Queens Paideia’s Middle School program continues the Paideia Individualized Education format established in the K-5 years, with its 6:1 student-teacher ratio and forward-thinking approaches to curriculum and learning. By keeping our focus on the individual student, we prepare him or her for success in high school, college and beyond.
Most schools define achievement and success in terms of grades, test scores, and knowledge of facts, but Queens Paideia defines it more broadly, in a way that maintains curiosity and fosters self-motivated learning. It is an approach that gives our students the skills and tools to achieve success in all realms of life, make good decisions, create and maintain enriching relationships, and accomplish what they set out to do.
Queens Paideia School’s middle school program targets both the academic and nonacademic realms. Going beyond what is typically offered in most other middle (or early secondary) schools, our rigorous academic curriculum of English, mathematics, social studies, and the sciences is supplemented with Spanish, fine art, movement education, and a yearlong survey course in Belief Systems. In the non-academic areas, QPS Learning Managers offer coaching and feedback that guide students toward honing their social and self-management skills—responsibility, discipline, organization, focus, pride in accomplishment, and study habits—all of which are preconditions for success in any life endeavor.
Our small-school environment simulates key features of the social and work environments our students will encounter in their adult lives—at jobs, in families, and within communities. They experience mixed-age groups, typical relationship issues, peer cohorts, and supportive relationships in which they are sometimes the mentor and sometimes the mentee. It is through these kinds of situations that students can learn to create and maintain relationships, commit to and achieve goals, collaborate with others, resolve conflicts in peaceful and constructive ways, and ultimately lead productive and satisfying lives.