Dear Middle School Families,
What a treat it was to see so many of you at Middle School Parent & Caregiver Night! I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to connect with teachers and learn about our robust academic and co-curricular programming. Events like last night remind me of the scope and scale of joy and connection at the heart of Wellington’s community.
Last night also served as a reminder that the stars of the show are our teachers. Their collective expertise, experience, and intentionality lay the foundation for the culture of high challenge and high support that empowers our middle schoolers to stretch themselves and grow in earnest as learners, community members, and leaders. Each classroom I step into reaffirms for me that our teachers are not only content experts but also create spaces where students feel known, inspired, and capable of more than they imagined.
Three weeks in, our students are already bringing our five core values – Be Responsible, Be Curious, Be Ambitious, Be Empathetic, and Be Yourself – to life. We opened the year with our annual house sort (equal parts suspense and celebration), a popsicle party that once again turned the patio into a dance floor, and an all-school activity where every student named concrete ways these values show up in daily life. That work set the stage for the launch of our Middle School Community Expectations, a student-authored document drafted last spring by 20 student leaders and four teachers. On the first day of school, all 216 middle schoolers added their voices, and their ideas now hang in the MS Commons as a daily reminder of the kind of community we are building together. You can read the one-pager here, and I hope you’ll talk it over at home!
We know that intentional community building elevates academic outcomes, and the learning in the classrooms is in full swing. Across disciplines, our middle schoolers are encountering abundant opportunities for rigorous thinking and authentic expression, as they learn to analyze, create, and communicate in ways that stretch both intellect and imagination and prepare them for life. 8th graders are honing content literacy, research skills, critical thinking, creativity, and communication as they build “Civilization Starter Packs,” a new project that challenges them to define the essential ingredients of a thriving society and defend their choices with evidence. While they learn about systems in social studies, 8th graders are engaging deeply in writerly craft, starting the year with “Rambling Autobiography” poems, experimenting with tone, rhythm, and word choice, before moving into descriptive essays to practice figurative language and imagery. 7th graders are unpacking allegory in “Animal Farm,” connecting rhetoric to history and considering how they can integrate ethos, logos, and pathos into their own writing. At the same time, they’re studying abstract expressionism in art class, analyzing how color can symbolically express mood or emotion.
6th graders started the year in math class by exploring how “Math is EVERYWHERE!” This entry point makes learning relevant and authentic to their lives, sparking their curiosity and showing them how numbers, patterns, and problem-solving connect to the world around them. They ended last week with the crayfish dissection, an olfactory rite of passage that challenges both the mind and the senses, sparking curiosity about structure, systems, and the “messiness” of authentic scientific inquiry! Our newest middle schoolers, the 5th graders, are grounding themselves in identity and voice, reading “Fish in a Tree” to explore themes of perseverance while drafting Bio Poems that celebrate their own traits and stories. In social studies, they are diving into the Five Themes of Geography through songs, games, and creative projects, while also launching Explorers of the World, a signature independent research course that empowers them to follow their passions and connect learning to their own interests.
Of course, students are also enjoying the depth and excitement of our Dive program, trimester-long opportunities to immerse themselves in subjects that they and their teachers are passionate about. This fall, students are exploring everything from Advanced Robotics with Arduino microcontrollers, to Constitutional Law and moot court, to Cities where they imagine and trade in Bronze Age settlements. They’re also picking up creative pursuits like Devised Theatre, Encaustic Painting, and Cover Tunes for Strings, and crossing disciplines in courses like Sporty STEM and Investor’s Boot Camp. While the offerings are undeniably fun (and sometimes a little wild), each Dive is designed with purpose: to sharpen academic competencies like research, writing, communication, data analysis, and problem-solving. Just as importantly, Dives add to our culture of challenge, inviting students to take risks, stretch into new territory, and discover talents they didn’t know they had. I invite you to explore all of our offerings here!
As we settle into the rhythm of the school year, here are a few dates to keep in mind:
- Engagement and Belonging Parent & Caregiver Coffee – Wednesday, September 17, 8:30–9:30 a.m., Doerschlag Den. Join Latisha Humphries, Director of Community Engagement & Belonging, for coffee and conversation about ways to strengthen connections within our community – through service, academics, and social opportunities. Bring your ideas, your hopes, and your vision for what’s possible. No registration is required.
- Parent & Caregiver Coffee with the Head of School – Tuesday, September 23, 8:30–9:30 a.m., Doerschlag Den. Join Head of School Eliza McLaren for conversation and trimester 1 school updates.
- A Toast to Tomorrow: Parent & Caregiver Social – Tuesday, September 30, 6:30–8:00 p.m., Thomas Family Dining Room & Patio. An evening of connection and celebration as we raise a glass to the year ahead and share a first look at what’s next for Wellington. Complimentary childcare available for children in Little Jags through grade 4. RSVP here.
- Middle School Parent/Teacher/Advisor Conferences – Thursday, October 9, 4:00–8:00 p.m., and Friday, October 10, 8:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. The Veracross portal will be open September 22–October 6 to schedule conferences. Families will book a conference with their child’s advisor (the main point of contact), but we also invite you to book a conference with subject-specific teachers as well.
I am so grateful every day to belong to this community. It's a privilege to work alongside such talented teachers, to partner with you as families, and to witness our middle schoolers discovering who they are and all that they can accomplish!
With pride and joy,
Louis