Our Middle School
The Duke School Middle School is a community of learners where teachers are guides and partners with students in a relationship of mutual respect and trust.
We design our Middle School around the needs of young adolescents, meeting them where they are in this stage of physical, social, emotional, and intellectual transformation. It's also a time when students are learning not just academic content, but also learning about themselves: how they learn best, how to speak up for what they need, and how to navigate big feelings as they come. We meet that work directly, so students leave Middle School more self-aware and more able to advocate for themselves than when they arrived.
Students are challenged to think critically and reach academic goals while building self-confidence and the ability to reflect on their own thinking, working through problems together rather than alone. Our project-based approach invites deep learning without sacrificing the joy of this age. Curiosity and creativity are valued, individual differences are cherished, and cooperation and a strong sense of community unite the school. Technology is used with intention, in service of thinking rather than in place of it.
The Middle School invites students to find their place in the classroom and outside of it — on a team, on the stage, in the maker space, in affinity groups, and in student-led initiatives, all while instilling in students that they are citizens of a global community, sharing responsibility for it.
At a glance
The Middle School includes grades 5 through 8.
Students in Middle School have one small group advisory that meets daily.
Students have four core-subject teachers and specialists in art, PE, Spanish, and performing arts, as well as a richly integrated library team.
Duke School's Middle School continues the tradition of the Lower School with an integrated, developmentally appropriate curriculum grounded in sound educational practice. Students are actively engaged in an experientially rich, hands-on curriculum. Parent partnership enhances and strengthens this learning community. This is a school built for exactly this age; at Duke School, students think deeply, know themselves, and find where they belong.
