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Middle School

Welcome! We’re so glad you’re exploring SF Day's Middle School.

I am Aneesha Srikar and I serve as the Division Head for our Middle School program. SF Day has been my professional home since 2013 when I started as a teaching fellow, and I am thrilled to be leading the Middle School. Our Middle School spans grades 6-8, with about 55 students per grade. Instead of classrooms, our Middle Schoolers are introduced to a high-school style schedule of homeroom and subject-specific classrooms. 

At SF Day, we believe that education works best when students’ hearts and minds are invested in their learning. Our Middle School program supports the developmental milestones of our students by creating an inclusive community in which they can develop their sense of belonging, achievement, and authenticity as they transform into competent and confident learners prepared for high school and the world ahead of them. 

SF Day strives for excellence through our rigorous academic program, while also investing in our students’ passions through robust arts, innovation, and athletics programs. We foster a sense of belonging, community, and connection through programs including: daily advisory, affinity circles, interest clubs, and mixed-grade electives. Students’ schedules are structured so that they spend their day in core academic subjects, specials, and advisory with different peers so they have a chance to connect and learn with a wide-variety of learners and perspectives  throughout their day. 

 Our Middle School teachers shift from leaders to guides accompanying middle schoolers through their transformation and development as they take developmentally-appropriate risks, grow into advocates, explore their curiosities, collaborate with others, support each other through inevitable challenges, and celebrate everyone’s successes.

I can’t wait for you to learn more about SF Day and look forward to meeting you on campus!

Aneesha Srikar

Head of the Middle School

Our School Life Handbook

First page of the PDF file: SFDaySchoolLifeBooklet-RevisedCover8-29

Our Curriculum Guide

First page of the PDF file: SFD-001_Section2_Curriculum_handbook_8-29-24v2_digital

Why Coed?

Our school was founded on the principles of co-education, and we continue to champion gender inclusivity and the benefits of a co-educational program. Every day, we provide a highly intentional, inclusive, mixed-gender educational program that thoughtfully serves all learners. We recognize students as individual learners who each have unique personalities, dispositions, interests, and orientations, and we do not label children according to gender stereotypes.

What are the benefits of a co-educational school? A look around San Francisco will show you one obvious reason: the world around us is co-ed. By educating children in a setting that represents the world around them, they are prepared to be active participants in their communities. In addition, co-education:

  • Promotes our school’s value of inclusion

  • Demonstrates that leaders can come in all forms

  • Teaches students to notice, examine, and disrupt gender-stereotyping of all kinds, including fixed gender roles

  • Models positive and productive relationships across genders  

We believe students thrive when introduced to a diversity of representation, which in turn allows them to express their individual identities.  

Listen to our SF Day podcast featuring Head of School Dr. Racheal Adriko!

Middle School Signature Programs

 

Innovation, Design & Passion (IDP)

This program ignites student passion and empowers student agency through an increasingly personalized and student-centered learning experience. Beginning in 6th grade, students will develop research skills and learn to manage complex projects inspired by real-world events and experiences. By 7th grade, students begin exploring their own interests investigating more abstract systems. By 8th grade, they set and work toward their own meaningful goals. Most significantly, students will build community and belonging by discovering shared interests, passion, and purpose by identifying a topic of interest and articulating their own personally set learning goals. They conduct research and develop a detailed project plan with interim goals/milestones culminating in a show case.

 

Music & Performance

Just as the visual arts has been a core part of SF Day’s programming, every student at SF Day learns to play an instrument, aligned with our belief that musical literacy and appreciation is core to a well balanced graduate. Music is an important part of the fabric of SF Day culture. Teachers and students provide joyful musical experiences that bring the school community together, including two all-school concerts which showcases their team work, collaboration, and sense of community.

 

Community, Culture & Engagement

SF Day was, and remains, a pioneer in intentional incorporation of identity into the K-8 curriculum, not just in what we teach but how we teach it. Celebrating identity and community happens every day in the classroom and at special moments throughout the week – affinity groups in the Lower School and Middle School and Middle School – and year – like our Community Engagement Days. The school is constantly evolving our programming in and out of the classroom to ensure that we remain relevant and responsible to our students, so they can meet the world that they live in with openness, compassion and an abiding interest in the stories of other people.

Engaging Math Curriculum

SF Day doesn’t teach math: we teach mathematicians. We help students understand early and often that getting the right answer is just as important as asking the right questions and justifying your thinking. With two dedicated K-8 Math Coaches, our goal is to prepare students with the confidence and competence to speak the language of math and be flexible and resourceful thinkers that can apply skills and knowledge across complex problems. Our students are avid mathematicians who often participate in state and national competitions, including MathCounts and AMC8.

Middle School by Grade

6th grade math students solve problems using patterns, drawing diagrams, and organizing data in tables. Science is all about getting to know our dynamic and amazing Earth, where students explore all phases and facets of our world, including geology, oceanography and marine sciences, and weather and atmosphere. In English, students explore themes of identity and voice. Both English and Social Studies culminate in the Changemakers exhibition, where students use their voice to research, write, and present on injustices. And in the first year Latin is offered, students are introduced to Latin basics through a story based on an actual household in Pompeii just prior to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

 

7th graders explore foundation concepts about force, motion, and energy in science, and engage in the engineering design process. Math delves into key concepts to build strong proportional reasoning. Students learn about the major world religions, their core beliefs, and the historical context for each religion. 7th graders recognize the humanity of others through active reading and writing, observation, analysis, creative expression, communication, and critical thinking. In Spanish, students explore various aspects of life in the Spanish-speaking world through short stories and cultural readings. In Latin, students are introduced to vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.

 

8th grade scientists work as chemical engineers tasked with developing biodegradable plastic alternatives. In math, 8th graders will dive into Algebra I, strengthening their problem-solving skills as they explore functions, multi-variable equations, systems of equations, exponent rules, radicals, and polynomials. English students evaluate memoir in tandem with personal history and place an emphasis on critical thinking and independent choice. Social Studies students engage deeply with the world around them to develop their perspectives on democracy, governance, and social movements. 8th graders continue the development of essential Spanish skills, and in 8th grade Latin, students are introduced to vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure through a story based in Alexandria during the 1st century AD.