Middle School

Middle School

A Holistic and Rigorous Curriculum

At The British International School of New York we appreciate that our Middle School students are at a crucial period of personal, social, physical and intellectual development.

 

Our programme continues to successfully blend the creativity and inquiry-based approach of the I.B. with the depth and rigor of the English National Curriculum, complemented by the inclusion of Latin, a vibrant sports program, school plays, debate, choir, and student government, with the overall aim of developing skills through experiential learning and doing.

Learning Through Real-World Connections

This cohesive curriculum is hands-on and is explored through the lens of the global contexts and driven by the approaches to learning “ATL” (Approaches to Learning) skills.

 

Students enthusiastically engage with how these disciplines manifest themselves in the real world, allowing pupils to make meaningful connections in their learning whilst developing critical and reflective thinking skills in the process.

Why Choose Our Middle School?

Challenging Academics

Our Middle School blends the inquiry-driven IB with the academic depth of the English National Curriculum. Students explore subjects in depth while developing critical thinking through real-world, hands-on learning.

Student Voice & Leadership

Through Student Council, Model UN, electives, and school-wide roles, students are empowered to lead, collaborate, and shape their experience—building confidence and communication along the way.

Prepared for the Future

From global contexts and digital skills to public speaking and project-based learning, our students leave Middle School equipped for IGCSE and beyond—curious, capable, and globally minded.

Preparing Students for the Future

We take great pride in the relationships that we foster with our Middle School students, and take great care to introduce approaches to learning to help tackle complex and sensitive issues that the students may be facing at this time. As well as promoting action and service to the local and global community, regular mentor sessions foster positive communication and problem-solving skills to equip our young adults to transition smoothly on to their onward schools.

 

Our exciting annual excursion week promotes international mindedness as well as developing life-long learners outside of the classroom.

 

The academic rigor and breadth of our Middle School curriculum allow our students to navigate towards the next stage of their education, confident, happy and eager to learn.

Subject specialists in Middle School

Depth of study becomes even more important as students move into Middle School as they start to hone their own personal areas of interest. For more information on the approach by subject please explore the links below:

Students take the MYP Design course, which addresses technology in both the digital and product design perspectives. With a client or audience in mind, students learn and follow the design cycle that enables them to build on the skills and concepts they have already learned before prototyping and creating their final solutions. Students document their work using Google Suite and use this and other programmes to start developing digital skills such as graphic design, video creation, text coding (Python), robotics and even electrical engineering.

In our Middle School students begin to focus more explicitly on grammar. Our program follows Pearson courses, with Studio for French and Viva for Spanish which help students to stretch themselves across the curriculum and consolidate learning. 

 

At the end of each unit students undertake a summative assessment on 2 key skills helping to chart progress and identify opportunities for growth. 

In the Middle School, our Music curriculum, provides students with the opportunity to engage deeply with a range of music genres and topics within the art form. Through composing, performing and active listening, students practice honing the skills necessary to be well-rounded musicians and young composers. The course content is intentionally designed to enable students to pursue perform on their instruments and to pursue higher level music courses at the IGCSE and A-level.

Drama in the Middle School emphasises the importance of students working as artists to create their own original work both independently and collaboratively. Consequently, there is an equal emphasis on the importance of a quality creative process and on the importance of the final product. Students are encouraged to experiment with new ideas, justify their choices and work collaboratively to apply their knowledge.

In our Middle School, sports and P.E. are a critical part of skill building and enjoying the camaraderie that goes with playing and competing with friends and other schools. We are very proud of our partnerships with leading sporting facilities across the city, including Asphalt Green where the students swim and enjoy their indoor sports in the colder months and Basketball City. The nearby East River Fields provide an excellent resource for field games and athletics in the warmer months. In addition to the core lessons around P.E. and a healthy lifestyle we are delighted to offer a variety of team sports and clubs.

In the Middle School we start to prepare students for the IGCSE courses. Students become confident as literary critics and are able to handle a wide range of challenging texts. Reading, writing, speaking and listening skills are also developed throughout the program as are study skills such as note-taking and the features of a successful literary essay. By the end of Middle School students are able to recognize different audiences, texts forms and purposes, and to tailor their own writing to suit these.

 

In each year of Middle School, students have the opportunity to study a novel, poetry, a play, and non-fiction texts such as journalistic texts. Students explore British and American classics such as  ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ as well as key genres, such as Dystopian Fiction and War Poetry. 

In Middle School, students dive deeply into projects that explore concepts such as identity, abstraction and historical influence which challenge them to push their creative capacities beyond what is expected.

 

Teachers create projects and experiences that link with units of inquiry, to help students develop a deeper context to the content they are learning and an understanding of how the arts can be used as an avenue to communicate their opinions and knowledge of the world.

Through the teaching and exploration of research techniques looking at source, value and cross reference and the use of primary and secondary resources, students build a skill set that allows them to access information with perspective that will serve them far beyond their Middle School years. In Individuals and Societies, the combination of content, concepts and skills taught create a well-rounded, engaging and lasting curriculum for students.

Students are encouraged by meaningful examples to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.

Mathematics is taught through a combination of inquiry based investigations and standard skills-based learning. Students focus on both the fundamentals of learning Mathematics and the more practical uses it has in the real world.

Beyond the classroom

Middle School students are offered a variety of opportunities to enrich their studies and develop their interests and skills outside of the classroom. 

The Student Voice gives Middle School students the opportunity to be involved in school decision making and have an impact on the development of our offering. It is also an effective way to offer and encourage positions of leadership across the students.

Despite having opportunities to develop their leadership through the school council, buddy reading and other positions in the lower school, once in Year 6 the students are able to start putting themselves forward for the more significant school wide positions of School, Deputy and House Captains. These prestigious roles play an important part in putting students at the centre of school life, as well as developing so many positive leadership qualities in the students.

Debate clubs and teams provide students with a new opportunity to develop their research and public speaking skills, and their ability to construct a meaningful argument.

Electives

The British International School of New York offers an Elective programme to all MYP students. Designed to promote deeper intellectual understanding, students may choose new areas of interest or immerse themselves further in a particular area of study.

 

The program includes opportunities for interdisciplinary and in-depth work across a range of fields with the aim of giving students a chance to opt in to a variety of creative, scientific, literary and cultural courses within the school year.

 

The electives offered vary year on year. Please enjoy an overview of the electives currently on offer below:

What would happen if the Moon disappeared?  What is dark matter? How did we discover what’s inside the Sun? How do stars live and die?  What happens when galaxies collide? What happened before time? If you’re interested in any of these questions, you might like to come along to Astronomy, and learn a little bit more about our place in the Universe… 
 
•    Structure and scale of the universe
•    The Earth in Space 
•    The Solar System
•    Starlight
•    Life Cycle of Stars
•    The Expanding Universe
•    Space exploration
•    Astronomical observation

Discover your passion for Chinese, right here at BIS-NY! 

 

Together we will learn the fundamentals of Mandarin Chinese, and gain insight into the vastness of Chinese culture. Students will achieve practical language skills, and will study the first 100 Chinese characters (汉字). Students will gain a strong foundational understanding of Chinese language, and explore the rich traditions, legends, and celebrations found in Chinese culture. Reading, listening, speaking and writing are key elements of this course. 

 

Students will also be able to add to the curriculum, by sharing topics that they wish to study in Chinese. Although some elements of Mandarin Chinese are certainly difficult, the language’s logical sentence structure and simple basic grammatical rules make it a fun challenge, so don’t be afraid! If you are willing to have fun, try your best, and approach a challenge with enthusiasm, then this course is right for you!

The COBIS Science Film Festival is a an exciting global competition that encourages students to be creative with science across multiple key stages. In this course, students will explore (solo or in pairs) a topic in science or through the interdisciplinary lens of STEAM that they are motivated by. Through documenting their methods and findings using technology, students create a short film for entry to the Film Festival in London in 2020 and may receive awards for best film of an experiment or best engineering. 

Ever wanted to write a novel of your own? Or do you have a passion for poetry? Then the creative writing elective is for you! These sessions will be about students learning the elements that create good stories and techniques to boost their written eloquence whilst giving them the freedom to explore different types of written expression. Together students will be considering everything from finding ideas for writing to exploring different forms and even playing with the fundamentals of language like word selection and sentence structure. Come along and see what you can create.

Ever wondered how your favourite athlete  became so good, or  how you could improve your own skills or how technology can enhance performance, or you just really like physical activities and want to do something new and interesting, then this is the course for you. 
 
The Sports Science elective will study how the human body works during exercise, how sport and physical activity promote health and performance, how technology can be used to enhance performance,  how mental performance can limit physical performance, how nutrition is key to elite performers and how your favorite athletes continue to succeed.  We will explore all of these aspects through both theory based and practical activities, so get ready to compete in interesting challenges as we work through the sports science elective. 

The Percussion Class is designed to teach percussion to all ages at BISNY in a fun, collaborative and active setting. The younger years will learn through Call and Response games and activities and bridge the gap from their general music class to Percussion specific techniques.
 
The students will learn proper snare drum technique, reading and counting rhythms, music theory and rudiments. 
 
As the years increase in age, we will dig deeper into rhythm counting, advanced rudiments, etudes and percussion ensemble pieces for all instruments including xylophone, auxiliary percussion and timpani. We will also prepare for the ABRSM exam by following the necessary requirements throughout the year. 

In each year of Middle School, students have the opportunity to study a novel, poetry, a play, and non-fiction texts such as journalistic texts. Students explore British and American classics such as  ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ as well as key genres, such as Dystopian Fiction and War Poetry. 

This class will research, study, reflect upon, discuss and debate the idea of citizenship. (local/global) The goal being awareness of the role of a citizen. 

 

Ancient Athenian and Roman Citizenship will be used as a source of inspiration and ideas which are timeless and useful in upgrading our democracy. 

 

The Class will collectively create a document stating the rights and responsibilities of a modern democratic citizen. 

Do you want to be a world leader? Have you ever wondered how the U.N. responds to some of the world’s most challenging situations? The Model United Nations (M.U.N) is a simulation of U.N. debates, in which you will role play as delegates from different countries around the world. In this elective you will learn various skills such as: public speaking, negotiating, diplomacy, researching, writing and you will even get to go to a M.U.N. conference. So join us in making the world a better place. 

In the textile elective, students will be learning to manipulate different textiles, using hand sewing and machine sewing techniques. Students will be working on projects suited to their level of experience and existing knowledge. Beginners will learn to thread a sewing machine, they will learn basic safety and will complete a pillow or a similar project– from pattern creation to finishing touches. Students with more experience will be selecting patterns and sewing an article of clothing appropriate for their skill leaving. In the process, they will learn to read patterns and basic garment completion. In addition to sewing, students will learn how to select fabrics for different projects and depending on schedule, we may take a field trip to the fashion district.

Problem solving at its peak. The importance of attention to detail in forensic science, including the application of the scientific process and how this is used as evidence in courtrooms. Through virtual and hands-on labs, and analysis of fictional crime scenarios, students learn about forensic tools, technical resources, forming and testing hypotheses, proper data collection, and responsible conclusions. 

Extracurricular Activities

Students at BIS-NY enjoy a wide range of extracurricular activities, including competitive sports, creative clubs, and after-school programs that support personal growth and teamwork.

School Choir

Chess

Basketball

Swimming

Track & field

Soccer

The Student Voice

The goal of Student Council is to give MYP students representation in decision making within the MYP, and to have a direct impact on the development and improvement of the program, whilst developing experience of leadership.

Led by the School and Deputy Captains, Student Council nomination is open to all students and representatives from each mentor group are elected by a student vote. Student Council meets with the MYP Head, to discuss and develop possible solutions to pertinent student issues. Student Council representatives are active in gathering feedback and ideas from their peers to bring to the council, and feeding back to the MYP student body on matters discussed and actions to be taken.

 

Student voice and leadership is developed further through a range of other student leadership positions, such as Language Leaders, Digital Ambassadors and The Green Team.

Middle School Services

Subject-Specialist Teaching

Design & Digital Skills

Mentor & Wellbeing Sessions

Annual Excursion Week

Skill-Based Assessments

Creative Electives & Clubs

Debate & Public Speaking

Admissions & Application Info

To find out more about availability or the application process, we welcome you to get in touch so we can answer your questions about the school.
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