by Lauren Railey, Middle School Head 

The school year is officially underway! On Friday, despite the heat, middle school students enthusiastically participated in a variety of activities across the grade levels during our first Focus Day.

Eighth graders participated in a survival skills crash course on Robinson Crusoe Day. Students engineered their own telegraph lines and communicated with each other using Morse Code, made solar stills to recover water, and used pulleys and levers to rescue a teddy bear trapped under a tire filled with 200 pounds of weight. In the afternoon session, they practiced using a grapple hook to make a water rescue in the pool.

Seventh graders spent a day engaging with Scratch programming. Students learned basic coding in the morning and designed and brought projects to life in the afternoon. Programs that students developed included original video games and animation clips. It was a first experience with computer programming for many of our students.

Sixth graders kicked off the year by participating in our annual Equity and Inclusion Day, designed to foster tolerance and inclusion. In a variety of workshops, students identified and challenged cultural assumptions and stereotypes, and even wrote song lyrics with messages of hope. The day ended with time to relax and enjoy new friends in the swimming pool.