Middle School (6-8)

Students take both Literature and History during every year of Middle School. In each year of Middle School, students have three 1-hour History and three 1-hour Literature seminars per week. Additionally, they have a half hour of 1:1 tutorial time in both subjects with their teachers. In History, 1:1 sessions provide students with dedicated time to build essential skills in research, library use, and digital literacy. These sessions also support students as they pursue individual inquiry projects connected to their studies, encouraging curiosity and deeper exploration. In Literature, 1:1 instruction focuses on strengthening writing skills through a structured approach grounded in the "Hochman Method." This work builds on the "Framing Your Thoughts" curriculum from the Lower School, creating a strong foundation for thoughtful analysis and a meaningful engagement with complex literature in High School.

Middle School students at Quad Prep study a world language for 90 minutes per week. Currently, we offer Italian, Latin, French, and Spanish. Students choose the language they wish to study. Students with language waivers due to language-based learning disabilities often substitute 1:1 learning support sessions during this time. Middle School world language classes primarily focus on the culture of countries where the language is spoken.

Students have 2 hours per week in a chosen art field each year: theater arts, music, or visual arts.

Students spend 2 hours per week in structured movement. Choices include fitness training, sports, and other movement-related activities. One hour of the 2-hour requirement is outdoors, weather and circumstances permitting.

Electives are an essential part of our talent development program. Students meet in groups for 1-hour seminars twice per week (2 hour electives) each year in Middle School. Electives can be used to take a second arts class (with department permission) or to explore topics of interest.

Our fully integrated Executive Functioning (EF) and Academic Skills Program—developed in consultation with renowned expert Sarah Ward—supports students in building the habits essential for success in Upper School. Sixth grade begins with a semester-long seminar called "Bright Beginnings," where students are introduced to key EF strategies and study skills. During this time, each student’s baseline EF age is assessed to track growth through quarterly benchmarks. Personalized needs are woven into a structured EF curriculum, delivered in small group cohorts throughout the day. Each day begins in a cohorted homeroom, where students preview the day ahead, and ends with a “check out” session to support organization and readiness for homework. Cohorts receive integrated support from their team in academic advising to practice emerging planning and time management skills. In CoT (combined sessions with speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists), students receive sensory motor and social cognitive related services in Phoenix (6th grade) and Photon (7th grade), which evolves in Cosmos (8th grade) into “WorkspOT” which again reinforces executive functioning development. After the semester of "Bright Beginnings," middle school students apply and deepen EF skills integrated into Quad Prep IDEAlab.

Each week, at the same time across grades in the Upper School, students participate in Quad Prep IDEAlab. Based on the Schoolwide Enrichment Model, developed by Joseph Renzulli, the goals of IDEAlab projects are to tap into twice-exceptional students’ strengths, deep curiosity, and passions in areas of interest and talent. Harnessing creativity, educators and clinicians help students apply creative ideas in an inquiry-based fashion to attempt to solve a real-world problem in a field of special interest. It is also a place where all clinicians and educators are on hand to support the generalization of executive functioning for self-directed learning skills in planning, decision-making, time management, and self-evaluation.

Students receive a half hour of academic advising and a half hour of counseling per week on an ongoing basis. The counselor and advisor serve as a team in all areas of our students' growth. Advisors and counselors act as consultants for the faculty. Thus, a counselor may push into a seminar to provide extra executive functioning support as needed. Counselors and related service providers work hand-in-hand with the student life team and push into student life clubs. In this way, they act as needed as coaches as students develop their social and emotional intelligences.