Northern Middle School
“We ought to do all that we can to live in conformity with the highest that is within us; for even if it is small in quantity, in power and preciousness, it far excels the rest.” ~Aristotle

“The divine is beauty, wisdom, goodness, and the like; and by these the wing of the soul is nourished, and grows apace.” ~Socrates

We are building a one-of-a-kind educational model that places student investment, maturity, and ownership at the center of learning—where we guide the early steps of our students’ journey through classical inquiry and rhetoric, timeless art forms, and nature study.

Student Investment & Lovers of Learning

Lovers of learning are characterized by two key traits: They care and they succeed. When students care deeply about their studies, success will soon follow. In this way, we want students who know how to invest their hearts into their studies and who love learning. At Northern Academy middle school, we rely on student investment, especially through our original programming centered on course menus, track-focused studies, and weekly deep dives.

In terms of caring, what Confucius taught in his Analects thousands of years ago is still as true today: “If a person can recite three hundred poems but is incapable of performing an entrusted official duty and exercising one’s initiative when sent abroad, what good are the many poems to that person?”

ONE Community

At Northern Academy, we strive to build a rich community and culture, one where tradition and harmony drive our programming. Through daily student assemblies, student-driven initiatives, course menus, and age-mixed classes, we emphasize an environment where we study as one community of individuals. Further, we hold that the greatest student growth takes place when students push each other to greater intellectual heights. Notably in our grade-mixed classes (which students have self selected into), we allow advanced students to push ahead, and slower paced students to catch up. In this way, our advanced 6th-grade students can measure and push themselves according to advanced 8th graders, while students of the highest character can set an example of conduct that transcends biological age.

Fina Arts Students

Classical Studies and the Trivium

A classical education focuses on two key aspects: 1) rich, timeless materials and 2) the development of our students' inner worlds toward goodness and decency. At the center of our classical studies is a focus on the intellectual core of reading, writing, thinking, and speaking—the marks of highly cultivated people. All Northern Academy middle school students gain practice throughout the year in the classical studies of literature, history, science, and arithmetic, as well as specialized classes in the Trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Co-curricular Lessons & Naturalist Studies

While our middle school mornings are filled with academic lessons, our afternoons are marked by additional studies that emphasize life skills, well-being, track studies, electives, and naturalist studies. Some of our afternoon subjects include etiquette, health, Science Olympiad, Odyssey of the Mind, arts and crafts, drama, poetry tea-time, creative writing, keyboarding, Chinese, Spanish, dance, and music. On Friday afternoons, our academic-track students participate in a naturalist studies program where we go on weekly hikes throughout the Hudson Valley, or learn survivalist skills such as fire-making, tracking, knot tying, and foraging.

Low Tech, Low Distractions

Our main lessons are taught without an emphasis on digital devices. This approach helps us focus on high-cognitive learning, as well as keep distractions at a minimum. While our teachers can use student computers when they need them for particular lessons, we keep our students focused on pure learning through books, paper, pencils, note-taking, and presentations.

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Our mission is to nurture students to become cultured individuals of exemplary moral character. To this end, we provide an education drawn from the classics and the arts, one steeped in divinely inspired traditional values of the East and West.

We are accredited by the Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Institutions of the Middle States Association.