In each classroom level at Five Oaks Academy there are marked differences. The children are incredibly diverse developmentally and each program level embraces these differences. We develop our programs to offer challenge and support to the great expanse of ability and need of growing children. Our Middle School Program is the ideal example of such a leap in growth and need.
As children prepare to leave the Upper Elementary Program, they, as well as their teachers, have their eyes upon the Middle School. In our Middle School Program, the leap to independence becomes a reality. Children are empowered in a new way and are given the opportunity to truly demonstrate the great abilities they have within themselves. One option for this is the Internship experience. Through support and guidance of the teachers, children have the task of establishing contact with a local business and gaining internship status. Throughout this internship, the students have a work time where they go to work and perform duties that have been established by their work site. They receive evaluations and are given responsibilities within the work environment. Students have the opportunity to participate in four separate internship experiences each year.
The academic program in the Middle School is structured in five week terms joined together by an enrichment week. The five week terms are rotations of academic study while the enrichment weeks are a time for self-evaluation, critique, reflection, community service and integration of subject areas to the greater whole. Maria Montessori taught that all parts are relative to the whole and that in order to fully understand separate components, the big picture must always be fully represented. Our rigorous academic program keeps this balance through interdisciplinary education that includes core curriculum areas (Language Arts, Mathematics, Sciences), cultural curriculum areas (History, Geography, Technology), arts (Visual, Music), and Foreign Languages (Spanish). In addition to this comprehensive curriculum, arts education, personal development, life skills education, and opportunity to be a role model for our younger students, our middle school students are also taught to embrace whole body fitness through a program at Sportsclub of Simpsonville at Five Forks. The combination of all these key components prepares our students for their next endeavors, be it public high school or an independent program, and ultimately, each student’s individual career track. We offer real-world preparation through teaching independence, interdependence, practical life experience, and conflict management whose culmination is a responsible, free-thinking, fully prepared individual.
