Middle School: Grades 6–8

Starting middle school is an adventure in many ways, but not many students can say their experience included tackling high ropes obstacles up to 25 feet in the air while their classmates cheered them on. For Rowland Hall’s sixth graders, though, this is just one way of settling into the new school year.

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Every September, Rowland Hall’s Middle School holds a week of class trips designed to allow students to get to know one another, and their teachers, outside the classroom. The sixth-grade class trip, known as Wasatch Adventure, engages students in a variety of exciting Utah experiences (see call-out box) and serves an important purpose: to build a sense of belonging and self-confidence in the newest members of the Middle School.

Wasatch Adventure consists of four days of Utah experiences. This year, students—divided into three groups—each spent one day at a ropes course and glassblowing demonstration, hiking and paddleboarding, and visiting the Hill Aerospace Museum and Ogden Dinosaur Park. On the final day, all sixth graders gathered to raft the Provo River and enjoy a BBQ lunch.

To accomplish this goal, Rowland Hall’s sixth-grade team is intentional about the trip’s activities. Some focus purely on bonding, while others—such as a visit to the Huntsman Mental Health Institute’s ROPES Challenge Course, a high ropes course nestled in the Salt Lake foothills—also aim to build students’ confidence.

On one particularly bluebird morning, the trip’s purpose could be seen in action within the sixth graders visiting the ropes course that day. After spending the morning engaged in a variety of on-the-ground team-building activities that developed the skills they’d need for the high ropes course—such as communication, self-advocacy, and trust—they were finally harnessed, helmeted, and ready to take on the obstacle course towering above them. As Taylor Swift’s voice echoed off the red brick building and the concrete retaining wall that enclose the course, the first climbers began their ascent. Soon, their supporters began calling out guidance and encouragement.

“Wait, Anna. Step down,” coached a member of the group holding the belay lines of a teammate moving across an unstable bridge above their heads. Across the lawn, another cluster of students, spotting a classmate making his way across a cargo net, began to cheer. “Good job!” called one. “Amazing!” cried another.

To any onlooker, it’s clear this activity serves a purpose beyond the fun of a ropes course.

“They’re learning to build trust and develop strategies, as well as to express their emotions in a safe space, through activities designed to promote these skills in a stress-free environment,” said sixth-grade English teacher Kate Siwicki as she observed the group.

The experience and its takeaways are also in line with a larger goal: to help the new sixth graders succeed by giving them thoughtful, purposeful support, particularly in the earliest weeks of the school year.

“The beginning of the year is really intentional,” explained sixth-grade math teacher Chad Obermark, known as Mr. O, who leads the grade-level team behind not only Wasatch Adventure, but the full sixth-grade experience. “What’s best for students is most important.”

The beginning of the year is really intentional. What’s best for students is most important.—Chad Obermark, sixth-grade math teacher

And what’s best for students moving from elementary school to middle school—one of the most significant rites of passage of childhood—is plenty of guidance as they learn to navigate a new chapter of their educational journeys. After all, this is a time known for big transitions: a different campus, a more complex schedule, class changes, multiple teachers, lockers, even new ways of being graded.

“It can be daunting,” said Mr. O, “but there are ways we set them up for success.”

This starts by establishing a solid foundation of support during the first weeks of the year—roughly the 10 weeks between Hello Day and Halloween. Teachers are mindful of using this time wisely and in ways that help every student feel safe, welcome, and supported so they can succeed academically. Opportunities such as Wasatch Adventure can be particularly useful in building a sense of belonging, as the low-pressure social activities help students feel more connected to the school community and build a more cohesive group. The outcome of the week is especially evident among the students who joined Rowland Hall in sixth grade.

“After Wasatch Adventure week, we come back and you completely muddied the waters of who’s new and who’s not,” said Mr. O.

The team also uses these weeks to build students’ confidence in their new day-to-day routines. A helpful tool for teachers is advisory, which takes place during the last hour of the school day for sixth graders. A component of all Rowland Hall middle schoolers’ schedules, advisory is intended to be students’ home base while at school and is used to foster a healthy middle school community. Each small group, guided by an assigned teacher, is a safe space in which students engage in everything from social-emotional learning to academic advising. Six teachers serve as sixth-grade advisors: the grade’s four MESH teachers—Mr. O (math), Kate (English), Dan Trockman (science), and Susan Phillips (history)—as well as PE teacher Bobby Kennedy (BK) and French and Spanish teacher Sam Thomas.

“Advisory is one of my favorites,” said Warren B., a ski racer who joined both the Middle School and Rowmark Ski Academy this year. A member of BK’s advisory, Warren likes the pause that the period provides between a day of learning and the Rowmark training and homework that await him after school. He appreciates that advisors help their students understand what’s expected of them as sixth graders and coach them to success.

Zoe Y., a member of Kate’s advisory, also called out this support, noting that she likes how time in class is even used to build skills such as filling in planners or finding an assignment in Canvas. This focus on time-management fundamentals—alongside empowering students to grow their independence in other ways—is an important part of the Rowland Hall program, and essential to helping the sixth graders begin to manage their own learning.

“The way that it’s structured, you can ask questions and you can know the teachers will answer and they will help you,” said Zoe.

To further support these freshly minted middle schoolers, Rowland Hall’s program includes a unique feature: time for every student to see their four MESH teachers every day. Not only is this structure helpful for the age group, which only a few months ago saw the same homeroom teacher daily, but it allows this core group of teachers to get to know every sixth grader—and to remain nimble based on what they see. Each week, the MESH team comes together to make advisory plans, and they bring their classroom observations to those discussions.

“We make a plan a week out, to give the kids what they need,” explained Kate. For instance, if students seem low energy, the team can discuss ways to engage them. The group also thinks about how to strengthen the Middle School community by furthering student connections.

“We’re really trying to use advisory to give students common experiences and link them to the community,” said Kate.

As an example, this fall, advisors have built in time for students to reflect on their first all-class novel, Wonder, and discuss topics such as how hard it can be to enter a community and how to make someone new feel welcome. These discussions among students who have recently entered a new division can be quite moving.

“They put a lot of themselves in the characters’ perspectives,” said Mr. O. “These kids, coming from the Lower School, are willing to be vulnerable, share ideas, and make mistakes”—all things that contribute to a healthy, welcoming community.

And day by day, moment by moment, this intentional work around belonging and self-confidence is also helping the sixth graders understand their role in positively impacting the school community. Jacob R., the grade’s first Winged Lion Award recipient, is one student thinking about how he can make his school a better place.

All I want to do is have a positive impact on the community, to be at my fullest every single day.—Sixth grader Jacob R.

“I was really proud,” said Jacob about the recognition, which is given each month to one student from the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades who demonstrates community-valued characteristics, including hard work, collaboration, consideration, friendliness, respect, and honesty. And while Jacob is honored to have been his grade’s September winner, he also shared that making his school a better place is something he’s committed to, no matter what.

“All I want to do is have a positive impact on the community, to be at my fullest every single day,” he said.

It’s an inspiring perspective, and one that teachers, families, and friends of the sixth graders will continue to see in the coming months, as students move away from the settling-in period of the early weeks and, over the remainder of the year, fully become middle schoolers—a transformation that even seasoned teachers like Mr. O continue to be amazed by.

“It’s unreal, the difference,” he said.

Belonging

Each August, Rowland Hall holds Convocation, a traditional gathering that brings our community together to connect, learn, and celebrate the start of a new school year.

This year’s event, held the morning of Friday, August 23, centered around Rowland Hall’s 2024–2025 theme, Joy. In the words of professor and author Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, joy is “the embodiment of, learning of, and practice of love of self and humanity, and care for and help for humanity and the earth. Joy encompasses happiness/smiles, truth, beauty, aesthetics, art, wonder, personal fulfillment, and solutions to the social problems of the world.”

Joy encompasses happiness/smiles, truth, beauty, aesthetics, art, wonder, personal fulfillment, and solutions to the social problems of the world.—Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, professor and author

Convocation has long included speeches by the student body president and a member of the alumni community, but for the first time this year, the annual event also included speakers from the fifth and eighth grades.

“It was important to us to include fifth and eighth graders so that all of the students in attendance, from the Lower School to the Upper School, saw themselves represented in the program,” said Dr. Chandani Patel, director of equity and inclusion. “As our theme is Joy, we thought it made sense for peers to welcome everyone back to school and talk about how they relate to this theme.”

This year’s Convocation speakers included fifth grader Kyeran G., eighth grader Shea G., 12th grader Gemma Ciriello, and alumna Elizabeth Izampuye ’17. Each reflected on what joy means to them and the many forms joy can take, and asked those gathered to look for joy in their own lives and work to create joy for others. Their beautiful words inspired Convocation attendees and illustrated why Rowland Hall prioritizes amplifying student voices.

“Our strategic priorities guide us to be more student-centered in all that we do here at school, and sometimes grown-ups need to step out of the way to let the kids do their thing and shine,” said Dr. Patel.

We invite you to enjoy this year’s Convocation speeches by watching the video below, or click to read the speeches.

Student Voices

Welcome, Winged Lions, to the 2024–2025 school year! We’re so happy you’re here.

The year kicked off on Wednesday, August 21, with Hello Day, where we welcomed students to their first day of classes. On Friday, our community came together for Convocation, an annual gathering at which we celebrate the start of a new year of learning and growth. And on Saturday, we gathered once again for the Back to School BASH, one of our community’s favorite ways to kick off the new year.

We hope you’ll take a moment to enjoy some of the images captured during the first days of school.

Community

For Rowland Hall’s seventh graders, a sense of belonging—and finding that in community—has been a top focus this year.

And at the school’s first annual Belonging Summit, held in May, seventh graders were able to examine how refugees and immigrants find their place in a new home through different aspects of their lives, identities, and cultures. They also explored why belonging is so important in the first place, and how a feeling of belonging is the basis of well-being, learning, and growth.

“It feels way better to belong,” said seventh grader Adrian J. “You have a place where you can be and not feel like you have to worry about anything.”

The summit was the culmination of a year of cross-disciplinary studies in English and world studies that included tutoring work with immigrants and refugees from Horizonte and the Asian Association of Utah. In April and May, the students met with kids from Sunnyvale Neighborhood Center for a series of cross-cultural clinics in dance, soccer, and basketball on Fridays after school. They also interviewed adult mentors from community partners like the International Rescue Committee and the English Language Learning Center who directly serve those who resettle in Salt Lake City and the surrounding communities. In the days leading up to the summit, they worked with artists-in-residence to learn folk arts and traditions from other cultures, like Central African dancing and Ukrainian egg painting. 

“This is an opportunity for these students to work closely with people who are in immigrant and refugee populations in terms of the struggles they have to feel belonging and how that matches or doesn’t match our students’ experiences,” said Dr. Chandani Patel, director of equity and inclusion. “I would hope that it will help them understand that every person’s way of being in the world is very unique to who they are, and culture looks like a lot of different things, and belonging looks like a lot of different things, and it all adds up to a community.”

Groups of students at the summit presented ways to further foster belonging and build community. Some kids highlighted the importance of sports when bringing people together. Another group looked at how language barriers can be overcome. Food was a very popular option, with students not only bringing in dishes to share from their backgrounds, but also teaching others how to make things like tamarind candy. 

“I chose music because when you join together to play music you become a community,” said seventh grader Alex P. “In sixth grade, I took an elective that was about jazz, and I learned that jazz had a very big influence on New Orleans creating communities.”

We want people to be curious. A lot of times we’re scared to ask questions because we are scared of coming off a certain way, but when you understand other people’s perspectives and their backgrounds you can create more good.—Vivian L., class of 2029

In addition to their group presentations, each individual student created a zine about their subject and how it contributes to belonging. The idea came from the fact that zines are currently being used in cities like New York and Portland to communicate with transplanted populations because they are easy and inexpensive to produce.
    
“We talked a lot about how the zines would be a good takeaway for people attending the event,” said English teacher Jill Gerber. “Some of the kids even translated them into different languages specific to the populations at Sunnyvale.”

Many of the presentations not only had zines available for community members to take home, but also information about the partner groups and how to support their efforts. The push wasn’t only about telling people about the work they had done as students, but also about the work that still needs to be done. But the students understood there were hurdles to overcome.

“We want people to be curious,” said seventh grader Vivian L. “A lot of times we’re scared to ask questions because we are scared of coming off a certain way, but when you understand other people’s perspectives and their backgrounds you can create more good.”

The Belonging Summit is one part of Rowland Hall’s efforts to engage students in shaping solutions to the world’s hardest problems. The issue of refugee and immigrant resettlement is a demographic reality in Utah and these students could make a real difference in helping those in need.

“I think the incredible piece was their growth in what it means to be a culturally literate person,” said world studies teacher Margot Miller. “You don’t have to travel the world to get this type of experience. It lives in Utah, and it’s only growing.”

Community