We believe that junior high students need

  • to be reminded that learning is fun and that they’re good at it

  • a supportive, inclusive community of peers and mentors

  • to build executive function and academic skills that prepare them for high school

Middle school can look like this: No more homework battles. No more test stress. Curriculum that includes plenty of banned books. And a schedule that gives your family lots of time to just be together. The Academy junior high program helps you put family first.

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The Junior High is a place where kids can grow community, gain confidence, and develop a life-long love of learning.

What’s the point of middle school?

We think it’s to gain confidence through honing academic skills and expanding your core knowledge base, to build your community of peers and learn to work with them, and to preserve the love of learning that so many people seem to lose sometime between elementary school and high school. Junior high is a huge transitional time: Kids are changing emotionally, and physically, and what they need to thrive in their learning lives is changing, too: Homeschoolers are ready to venture beyond parent-led learning, and traditionally schooled students may find middle school a challenge to navigate academically and socially. Our junior high is a supportive, inspiring middle school alternative for Atlanta tweens who want to enter high school as happy, confident students.

What do junior high students learn?

The Academy follows a fairly classical liberal arts curriculum with a heavy emphasis on critical thinking, reading, and writing. Like the High School, the Junior High follows a four-year history cycle (Ancient History, European History, U.S. History, and Asian/African History) which focuses closely on a few specific topics. A typical schedule includes: Mathematics (covering fundamentals for middle school math through geometry), Grammar and Writing, History, Literature, Science, Spanish, and an elective. Our classes also focus on study skills: you'll learn how to manage long-term assignments, how to study for a test, how to write a research paper, how to take notes, and other skills that will serve you well in your post-Junior High life.

2023-24 JUNIOR HIGH CLASSES

The junior high meets two days a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This year is our U.S. History/Literature/Chemistry year, and we have some great classes lined up:

  • MATH Math Lab is back for fall, and Jason is ready to guide students from the very beginnings of mathematical understanding to foundational high school level work.

  • HISTORY As usual, we’ll be honing in on two key periods of history and exploring them in depth. This year, our focus is on the history of the United States.

  • LITERATURE Literature links up with history, and students will be exploring historical fiction and some contemporary works.

  • SCIENCE It’s our chemistry year, which means we’ll be focusing on the periodic table and chemical reactions.

  • CRITICAL THINKING One of our core classes, critical thinking aims to give students the skills they need to ask big questions and build their own understanding of the world.

 

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HOW THE JUNIOR HIGH WORKS

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Measuring Outcomes
Measuring Outcomes

We don’t give grades in the junior high.

We believe that grades detract from the joy of learning and distract from the true purpose of learning, which is pretty much never to pass an exam. They create competition where we want to foster camaraderie. They create a situation where teachers are the authorities with all the answers, and it doesn’t matter whether they earn a student’s respect and attention. 

When students are unencumbered by percentages and letter grades, they’re more willing to take risks and try things they’ve never tried before. Learning becomes not a destination but a shared journey that students and instructors take together. Students gain confidence because they’re able to work at their own pace at their own level, moving forward when they are ready and taking more time when they need it.

This doesn’t mean we don’t measure student success. No grades does not mean low expectations — quite the contrary! We strive to draw the very best work from our students, celebrate their successes in and out of the classroom, and guide them toward mastery in every subject we explore together. The goal is to put the emphasis back on learning instead of on testing and to remind students that education is a journey that’s worth taking even without a specific destination in mind.

Homework Policy
Homework Policy

Classes only meet in person twice a week, so homework is part of the homeschool equation at the Academy. Your middle school student will have somewhere between 4 and 8 hours of homework each week, which can be done at any time on the five off-days. It’s often easier for students to spread this work over several days than to do it all in one burst of energy.

Students keep an assignment notebook, and we go over assignments and write them down together at the end of each school day. Students and parents can also visit the website to download copies of each week’s assignments.

We don’t believe in busy work. The purpose of homework is to help students experience academic success and build confidence through independent learning, reinforce the critical concepts taught in the classroom, allow students to build executive function and time management skills they will need in high school, and give teachers an opportunity to assess student understanding. We understand that your student has a life outside of school — and we think that’s a good thing! Homework isn’t a test, and it shouldn’t be stressful — the idea is for students to make a genuine effort to tackle the assignment, not for them to complete assignments perfectly. 

Ultimately, homework builds confidence and teaches students how to learn independently.

Parent Involvement
Parent Involvement

No one knows your child better than you do. That means at the Academy, we believe parents are an important part of the team. We need your input to help us measure our success, and your child needs your support to succeed.

Sometimes, this means helping your student keep up with assignments, follow through on projects, and make time for homework. Sometimes, it means letting them experience the consequences of not doing those things. Both of those pieces are important parts of learning at the Academy.

In addition to semester check-in meetings, parents are invited to stop in, call, or email teachers any time. You’re part of the team! We want to hear what you have to say.

Student Life at the Academy
Student Life at the Academy

These are the years when friendships and social networks become increasingly important to tweens, and we work hard to make community as important as academics at the Academy. Hands-on activities, projects, and presentations give students the opportunity to learn to work together. Students have an extra-long lunch break and breaks for social time throughout the day, and we encourage families to plan field trips and activities.

These are the years when friendships and social networks become increasingly important to tweens, and we work hard to make community as important as academics at the Academy. Hands-on activities, projects, and presentations give students the opportunity to learn to work together. Students have an extra-long lunch break and breaks for social time throughout the day, and we encourage families to plan field trips and activities.

Most of our current extracurricular and social activities—including drama club, prom, yearbook, movie days, etc.—came about through student initiative, so if you have a great idea for an activity, we'll be all in to help you make it a reality. Students enjoy our Friday game days, television series binges, and books clubs, which invite kids to just hang out together.