Space to Thrive in Middle School
What if your child’s middle school years could be the most transformative of their life? Enrolling your child in the right school sets the foundation for a strong middle and high school experience. Santa Clarita Valley International (SCVi), a tuition-free public charter school serving grades TK-12 in Castaic, California, is a vibrant school community that empowers and prepares students for high school and life beyond with a strong community and space to explore.
Strong Supportive Community
At SCVi, our thoughtful, modern approach to 21st-century education certainly applies to middle school. While we stress high academic excellence at our tuition-free school, we believe it’s vital to help learners develop skills like social awareness, personal responsibility, regulation of emotions, and self-awareness so they can use these ideas as they grow.
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is at the heart of everything we do at SCVi and it’s especially important in middle school when everyone is figuring out who they are and the many changes they are experiencing.
Starting in middle school and continuing all the way through high school, our advisory program is a key strategy for developing the whole child and for creating a supportive school environment. Advisories are “school families” that foster strong connections among all members of the SCVi community.
Here’s what we do together in Advisory:
– help learners and facilitators develop closer relationships, creating a safe space for activities such as social-emotional and personal skill-building, academic skill-building, goal-setting and monitoring, and problem-solving.
– provide a time to discuss the school community, working together to address any challenges presented to learners, the classroom, or the larger community. Facilitators use this time to announce upcoming activities and classroom guests.
– facilitate every child’s participation in the school’s decision-making process. In small group settings, we explore cultural, personal, and community events. Our learners participate in daily morning ‘family’ (classroom) meetings that provide an opportunity to witness and display social problem-solving skills and interactions. These meetings provide learners with the forum to develop social and emotional skills needed to thrive in a collaborative environment.
Space to Explore
You may know that SCVi has an aviation and aerospace focus for all of our grades at our TK-12 school, but we also give students the space to explore right here on earth, too. At our tuition-free school, we center our curriculum around project-based learning. This collaborative, problem-solving approach means learners work together while learning specific fundamentals. We have space for a huddle, space to read and sketch out ideas, and all the space to get any help needed. Some ways we give our middle school students space:
– Space to personalize. Each year, learners, facilitators, and parents create Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) to guide instruction. Each learner, along with their family and facilitator, work together to monitor the ILP and personalize it as needed. The primary goal of the ILP is to ensure that each child is treated as an individual and therefore is working toward attainable goals appropriate to them.
– Literally talking about space with our aerospace projects. Every grade has an aerospace project designed for their level, including going up in a glider in our Soaring Aeronautics Project in 8th grade!
– Space in our classroom design. You know what growing bodies need? Movement- and not just in the PE sense. SCVi does not have a traditional classroom setup, and that’s on purpose. We want our learners to move around and engage in creativity, curiosity and synergy.
– Space to play. SCVi offers sports in middle school with plenty of opportunities to play.
– Space to advance. At SCVi, there’s space to accelerate too. Eighth graders who show readiness for high school level material may take high school level courses in math and foreign language.
– Space to create. Arts and music are integrated into the curriculum so middle school learners get creative every day.
– Space to progress. Learner-Led Conferences (LLCs) empower learners to take charge of their academic and personal growth and invite families in to see their progress. Our Reports of Progress include a narrative about your middle schooler’s development, both academically and socially. We know and cherish your child, especially as they are growing up so fast!
At SCVi, we love the exponential growth that happens in middle school. We give students the space to explore and learn. Join our tuition-free public school and find out what our small, supportive community can do for your middle schooler.— enroll at SCVi today!
About SCVi:
Santa Clarita Valley International School (SCVi) is a free public charter school empowering TK-12th graders to become conscientious, compassionate, and responsible citizens of the world. Founded in 2008, we use project-based and social-emotional learning concepts to inspire and motivate lifelong learners with the skills they need to lead in the 21st century. We incorporate technology into every component of our curriculum, and we value and encourage development of leadership skills by inspiring confidence and character in each of our unique learners. Join our innovative school today! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and find us at www.ilead.santaclarita.org.
