Junior High

Preparing our Students from Grade 7 through Grade 12

The 2013-2014 school year will bring about an exciting change in our junior high program, as  we are looking forward to include students at the sixth grade level.   Creating a Grade 7 through 12 environment enables us create a program that allows for a seamless transition from junior high to high school.

Currently our 7th and 8th grade students are able to take advantage of our innovative curriculum and technology initiatives in classrooms equipped with the same technology that can be found in throughout our building, and our sixth grade students will do the same.

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to “empower young men and women to reach their full potential— spiritually, academically, and socially—by providing a college preparatory, values based Catholic education in a student centered family atmosphere, in keeping with the tradition of the Christian Brothers and School Sisters of Notre Dame,” at an even earlier stage of their formation.

 

The Academic Program:

  • Seventh and eighth grade students will participate in all New York State-required core curriculum classes: English, Math, Social Studies, Foreign Language, and Science, as well as Religion.  They will also participate in art, physical education and music classes.

 

  • Advanced classes: Based on their performance on the Entrance Exam and their previous year’s grades, selected students have the opportunity to pursue advanced course work leading to a potential of three high school credits obtained in junior high: Algebra, Biology, and Latin I.

 

  • Foreign Language: All of our junior high students take Latin. Latin helps students understand how other languages (including English) operate.  Latin has a very clear, structured, and organized grammar that allows students to master grammatical concepts in English, and also serves as an excellent foundation for any other language students will go on to learn.  For example, Spanish, French, and Italian are all derived from Latin, and have grammatical structures much more similar to Latin than to English. Latin helps students to expand their English vocabulary.  Over 60% of English words (and 90% of those with more than two syllables) are derived from Latin, so students will be better prepared to recognize or to figure out new words that they have not seen before.