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Dear Middle School Families,
New year, same great energy in middle school! We’ve hit the ground running in 2026, with joy, challenge, curiosity, and engagement on full display. Between Monday’s rollicking 6th annual Middle School Basketball Bash, middle school swim championships tomorrow and Friday, last week’s service-learning trips off campus, and today’s first Winter Wednesday of the season, students are pushing themselves and showing what it looks like to live Wellington’s values.
Inside the classroom, learning is authentic, purposeful, and connected to the world beyond our walls. In 8th grade, this is especially visible through International Festival projects, where students are researching countries and historical towns through the lenses of culture, geography, and language, then extending that work by examining how the United Nations Global Goals intersect with contemporary challenges. Meanwhile, the Spark Project invites eighth graders into sustained inquiry and exploration around topics that matter deeply to them, including public health, animal welfare, green spaces in Columbus, the impacts of social media, mental health in sports, and expanding access to athletics in local communities, among so many more. These experiences challenge our almost-upper schoolers(!) to think critically, ask rich questions, communicate with clarity, and consider not only what they want to study, but why it matters and how it connects to their own lives and communities.
Across grade levels, middle schoolers are engaging in thinking and learning that pushes them to grapple with meaningful questions and apply their thinking. Fifth graders examined and discussed the relationship between luck and personal choices as they prepared for their next novel, while they explore the history of innovation in social studies, tracing how human creativity and problem-solving have shaped societies over time. Sixth graders are applying math to real-world contexts, using ratios, rates, and percentages to mix recipes, compare costs, and make sense of everyday financial decisions, including taxes, discounts, and unit pricing. In 7th grade, students are extending that practical lens through financial literacy work in math that asks them to plan for the purchase of a first car, weighing costs and trade-offs using systems of equations, while they are also examining real-world earth phenomena in science class.
This rich academic work is supported by our advisory programming, in which students engage in metacognitive exercises around their habits of mind, academic competencies, and sustained attention – a particularly relevant and salient topic for this moment! Students have also focused on recognizing unfairness and learning how to be upstanders, practicing the use of language that resists stereotypes and supports a safe, inclusive community rooted in Wellington’s values.
As we approach the midpoint of the year, a few dates and reminders:
- We invite you to share feedback on your child’s experience at Wellington. Just as we offer students feedback to support their growth, your perspective helps guide how we live our mission and values each day. Please complete this ten-minute survey by the end of January. Senior leadership will read every response and use the insights you share to improve and refine our work. Thank you for your continued partnership!
- Trimester 2 Interim Reports will be posted on Friday, January 16, at 4 p.m. As you may recall from Trimester 1, we have made changes this year to the cadence of our reporting so that the feedback students (and families) receive can best aid student growth. Interim reports include WLM ratings only, while at the end of this trimester, you will receive a report that includes grades, another WLM rating, and a narrative comment from each teacher. As always, we welcome conversation at any time. Please feel free to reach out to your child's advisor or subject-specific teachers with any questions or concerns.
- Middle school will run a B Day schedule on Tuesday, January 20, in order to recapture the instructional time lost due to December's snow day.
- Families will receive an email from Head of School Eliza McLaren on Wednesday, January 21, with details about re-enrollment for the upcoming school year. Tuition assistance awards will be included in contracts for families receiving support. Please note: To secure your child’s space for next year, contracts must be submitted by Friday, January 30.
- Save the Date: Learning Showcase & State of the School - February 19 Join us on Thursday, February 19, for an evening that highlights both the learning happening across Wellington and the vision guiding our future. The night begins with a Learning Showcase from 6-6:30 p.m., where students from Little Jags through grade 12 share their work in an open-house format. At 6:45 p.m., Head of School Eliza McLaren will deliver the State of the School address, offering reflections on the year, updates on key initiatives, and a look ahead. The evening concludes with a reception from 8-8:30 p.m. Complimentary childcare for Little Jags through grade 5 will be available from 6:30-8 p.m. (registration required). Parents, caregivers, faculty, staff, and trustees are warmly invited to attend. Please reserve your seat in advance.
Ms. Gilbert’s “Tip of the Week” at Morning Meeting on Monday focused on the power of gratitude. In this spirit, I want to extend my thanks to our teachers for their care and dedication, and to each of you for your partnership at home. I remain perpetually grateful for this community, and I look forward to all that 2026 will bring!
Warmly,
Louis
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