A Message from Cristen Geary & Lissa Wade, Co-heads of Middle School
Greetings! Welcome to the middle school years - an exciting chapter in your student’s education. To some, these years may appear frenetic and fraught, but to us, middle school is a delightful journey through pre-adolescence as students discover who they are, how they learn, and how they can shape the world.
At Wellington, middle school begins in the fifth grade with a thoughtful transition that supports students in navigating multiple classrooms and teachers, managing a locker, and beginning to advocate for themselves more independently. Executive function skills are explicitly emphasized as teachers help students build a toolkit of personal organization, time management, and study strategies. With one year of middle school under their belts, sixth graders are ready to tackle the more complex academic challenges that await them for the remaining three years.
Middle school students build their academic foundation across the curriculum through project-based learning, design thinking, and authentic, immersive experiences on and off campus. Students practice choice and agency by exploring a new interest through our Dive elective program which includes such offerings as Constitutional Law, the Physics of Light, the Stock Market, Sporty STEM, and Robotics Coding. Participation in clubs and affinity groups help students find connection and camaraderie and begin to step into leadership opportunities. Students develop their voices through submissions to the literary magazine and by making announcements during an all-middle school morning meeting. Athletic and artistic opportunities offer students the chance to develop a skill or try something new. No matter the endeavor or the setting, we want students to be appropriately challenged and highly engaged in everything they do!
The middle school years are a period of rapid growth and development on every level - academic, neurological, social-emotional, and physical. While some students work hard to blend in and not be noticed, others seek to redefine themselves and who they are in the process of becoming. One of Wellington’s core values is “Be Yourself.” In the spirit of inclusion, we strive for our middle school to be a place where students can be their authentic selves and feel a sense of belonging. This sense of belonging begins with our advisory program which fosters connections among a small group of peers and a teacher whose mission is to make each student feel seen and known. Emboldened by this support network, students can then take academic risks and maximize their opportunities to learn and flourish.
We invite you to reach out to us with your questions and we hope you will visit to see for yourself how we are helping students find their purpose and realize their potential for tomorrow’s world.
Sincerely,
Cristen Geary & Lissa Wade
Middle School Co-Heads