Middle School Life

School life at Canterbury is vibrant, thriving, and filled with the excitement and variety that Middle School students need and desire. Consistent with our mission, the activities and opportunities available for our students are aimed at educating the whole child.

Chapel

Worship is central to the life of our school. All students attend a brief chapel service on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Students continue to explore their spirituality in theology classes once a week with the Reverend Jay Peter Burkardt. 

Leadership Opportunities

Canterbury provides a distinct array of leadership opportunities for its Middle School students:

• Families: each eighth grade student leads a “family,” which is a cluster of nine students, one from each grade level. Designed to build a strong bond between students of all ages, families meet once a month to socialize, perform outreach projects, beautify the campus, and spend time together in other ways.

• Chapel buddies: each sixth grade student at Canterbury is paired with a kindergarten “chapel buddy.”These older students help our youngest ones adjust to school life and act as a “security blanket” and familiar face. Chapel buddies walk hand in hand to chapel, where they sit together throughout the year. Each year our graduation ceremony concludes with our graduates being sent into the world with a song of blessing from their former kindergarten chapel buddies.
• Student Council: from orchestrating fundraisers, to selling pizza to the whole school on selected Fridays, to planning dances, to researching charitable organizations for contributions, our student council seeks to serve the school and larger community.To provide representation across grade levels, the student body elects the President and Vice President from the eighth grade, Secretary from the seventh grade, Treasurer from the sixth grade, and one representative from each homeroom in grades five through eight.All Middle School students in good standing are eligible to participate in student council.
• 8^th grade Leadership Trip: every fall, the students we expect to lead our school take a journey to explore, discuss, and experience what team building and leadership really mean. Nested in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the Wilderness Adventure facilities at Eagle Landing offer the perfect seclusion, solitude, and natural beauty to undertake this task.

Service Learning

Outreach projects expose students to the needs of others and reemphasize the importance of sharing, and every year our students experience service to others in local and other communities in a variety of ways.Each grade level adopts a specific outreach project on a local level, such as serving meals at a shelter or collecting books for those in need. Students also participate in responding to unforeseen circumstances that leave people in need of help, such as Hurricane Fran or the September 11^th crisis.Our school community has also worked to provide school supplies and financial assistance to St. Margaret’s Academy in Tanzania.

School Traditions

Canterbury is rich in meaningful traditions for an eleven-year-old school, and Middle School students have multiple opportunities to leave their distinct stamp as we celebrate our school’s history together. Students in the Creative Writing elective write the script for the annual Stone Soup play. Eighth grade students create a class banner to lead the Founders’ Day procession each year, and that banner joins other banners as a permanent fixture in the foyer of Armfield hall.Middle School students also participate extensively as readers, cross bearers, and acolytes in special chapel services such as Lessons and Carols, and our year concludes with a final chapel for eighth grade students complete with a slideshow of their faces captured over time at Canterbury.

Advisory

Advisory groups, comprised of 7-10 students from the same grade level and one faculty Advisor, meet every Tuesday at 11:10 for thirty minutes.This vital small-group time provides a forum for academic communication and enrichment, study hall, social development, and discussion of school or other issues. During Advisory, students will also prepare and practice for Student Led Conferences. Faculty Advisors act as mentors and guides for interdisciplinary assignments associated with Trinity Term.

Tutorial

Every Thursday at 11:10 students meet for a thirty-minute tutorial time in homeroom. Tutorial provides a time to study, to complete assignments, to meet with a teacher, to make-up a test or quiz, or to consult with the Learning Resource Specialist.

The Arts

Art is alive and well at Canterbury!All students in sixth grade attend classes in art and music, and our elective choices for seventh and eighth grade students afford the opportunity to explore a variety of artistic expressions.In the fall and spring, plays are performed by students in the drama elective, and the Winter and Spring Arts Festivals provide a similar showcase of student art, poetry read by candlelight, displays of web-pages, and choir, drum, and handbell performances.Each year, the school also invites local and other artists to visit the campus to share their creative experiences and talents with our students.

Sports

The Canterbury sports program offers the opportunity for Middle School students to participate in a variety of team sports for both boys and girls. The program promotes teamwork, sportsmanship, and athletic skill development in a healthy, competitive, and fun environment. Team sports currently offered include basketball, tennis, soccer, and golf for boys, and basketball, tennis, soccer, and volleyball for girls. The coaching staff makes every effort to encourage students to participate in the sports program, and availability to participate each season is assessed based on student interest and coaching needs.

Social Life

Our Student Council and the Canterbury Parents Association (CPA) work together to provide social activities and events for our Middle School students throughout the year. Typically, an informal Fall Social, an evening Winter Dance, a Valentine’s party, a year-end celebration, and a second evening dance sponsored by the Student Council in late spring occur over the course of the year.

Spring Trips

Each grade level in the Middle School embarks in May on a different fun-filled and educational journey to a nearby city.Led by homeroom teachers and additional chaperones, these trips allow students to explore the cultures and characteristics of past and present times, to examine popular culture, to attend plays, to visit museums and other attractions, and to socialize and have fun.Past highlights have included trips to Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Charleston, S.C., and Colonial Williamsburg.

Technology

Throughout their Middle School careers, students are immersed in technology. Armfield Hall boasts an I-Mac lab for students with twenty-two online machines, and students are engaged in writing and research projects that involve multiple visits to the computer lab for many of their classes. An additional mobile laptop cart provides 23 Ibooks for students to use in their classroom settings. All classrooms in Armfield Hall also are outfitted with SMARTBoads, which are interactive white boards that promote multiple enhancements to teaching and learning.