Middle School Curriculum

Park City Academy developed its Middle School program to address the unique developmental stage of early adolescence. PCA faculty and staff create an active, student-centered learning environment effective with a variety of learning styles. Our small Middle School classes and low student teacher ratio, 8 to 1, allow our teachers to know our students as individuals and thereby maximize innate strengths. At Park City Academy, faculty and staff engage parents as crucial partners and stakeholders in our educational mission.

Referencing the most current educational research available, we believe that all students--particularly students between the ages of 11 and 15--learn most effectively in a safe, structured environment. Daily lessons and activities encourage cooperation, respect, consistency, and predictability. Our curriculum reflects recent research on brain development and multiple-intelligences theory. Because Park City Academy teachers work and plan as a team, they emphasize the connections between subject area and the relevance of our course of study to the experiences and lives of our students.

Park City Academy’s Service Learning Program, Outdoor Education, and commitment to ethical and spiritual development stimulate our students to lives of leadership and service to others. As the only Middle School program in the area with interscholastic athletics, our students build upon physical education classes to develop specific games skills, an appreciation of team effort, and school pride.

Whether students are expressing their opinions in history class by drawing political cartoons, or building and racing solar-powered cars in science, or preparing authentic regional food in Spanish, our program incorporates creativity, variety, activity and produces exceptional results. This introduction to the Academy’s Middle School, we hope, will interest you in learning more about how Park City Academy will enable your child to reach his or her highest potential—academically, spiritually and physically.

Academic Excellence

Park City Academy teaches its students to be life-long learners, to question critically but respectfully, and to use their knowledge from one class to advance their understanding in others. Making good grades is not the goal of our program, but a step in loving to learn.

As a member of the Core Knowledge Foundation, we believe students must learn a core of common, substantial knowledge as the foundation for success and for joy in life-long learning.  The curricular keynotes of PCA’s Middle School program include:

  • In the classical liberal arts tradition, Academy students will be engaged by culturally important texts—including The Iliad, The Odyssey, To Kill a Mockingbird, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Animal Farm, and The Good Earth—and authors including—William Shakespeare, Emily Dickenson,  Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Edgar Allen Poe, and Maya Angelou.
  • Daily writing assignments and frequent public speaking opportunities develop crucially important communication skills and self-confidence.
  • Teachers truly know their students and provide extra-help opportunities within class times and after school to ensure subject area mastery.  
  • Benchmarking success against national and international norms, our math program emphasizes creative problem solving as well as mastery of computation.
  • Science classes provide hands-on learning opportunities for both experiential learning and an understanding of scientific method.
  • Taking maximum advantage of our region’s environmental opportunities, the Academy’s outdoor education program expands lessons from the classroom into practical applications in avalanche education, meteorology, astronomy, cartography, geography, and geology. Off campus outdoor education classes build leadership skills and expose students to orienteering, rock climbing, and mountaineering.
  • The Middle School size, program, and schedule allow students to learn from each other and to maintain learning relationships with their teachers over two or three years.
  • In the Middle School advisory group system, students meet regularly in groups of 6 to 8 with their advisor. Advisory groups provide a structure for accountability, informal counseling, disseminating information, and providing input to the administration.
  • Twice weekly academically oriented Bible classes expose Middle School students to lesson, history, and characters seminal to western culture and ethical philosophy.
  • In the visual and performing arts, students have important opportunities to develop their aesthetic sensibilities and to present their skills and perform in public.
  • The Middle School faculty team annually reviews and updates curriculum. An array of elective courses supplements the comprehensive core curriculum. Recent Middle School elective courses have included Film Studies, Latin, Drama, Life Skills, Swimming, and Interior Design.
  • The flexible block schedule allows instructional units longer than the standard 45 minutes creating time for weekly chapels, advisory groups, extra help, clubs, and school service.
  • To reinforce their learning and to practice test-taking skills, Middle School students take comprehensive final exams in all subject areas at the end of each term.
  • In close daily communication, teachers continually assess--both formally and informally--student abilities and achievement in order to support appropriately the students, their parents, and each other.    

 

As an end-result of Park City Academy’s comprehensive curriculum and pedagogical best practices, our graduates are well prepared to succeed in any secondary program, including the most challenging, independent college preparatory schools around the country.

Personal Growth

Early adolescence is a crucially important phase in human development. These are the years when students begin to search for and define their true selves. To assist in that process, the Academy’s caring faculty and thoughtful program guide with a clear moral compass. Although the middle school years present challenges to the students, their parents, and their teachers, they provide, in the right context, an exciting time of growth and discovery. Park City Academy’s Middle School helps students to navigate this time of transition as smoothly and as painlessly as possible.

  • During weekly club periods, advisory groups and student government not only provide regular forums for student issues and a structure of democratic, student-led governance of middle school life; but also a venue for student conflict resolution. In addition, club periods provide opportunities for special interest groups, academic teams, publications, and student-led chapels.
  • Because of the Academy’s small size, students have increased opportunities to practice leadership skills as officers in student government, committees, and clubs.
  • A student advisory team plans and implements weekly chapels. Chapels engage students in interdenominational worship and spiritual inquiry.
  • Our inclusive, respectful environment and caring teachers encourage students-- when they are developmentally ready--to reflect upon spirituality and personal meaning.
  • The Academy’s prescribed guidelines for dress and appearance discourage divisive consumerism and cliques.
  • Health classes reinforce self-discipline and good personal habits.
  • Planned and initiated by the students, supervised and age-appropriate social activities occur quarterly.

 

Physical and Interpersonal Development

A healthy lifestyle promotes academic success. A high degree of engagement in school activities reduces risky health and other problem behaviors. Middle School athletics at Park City Academy don’t attempt to emulate the highly structured and competitive interscholastic sports at the secondary level.  All students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of organized sports through intramurals and interscholastic teams.

As in every other area of school life, the Academy’s policies and professional coaching staff provide a challenging environment that is safe and supportive—physically, spiritually, and emotionally.  

  • The Academy competes in the Wasatch Athletic Conference (WAC) along with other college preparatory independent middle schools along the Wasatch Front. As enrollment and sign-ups allow, the Academy fields “A”, “B”, and “C” teams.

The WAC’s “A” and “B” league offer seventh and eighth grade boys and girls an opportunity to compete. The “C” league offers fifth and sixth grade Academy students an opportunity to learn the rules and skills of each sport and to participate in contests at a less competitive level. The Conference sports are:

Fall                                    Winter                                     Spring
Boys’ Soccer                 Boys’ Basketball             Boys’ and Girls’ Cross Country
Girls’ Volleyball            Girls’ Basketball             Girls’ Soccer

  • The Academy provides or secures transportation, equipment, and uniforms for the interscholastic athletes and their coaches.
  • All students receive weekly instruction in health. Twice weekly physical education reinforces fitness and healthy living practices, as well as traditional sport fundamentals. 
  • Through its frequent off-campus activities, the Outdoor Education program emphasizes not only physical, but also academic and spiritual growth. Expeditionary learning takes advantage of the outstanding geography of Utah and the world-class recreational facilities of Park City.
  • Through Park City Academy’s Service Learning program, Middle School students learn values, skills, and a sense of social responsibility necessary for responsible citizenship in the United States. Under the direction of the Service Learning Director, teachers, student government and advisories plan community outreach events per quarter: one during the school day, and two evening or weekend events. In service to the school community, students participate in weekly “service to school” activities.
  • Within the appropriate guidelines of independent school best practices, parents have numerous opportunities to volunteer responsibly in middle school academic, athletic, and social activities.

 

For questions regarding Park City Academy’s Middle School, please contact either Charles Sachs, Head of School, csachs@parkcityacademy.org or Jim Zimmerman, Middle School Director, jzimmermann@parkcityacademy.org. For information concerning admission to Park City Academy, please contact Susan Radtke, Director of Community Outreach, sradtke@parkcityacademy.org.