Middle School FAQ

Are our students prepared for the next level?

Our graduates have an excellent record of acceptance at the schools to which they apply. Students have matriculated at the following boarding schools: Greensboro Day School, Episcopal High School, Lawrenceville School, Miss Porter’s School, Woodberry Forest School, Maderia School, St. Andrews School (DE) and Virginia Episcopal School.
Our graduates earn recognition and high honors.

Highlights from 2006-07 include:

At boarding schools (VES, EHS, Woodberry)

At area independent schools (GDS)

At area public schools (Page, Grimsley, Weaver Academy)

How are gifted children challenged? How are other needs met successfully?

Teachers assign a broad variety of project-based assignments and allow students to complete them in multiple ways and on varying levels of complexity, depending on individual student’s needs.
Assignments focus on critical and creative thinking rather than on regurgitation of facts.
Students are grouped by ability and skills in Middle School mathematics. Our mathematics sequence ends with a Geometry course offered to top students in 8th grade.
Student support services offer early identification of needs and targeted instruction.
Our school counselor is available to offer one-on-one or small group counseling, as well as classroom instruction, to help students learn to interact with one another.

Is the Middle School big enough?

While we do intend to grow slightly larger over time, Canterbury is an intentionally smaller community that is big enough to allow for challenge and small enough so that no one disappears.
Unlike larger schools, our school allows everyone to participate in athletics, on teams, in the arts, on trips, in classroom discussions, and in leadership roles.

Why a school which ends in the eighth grade?

Our Middle School students are the leaders in our school, not a group of adolescents who are caught in the middle between a lower school and an upper school..
Our Middle School students are not pushed to be too mature too fast and are therefore less likely to succumb to negative peer pressure.
Students develop strong relationships with teachers who know, love and support them.

What else should I know?

75% of our Middle School teachers have advanced degrees.
Our Middle School teachers have an average of 13 years of teaching experience. Each faculty member has a special affinity for Middle School-aged students.
We offer frequent opportunities for project-based, experiential, team-based/cooperative learning and are not constrained by an overemphasis on standardized testing. Assessments are instead used to identify specific strengths and weaknesses and to inform future instruction.
We make learning interesting and fun.
Our program is accelerated by the use of the latest technology including a SmartBoard in every classroom, and a laptop cart and computer lab in each division.
Our integrated offerings in the arts encourage our students to be divergent, creative thinkers, to be empathic and to take a long view—important preparation in the world to come.
We offer unique educational opportunities that cannot be found elsewhere:

Our onsite outdoor education center allows us to couple the academic curriculum (such as social studies) with cooperative learning and a focus on civic responsibility (see piece on Millennium Development Goals).
All of our programs are grounded in Judeo-Christian values.
An integrated program of service learning at each grade level is tied to spiritual underpinnings, community focus and sense of civic responsibility.

Canterbury School develops good people with a solid grounding that will enable them to understand the wider world and thrive in it.