MS Divisional Piece

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Middle School

Confidence in knowing.

This is your time. As you change, as you grow, as you discover what you can do…you’ll understand who you can become.

Welcome to Middle School

“Middle School at Breck is a special time. I’ve had so many opportunities to form meaningful relationships with my peers and teachers.”

Middle School at

Breck provides an abundance of student opportunities to both fortify areas of interest and delve into uncharted regions.

In approaching these opportunities, we encourage students to both ask and field questions, to seek and provide answers, to initiate new friendships and nourish existing ones, and to appreciate the diverse experiences that members of our community bring on a daily basis.

Now is the time and place to help students navigate their individual journeys toward a more defined sense of self as members of a larger community. Our accomplished, experienced faculty collaborates with, guides, and engages students in an appropriately challenging yet supportive program.

Through intentional time dedicated to supporting students’ learning, growth, and development, Middle School students learn to understand their place in the world and their role in supporting the common good. Upon completion, students are poised, confident, and ready for what awaits in the Upper School.

It’s time to explore.

Academic Challenge

Spanning grades 5 to 8, the Middle School experience at Breck is dedicated to providing a safe environment for students to navigate their journeys as academics, artists, athletes, and members of a larger community.

Guided by an accomplished and veteran faculty, students actively engage in a program designed to challenge and support them.

Interdisciplinary Learning

When a student learns to apply the skills they’ve gained in one subject to the learning of another, it deepens their understanding of both. Throughout Middle School, our faculty put specific emphasis on enhancing their curricula by including other disciplines. Culminating in a Grade 8 Capstone Project, this approach prepares every student for the breadth and depth of Upper School.

Middle School is a time of growth and exploration — intellectually, emotionally, and socially. Our curriculum is designed to guide students as they understand themselves, their world, and the role they want to play in it.

Elective Offerings

Middle School students have the opportunity to enroll in a wide selection of academic electives to expose them to subjects beyond their core curriculum. We offer classes on Constitutional Law, Engineering, Economics and Finance, Sports and Society, and Creating Virtual Reality Experiences, just to name a few.

Advisory Program

As part of our commitment to nurturing the whole child, we assign each student a faculty advisor to be a formal, personal, and academic advocate. During formal and informal weekly meetings, advisors focus on developing studying and class strategies, process personal relationships, and facilitate effective, efficient communication among faculty, students, and parents.

Play to your strengths.

At Breck, every activity is another opportunity to learn.

We offer a comprehensive and competitive athletic program that emphasizes the importance of commitment and preparation, personal growth, and teamwork. Our athletes strive for excellence in their sport and, independent of outcome, compete with grace and school pride.

The Performing Arts at Breck provide students more than just the chance to grow and explore their own selfexpression and creativity — it’s a chance for them to build something together. Through dance, music, and theatre, students gain firsthand exposure to the arts and develop the skills and discipline to create something as a group.

Our Visual Arts Department is studiobased at its very core. Students create work in vivid, beautiful studio spaces under the guidance of real working artists who share their knowledge, talent, enthusiasm, and inspirations that rouse their imagination.

Electives

Wellness

Please see the course guide at breckschool.org for more details.

Elective offerings can vary from academic year to year.

This list is just a sampling of elective courses students can take in the Middle School.

Writing for Real Audiences, Constitutional Law, and Creating Virtual Reality Experiences.

Computer Science, Tinkering/STEM, Newsroom, Intro to Economics, Sports and Society,

Project Adventure Health Physical Education Outdoor Education

Performing & Visual Arts

Year-Long Courses Beginning Band String Orchestra

Semester Courses Choir Dance Exploration Contemporary Dance Stagecraft Visual Arts Theatre I-II

Year-Long Courses Chamber Chorale String Orchestra Concert Band Wind Ensemble Dance Reperatory

Drama Choir World Music Theatre I-III Stagecraft Visual Arts

Semester Courses Contemporary Dance

Religion

World Religions

Hebrew Scriptures

Christianities

Ethics

Advanced Upper School Courses are available in Chinese, French, and Spanish. Placement in Upper School language courses available dependent upon fluency with language.

Strong body. Strong mind.

In order to develop lifelong good habits, all students are required to take four age-appropriate wellness classes per year.

Outdoor Education

This program, utterly unique to Breck, immerses students in our great Minnesota outdoors to connect with nature, form lasting connections to one another, and uncover the leaders within. From orienteering to fire building, archery to canoeing, students learn to lead, follow, build compassion for one another, and understand the responsibility of stewarding the environment we share.

Health

Health education provides students with important knowledge and skills to maintain their physical, social, and emotional health. Here, students learn about positive behaviors and lifestyle choices, risks of injury and illness, disease prevention and management strategies, and an understanding of their own growth and development.

Project Adventure

Project Adventure provides our students the opportunity to strengthen their leadership and teamwork skills. Through team-building exercises, individual challenges, and even conquering our campus high ropes courses, Middle School students will learn to take risks, solve problems, and ultimately succeed together.

Physical Education

Teamwork. Leadership. Personal achievement. Our Physical Education program develops students’ selfconfidence and self-esteem while participating in a variety of developmentally appropriate activities, all while promoting an affinity for an active, healthy lifestyle.

Building towards greatness.

Be a Mustang

As part of our mission to educate the whole child, Be A Mustang, a uniquely Breck program integrated into Middle School advisory, provides opportunities for students to develop communication skills, resist negative peer pressure, set reasonable goals, make thoughtful, informed decisions, and increase self-confidence and motivation.

MindWorks

Our signature MindWorks program is a research-based initiative developed by Middle School faculty and Breck’s Peter Clark Center for Mind, Brain, and Education. Faculty use cognitive flexibility, goal-setting, and metacognition to foster growth mindsets and promote self-advocacy skills in their students.

Gatherings & Travel

Think without borders.

Throughout the year, we plan opportunities for the entire Middle School to gather — from the seats of the Cargill Theater to the slopes of Hyland Hills. In addition, students in grade 6 through grade 8 participate in a trip to deepen an element of their curriculum and grow relationships across the Middle School.

Trips have included Camp Icaghowan Washington, D.C. Wolf Ridge Catalina Island

Specific trips will depend on your student’s curriculum.

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