WELCOME TO THE MIDDLE SCHOOL: GRADES 5-8

Middle school is a time of enormous growth. By the time our students finish their eighth-grade year, they bear just the faintest resemblance to the students who entered the school a few years prior. Their physical, intellectual and social growth is momentous, and it is our joy and privilege as educators and administrators to witness and participate in this transformation.

The middle school curriculum is structured to maximize scholarship, discovery and creativity. Students participate in core classes that challenge and inform them while also offering them opportunities to showcase their knowledge in unique and inventive ways.

Our focus on cross-curricular, project-based learning and collaboration lays the groundwork for students’ future studies and their eventual careers.

We strive to provide our students with the tools and the practices that enable their success as scholars and leaders.

Support for students’ social and emotional growth is important at all stages but especially critical as our middle schoolers transition from the children they were in elementary school to the young adults they become in upper school and beyond. The low faculty-to-student ratio ensures that progress and growth is monitored and charted by a team of people who know them best: their grade teachers and advisors. Student advisories, previously known as home rooms or home bases, are consistent, reliable, safe spaces for students to grapple with big issues and ideas with a trained facilitator and their peers. Empathetic, compassionate advisors allow for all student voices to be heard and each student’s unique perspective and experience to be respected.

Rounding out the middle school experience are extracurriculars. Students are encouraged to either dig deep into an identified passion or to try something new. Traits including hard work, perseverance and resilience are modeled, valued and reinforced as students engage in activities that range from sports to drama, debate, horseback riding and robotics, to name a few. Students who don’t find what they are looking for in the current roster of extracurriculars are empowered to petition their own club or team.

We look forward to meeting you on campus at one of our admissions events this fall. Or you can call us to make an appointment to visit. We’re excited to share the ways that Saddle River Day School makes a difference in the lives of students who want to make a difference.

Middle School by the Numbers