concerns of students entering adolescence.
• Supporting students through adolescent issues and advisory programs that help them to manage their academic workload, daily personal responsibilities, extracurricular activities and active social lives.

To learn more about the Middle School at LREI, download the Middle School Family Handbook (PDF) and the Middle School Curriculum Guide (PDF).