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Academics

Middle School

Middle School Advisory

Robert Davis, 8th Grade Science Teacher

A lot of kids have adults telling them what to do, what to think, how to do a project, all day.
The students have the answers. It is our job as teachers to help them discover the answers within themselves.

A Second Home

A combination of people, place, and program, Middle School advisory is much more than a homeroom. Yes, it serves as a home base, a space and a group of people to start and end your day with, but advisory also provides support, skill development, mentoring, camaraderie, and laughs. For many middle schoolers, it becomes a second home.

Each year’s advisories—made up of 10 classmates and a teacher—are carefully crafted by faculty who know individual students and the grade’s social dynamics. Every day begins in advisory with a 10- to 15-minute check-in and ends with STAT (Student Teacher Appointment Time), when you can study, unwind, and get help with schoolwork or guidance from your advisor.

Tuesday brings the 40-minute Saints Advisory Program, affectionately known as SAP. What happens in SAP varies, but it’s always designed to build character, leadership, citizenship, and community. Sometimes you’ll do a deep dive into a topic touched on earlier in Chapel. Other times, you’ll do an activity in one of SAP’s four key areas.

At SSSAS, we live our mission “to pursue goodness as well as knowledge.” That pursuit is on full display in Middle School advisory, which draws no boundaries between academic and personal development. It provides tweens with a little bit of everything they need to learn and grow into young adults as well as a whole lot of fun.

Applying to Middle School
Connect with Admission and plan a visit
Middle School Academics
An overview to our joyful education
Middle School Advisory
A combination of people, place, and program
Middle School Curriculum
A balance of traditional instruction and experiential learning

SAP's Key Focus

Empathy, inclusion, and belonging—activities from Saints Dialogue to coffeehouses (coffee, no; cookies and lemonade, yes) that encourage listening, open-mindedness, and seeing from different perspectives in a safe space.
Digital citizenship and online decision-making.
Student-led conferences, where you take responsibility by leading meetings with your advisor and parents, and set your own goals.
Bonding activities—puzzles to solve, games to play, and trips to take… together.

What Does a Middle School Advisor Do?