Middle & Upper School / Grades 7 through 12
toward self-directed success
As your child travels through his early teenage years into young adulthood, he’s advancing by leaps and bounds— growing more curious, discerning, and independent by the day.
In the sunlit intellectual laboratory of Sierra Canyon’s Middle and Upper School, we help him grow into a strikingly imaginative, proactively compassionate thinker, citizen, and human being. From this galvanizing launch pad, he looks forward to creating his own auspicious future— and he pays it forward by seeking fresh perspectives and inventing groundbreaking solutions to improve life for everyone. Here’s how your child learns forward at Sierra Canyon...
GRADES 7-8 Learning forward takes off In his Middle School years, your child experiences thrilling, sometimes bewildering changes as he transitions from a child into a young teenager. Sierra Canyon’s Middle School program helps him effectively direct his inquisitive energy, while helping him build the academic, social, and emotional skills to thrive as a learner and individual. Our Middle School students share our state-of-the-art Upper Campus building with students in grades 9 through 12. Visiting Upper School classrooms, attending celebrations and competitions, and bonding with older role models, your child gets a first-hand glimpse of what lies ahead—yet remains firmly grounded in his own Middle School classes and community. Designing an original physics experiment to demonstrate angular momentum, exploring Washington D.C. with his teachers and classmates, or launching a fundraiser to buy supplies for a neighborhood school, your child grows as a unique human being and member of a larger society. By the end of eighth grade, he’s become a remarkably self-aware, self-advocating young person— primed to step confidently into Upper School.
GRADES 9-12 Learning forward culminates—and commences Your child’s learning forward trajectory reaches its pinnacle in the inspiring intellectual laboratory of our Upper School. Our entrepreneurial, question-driven philosophy fosters both independent thinking and productive collaboration—so your child consistently transforms original ideas into real solutions. She can develop a robotic hand to increase disabled people’s independence. She can direct professional actors performing her own original screenplay. She can chase down leads for our award-winning student newspaper and explore the ruins of the Roman Forum— realizing how this ancient meeting place continues to influence our own democracy. Alongside classmates from many walks of life, your child comes to deeply comprehend and respect her own capabilities—and those of others. She knows how to ask for help when she needs it, and how to move ahead when she doesn’t. And she knows her endeavors can make a difference for the larger community, so she not only understands what she’s learning, but why. Equipped with well-earned wisdom, your child confidently determines her own path to college and lifelong success.
COLLEGE PREPARATION A mindset and a toolset From our Upper School, students consistently enroll in top colleges and universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Brown, NYU, Duke, Stanford, USC, and UC Berkeley. How do we make that happen? Immersed in our intensive, hands-on curriculum, guided by multitalented teachers, your child builds mastery and curiosity in equal measure—along with an acute awareness of who she is and what she cares about most. That awareness serves her particularly well throughout the college application process. Starting in tenth grade, your child meets regularly with one of our expert college counselors to help her make the most beneficial and thoughtful choices for her future. Accompanying your family through the entire application process, leading campus tours across the nation, and attending carefully to your child’s dreams and capabilities, our counselors ensure her applications are both impressive and authentic—so her next learning home is the best school for her.
STUDENT LIFE Competing, cooperating, creating It’s no secret that at Sierra Canyon, we love to compete. We’re proud of our champions—not only our renowned athletic teams, but our prize-winning debaters, math team members, filmmakers, and poets. To us, winning means more than bringing home a trophy. It means extending your possibilities— and your empathy. Sharing strategies with fellow chess club members. Mustering the courage to take up the French horn. Reaching out to pick up a fallen opponent on the soccer field. And—whether it’s your first time on the volleyball court or your hundredth on the stage—doing your best work every time. On our light-filled Upper Campus, overlooking spectacular canyons, your child can explore a dazzling array of sports, arts programs, and clubs, led by accomplished practitioners in their fields. He may rise to the top of his game, or remain an enthusiastic amateur. Either way, your child stretches his imagination, his body, and his character beyond what he thought were his limits. And our warmly encouraging community cheers him on.
PEAK WEEK An adventure of a lifetime—every year Peak Week may be our Upper Campus’s most beloved signature program. Every year, Middle and Upper School students choose from dozens of local and international experiences that take their learning beyond the classroom and into new territory. No matter which journey your child selects this year, she comes back overflowing with fresh ideas, skills, and confidence—propelling her through the rest of the school year and into her future.
Recent week-long adventures include: Discover New York City East Coast College Tour
Behind the Scenes of the Medical Profession
Edible Science: Molecular Gastronomy
New Orleans: Ghosts, Pirates, and Alligators
Writing Whirlwind
Put Your Best Foot Forward: Shoe Making 101
Controversy in America
Presence, Poise, and Public Speaking
Documentary Film Production
Films of the Cold War
The Architecture, Art, and Food of Italy
LA Horseback Riding and Bull Ranching
Golf Course Architecture & Environmental Impact
Explore London Theatre
So You Think You Can Dance?
Design Challenge/HEX Lab
Automobile Utopia
Nobody Walks in LA: The City of Angels by Bike
Theatre in the City
Digital Music: Garage Band
Urban Leadership Adventure
The Photographic Spectacle of LA
Out of the Box: Improvisation and Creative Writing
LA Gallery Hopping
The Power of Coding and Programming
Art of Boxing
Parkour: Art and Adventure
COMMUNITY How the Sierra Canyon journey unites us At Sierra Canyon, “diversity” isn’t a box to check—it’s a deeply cherished personal value that we all strive to carry out every day. It’s also a central element of our learning forward philosophy. We believe that to make real change in the world, students must investigate, communicate, and embrace a wide range of similarities and differences—so they develop a flexible, sophisticated, empathetic understanding of “the collective good.” Sierra Canyon’s burgeoning international program welcomes students in grades 7-12 from all over the world, inspiring every member of our community to share perspectives and reflect upon cultures. Our purposeful philosophy also brings families from over 91 different zip codes to our northern Los Angeles campuses because this community and these values mean so much to us. As part of this exciting, complex, compassionate school family, your child takes on life-changing challenges and uncovers previously unknown capacities—emerging exceptionally well-prepared for college and life beyond.
STRETCHING ACADEMICALLY
ENGAGING COMPASSIONATELY
Sierra Canyon’s ingenious teachers and intrepid students
A Sierra Canyon education is more than a personal journey.
think and work together to understand the world more
It’s a mindset and a skillset empowering your child to
deeply—and change it for the better. Our intensively
solve real-world problems. Through intentional character
entrepreneurial program fosters genuine confidence,
education and abundant service learning opportunities,
purposeful creativity, and proactive citizenship, ensuring
your child employs her innate empathy and ingenuity
your child can take on any challenge, today and tomorrow.
to make others’ lives better.
IMAGINING EXPANSIVELY
EXPLORING AVIDLY
In a city renowned for performing and visual artistry,
At every grade level, we offer your child exceptional
Sierra Canyon cultivates your child’s most insightful self.
opportunities to learn outside the classroom. Your child
From Chamber Orchestra to digital media, Shakespeare
can join a wide range of clubs—or start his own. Peak
competitions to the Sierra Canyon film festival, we
Week takes him on life-changing trips across the globe or
guide your child to discover, celebrate, and share her
to a nearby neighborhood. And our vibrant international
one-of-a-kind perceptions.
program brings students from all over the world to Sierra
COMPETING WHOLEHEARTEDLY
Canyon—expanding everyone’s perspective.
Sierra Canyon’s athletic champions energize our whole
PREPARING CONTINUOUSLY
community. But we also know that winning takes
Sierra Canyon students are invincibly optimistic about their
many forms. By always striving to do better than he
next steps in life. Our complete Pre-K – grade 12 journey
did yesterday—as an athlete, student, artist, citizen,
fully equips them to rethink the familiar and embrace the
and human being—your child lives out our most
unknown. From our Upper School, students consistently
cherished values, and inspires all of us to do the same.
enroll in top colleges—including Harvard, Columbia, Brown, NYU, Duke, Stanford, USC, and UC Berkeley—and go on to forge purposeful careers and lives.
Learning forward for life Since 2005, Sierra Canyon’s Upper Campus has drawn uncommonly creative thinkers, leaders, and learners from all over Los Angeles. Our trailblazing philosophy drives everything we do. At Sierra Canyon, your child gains unstoppable momentum to learn and explore, propelling him toward a lifetime of self-directed success.
We invite you to experience learning forward in person. Schedule a tour at sierracanyonschool.org
Community: How the Sierra Canyon journey brings us together At Sierra Canyon, “diversity” isn’t a box to check—it’s a deeply cherished personal value that we all strive to carry out every day. It’s also a central element of our learning forward philosophy. We believe that to make real change in the world, students must investigate, communicate, and embrace a wide range of similarities and differences—so they develop a flexible, sophisticated, empathetic understanding of “the common good.” Sierra Canyon’s burgeoning international program welcomes students in grades 7-12 from all over the world, inspiring every member of our community to share perspectives and reflect upon cultures. Our purposeful philosophy also brings families from more than 90 different zip codes to our northern Los Angeles campuses—often navigating through miles of traffic—because this community and these values mean so much to us. As part of this exciting, complex, compassionate school family, your child takes on life-changing challenges and uncovers previously unknown capacities—emerging exceptionally well-prepared for college and life beyond.
MIDDLE AND UPPER SCHOOL
20801 Rinaldi Street Chatsworth, CA 91311
usadmission@sierracanyonschool.org sierracanyonschool.org