Middle School Overview

In the grade level advisory program, various activities, conversations, and reflections enable girls to explore and develop their natural leadership abilities. Through these activities, students have the chance to practice both personal and collaborative leadership skills in various situations and settings. Some of the leadership-focused advisory activities include student reflection and goal setting, which occurs at every grade level. These reflections facilitate great conversations around personal leadership and growth, allowing girls and their advisors to brainstorm proactive strategies for development. Additionally, team challenges serve as a practice field for collaboration and problem-solving skills, providing an opportunity to observe personal behaviors and interactions. Before starting a team challenge, participants attend a pre-challenge meeting to review strategies for successful group work and identify areas of focus. The team then engages in the challenge and concludes with a debrief and reflection period.

The Forest Ridge Middle School Advisory Program supports the school community in living out the Sacred Heart Goals and Criteria. Advisory meets twice a week to provide a structured opportunity to develop social, academic, and leadership skills for students in middle school. Through a variety of activities, grade-level teams of adults empower students to create solutions to problems, to develop responsibility for their learning, to communicate openly, to serve others, and to better understand what it means to be part of a Sacred Heart community through open discussion of our school values and goals. Advisory provides students the opportunity to learn to work and play together, to talk and listen together, and to learn to be self-directed. Advisory is one of many ways that the faculty at Forest Ridge come to know the unique and special gifts each child contributes to the class and school environment.

At the fifth and sixth-grade levels, the homeroom teacher is the academic "advisor” to the students assigned to her/his homeroom. In the seventh and eighth grades, a student's advisor serves as her academic advisor and leads her advisory group of ten to fifteen students. The advisor helps promote a sense of community and trust among students in his or her advisory group or homeroom, members of the class, and the entire middle school. The advisor takes an active interest in the student's academic and social-emotional experience, tracking ongoing progress through the year. When appropriate, an advisor may contact parents with progress updates or concerns. The starting point for parent-student-teacher conferences in October is with the student's advisor, and parents are encouraged to get to know their daughter’s advisor early in the school year.

One of the essential goals of a Sacred Heart education is to graduate girls who are “educated to a social awareness which impels to action.” This entails a significant emphasis on service learning throughout a student's experience at Forest Ridge. Service learning is precisely that: integrating teaching and learning through meaningful interactions in our community that are relational and incorporate intentional reflection as part of the educational experience. Through these opportunities, Forest Ridge hopes to foster empathy, promote civic engagement, teach the skills of building community, and instill a willingness to step out of one’s comfort zone to learn across all manner of perceived boundaries.

The overarching objective of service learning at Forest Ridge is to educate to a critical consciousness that leads students to analyze and reflect on the values of society and to act for justice. The program is thoughtfully designed to engage our students in making the world a better place. It is approachable, reasonable, and achievable. Thus, the service program and opportunities at Forest Ridge are developmentally and thematically based opportunities which vary by year. At every grade level, emphasis is placed on direct service and advocacy, social justice education, and reflection.

All middle school students are provided with a unique opportunity to hone their leadership skills and develop their social and emotional skillsets through a multi-day overnight experience. These experiences are specifically designed to enhance the curriculum, reinforce previously learned leadership skills, and build upon their existing knowledge. Each grade-level is immersed in exploring different aspects of the Pacific Northwest, allowing students to gain practical knowledge about themselves, their environment, and their capacity to effect positive change for the Earth and its inhabitants. In addition to building class community, these trips emphasize practical leadership skill-building, empowering students to make a positive difference in their communities and beyond.

Spring Immersives are a one-week course during which students take one integrated, academic class which covers topics not traditionally explored in the middle school curriculum. Immersive courses include experiential learning opportunities such as week-long immersion trips, field trips, service-learning experiences, and labs. Students earn 0.25 credit each year, and courses are assessed on a credit/no credit scale.