Curriculum

We believe that:

• Process and content are both essential in learning.
• Depth is more meaningful than breadth to emerging adolescents.
• Students need to spend time thinking about how they learn best.
• All children can learn with the appropriate level of challenge.
• It is important to provide opportunities for success.
• Every child deserves our individual attention.

In the Middle Division, our emphasis is on deep understanding and participation, as well as learning how to learn. As students begin to take more responsibility for their own learning, the faculty remains supportive and nurturing. Teachers work to build explicit links between the various subjects to deepen students’ understanding of the world in which they live and to enable students to ask higher-level thinking questions. Our hope is to engender wonder and a belief in every student s/he is a powerful learner.

In addition to preparing students for life after the Middle Divison, Brentwood School provides experiences that allow students to grow intellectually, physically, and morally. We believe that we should prepare our students to be confident, independent, and responsible citizens. It is also our aim to help students learn to lead their day-to-day lives with compassion and kindness and to serve the needs of others. Finally, it is the fervent hope of Brentwood School's Middle Division that students will gain not only vision but also joy in the discovery and fulfillment of that vision. We hope that they will be endowed with the moral fiber to work through difficulty toward a true understanding of the way in which individual goals harmonize with the greater good of the world in which we live. Our Middle Division's programs are committed to this development.