Middle School
Middle School Academic Curriculum System
MSA’s Middle School consists of grades 6-8. The curriculum system of the Middle School is based on the new curriculum standards of China’s compulsory education and also refers to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), IB Curriculum System and the American Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
The Curriculum in Middle School
The curriculum system of Middle School is based on China's Compulsory Education Curriculum Standards (2022), referred to the Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards and the IB Program Standards and Practices -- MYP.
Middle School as an important stage between the Primary and High school, pays attention to cultivate learners' competency, learning skills and learning habits beside the knowledge. In order to support learners’ individualized development, Middle School implements a Flexible Course Selection System based on learners' knowledge base and learning ability. The courses are mainly divided into subject courses, learning ability courses and project courses.
Subject Courses: There are 12 regular subjects, including Chinese, Mathematics, English, Law and Moral Education, History, Geography, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Music, Fine Arts and Physical Education. The set of Bilingual teaching is according to the subject characteristics, course content and further studies, is about 50% in Chinese and 50% in English. Bilingual courses can meet learners' needs for diversified choices in the future.
Learning Ability Course: The main purpose of learning ability course is to guide learners to understand their own learning characteristics, find suitable learning methods and develop good learning habits. Scientific cognition of learning is the main teaching content of learning ability course. At the same time, combined with habit training, learners can help improve their learning ability scientifically and effectively. Learning ability courses help learners improve their overall learning outcomes.
Project Courses: Project courses are divided into Interdisciplinary Projects and Advanced Projects. Interdisciplinary Projects break disciplinary boundaries and enhance learners' ability to think, innovate and solve problems comprehensively. Advanced Projects support learners’ deep learning of the advantage subjects. In the study of middle school, we cultivate learners' competency and learning skills through scientific teaching activities and evaluation system design.
Bilingual Education
Behind language is a set of behavioral, thinking, and social patterns. The charm and function of bilingual education lies in giving learners another possibility to understand the world and themselves. Moreover, long-term follow-up studies have shown that bilingual learners perform better than non-bilingual learners in many aspects such as standardized test scores, cognitive flexibility, concentration, multitasking ability, creativity, and so on.
The 12-year immersion bilingual teaching model of MSA integrates content and language. Learners learn the concepts, content and skills of the subject as well as developing language skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing and application. The school supports learners to naturally and solidly grasp the application of two languages in both life and academic situations, and to understand the Chinese and Western cultures behind these two languages.
Our goal is to enable middle school learners to seamlessly connect to high school at home and to abroad when they graduate, and to seamlessly connect to the language level of top overseas universities when they graduate from high school. Competency-based education enables learners to understand the essence of Chinese and Western cultures and thoughts, and to find their own Chinese identity in a multicultural and multi-value-oriented community background.
Proportion of Bilingual Teaching
Under the guidance of the seven bilingual course setting standards of the authoritative Center for Applied Linguistics in the United States, the ratio of bilingual teaching time of MSA is set in a U-shaped curve, which also follows the principle of balanced development of Chinese and English bilinguals, and is combined with the acquisition rules of different age groups for the two languages, language learning environment, as well as the graduation destinations.
Bilingual Community Environment
Providing learners with a diverse, cross-cultural, and highly inclusive immersive bilingual community is an essential element in creating a high-quality bilingual education program. Not only can bilingual communities increase the exposure of acquired languages outside the classroom through increased opportunities to use languages, but they can also create different learning scenarios for students to develop unique behavioral, thinking, and social patterns through language acquisition.
When we design a bilingual teaching model, what we consider the most is not how many English classes, Chinese classes, or how many foreign teachers we have, but with a hope that learners can participate in a global system as much as possible, so that language can go beyond the language itself and become a true lifelong partner.
In addition to implementing a scientific-based and rigorous bilingual teaching model, our approach to creating an immersive bilingual community environment also includes exploring bilingual community service opportunities in the Beijing area and opening up long-term international exchanges. Thus, we provide enriching channels for learners to contact and serve the world through both languages. We support families through school to home communication and parent classes, in order to boost parent understanding of bilingual development and learning processes.
Teaching Team of the Middle School
After entering Middle School, learners will experience a leap in difficulty in both academic courses and accompanying interdisciplinary programs. At the same time, they are surrounded by a group of educators who are eager to encourage learners to constantly break through barriers and meet more challenges. These educators have passion for education, show enthusiasm and are constantly learning new teaching strategies.
The teaching team of Middle School graduated from well-known domestic and foreign universities such as Harvard University, Peking University, Brown University, University College London, Yale University, and the Art Institute of Chicago. More than half of them have a master's degree or above.
Development Guidance of the Middle School
The core design idea for development guidance system of Middle School is to continuously provide learners with opportunities for reflection and appropriate action-taking in various scenarios.
Mentoring System
The origin of the mentoring system can be traced back to ancient Greece, and it is now popularized in many universities in Europe and the United States. The relationship between mentors and learners is not limited to subject teaching, but is more of a friendship of mutual trust and support.
In the development guidance system of the Middle School, mentors play a vital role. We match each Middle School learner with a mentor who will be the learner's most trusted teacher at school and provide direct support for the learner's all-round development.
Student Development Framework
We conduct the development guidance of Middle School learners mainly through the following four major categories: academics, activities, social-emotional development, further education and future planning. The specific subdivided scenarios are as follows:
Academics: regular courses, study clubs, subject competitions
Activities: community activities, subject-specific activities, research activities, house competitions
Social Emotional Development: mentoring program, classroom, student counseling center
Further education and future planning: mentoring program, classroom, college counseling center
Mental Health
The Mental Health Center of the Middle School will regularly assess the mental health of learners and conduct data analysis to provide sufficient psychological support for various scenarios such as academic projects, extracurricular activities, and community life.
The Mental Health Center not only provides professional psychological counseling for individual learners but also conducts timely psychological intervention for student crisis situations. It will also carry out group psychological counseling courses for all learners, guide teachers and parents to understand the psychology of learners, and cooperate with various parties to provide more scientific and personalized psychological support for teenagers.
Development Guidance Team of the Secondary School
We want learners to benefit greatly from meaningful relationships, whether with themselves, with others, or with the world.
The Development Guidance team of the secondary school is the bridge in this relationship. They use the roles of coaches, mentors, counselors, and mental health teachers to build a growing relationship with learners beyond teaching.
Experiential Learning Projects in the Middle School
Experiential learning projects are learning experiences outside the curriculum for middle schoolers. Like a bridge, these projects connect school with society, thinking with action, and knowledge with experience for Moonshot learners.
Off Campus Learning
We advocate experiential learning projects that allow learners to leave the school campus and enter the real-world. By connecting with real problems in society and people from near and far, learners can understand and experience multiculturalism and build a sense of global citizenship which allows reflection and action-taking toward each individual's social and environmental responsibilities.
Solving Real-World Problems
Learners will travel to various places and interact with groups of different identities to solve real-world problems. External experts and mentors also facilitate learning through projects and research in a variety of fields such as art and humanities, media influence, science and technology, architectural planning, social welfare, and sustainable development.
Experiential learning integrates three important components of project-based learning- first, investigagtive research phase, second, experience phase, and third, reflection stage. Three of research, experience, and reflection, and cooperates with high-quality social resources for project research and development.
After-School Programs in the Middle School
Growth of learners does not just happen in classrooms and with books, it also happens at a heritage museum exhibit, at a varsity baseball game, and in preparation for a community public lecture...growth is everywhere.
After-school Clubs
In Middle School, in addition to providing students with sports, art, science, social and cultural clubs, we also support learners to create and operate clubs spontaneously. The school will provide support in resources, venues, operation management, etc.
International Tennis Academy
International Tennis Academy (ITA) is a special sports training program of MSA. Adhering to the concept of integrating sports and education, we expect tennis to bring students health in both body and sportsmanship.
ITA implements layered teaching, and recruits students of different ages and foundations. We also welcome learners who have no tennis foundation but would love tennis to join ITA.
Training System
The training system of ITA consists of three parts: tennis skill training, physical fitness training and sportsmanship.
We will guide learners to continuously improve their tennis skills such as ball control, volley and pace, and continuously improve their physical fitness in terms of resistance, speed, agility, basic strength and endurance while focusing on developing the sportsmanship they gain from tennis, such as perseverence and a friendly, competitive spirit.
Training Mode
According to the learner's age group, tennis skill level and future development direction, we have designed personalized layered training:
1st grade: 2 tennis lessons + 1 strength class per week
2nd grade: 3 tennis lessons + 1 strength class per week
3rd grade and above: choose "3 + 1 program" or "5 + 2 program" according to individual need
Awards
2022 the 16th Beijing Games Tennis Youth Competition Group: 3rd place in singles, 3rd place in doubles, and 1st place in teams;
2022 Beijing Youth Championship Tennis Men's Group C: 3rd place in singles, 5th place in doubles, and 1st place in teams;
2022 the 3rd Financial Street Cup UTR Youth Tennis Certification Tournament U14: men's champion;
2022 UTR Olympic Forest Park Flying Cup Youth Tennis Certification Tournament U14: men’s champion;
2022 Heilongjiang Provincial Games: men's doubles champion;
2022 Heilongjiang Provincial Games: 6th place in men's singles;
2022 Youtuo Cup Youth International Tennis Points Tournament: runner up;
2021 Tsinghua Cup and Beijing International School Youth International Tennis Open U10: men's singles runner-up;
2021 Heilongjiang Running Youth Cup Tennis Tournament: 5th place in men’s singles;
2021 National Open Cup Tennis Open U12: men's champion;
2021 Diamond Cup Junior Tennis Challenge U12: champion of finals, champion of one weekly tournament, runner-up of two weekly tournaments;
2020 Zheng Jie Cup U12: Final Four;
2020 China Open Youth Tournament U11: champion;
Tennis 123: champion and runner-up in different levels;
China Tennis Association Nike National Youth Ranking Tournament Shenzhen Guangming Station U12: men's singles champion;
Discovery Cup Tennis Open U12: men's singles champion;
China Open Youth Tournament U14 Fuzhou station: singles champion;
China Open Youth Tournament U14 Fuzhou station: singles and doubles champion;
China Open Youth Tournament U14 Shanghai station: singles champion;
China Open Youth Tournament U14 Shanghai station: singles runner-up;
China CITIC Bank Youth Tennis Tournament (Beijing Station) U12: men's singles champion;
China CITIC Bank Youth Tennis Tournament (Beijing Station) U12: men's singles runner-up;
Selected into the National Youth Tennis Team;
World Youth Tennis Tour sixth station U11: champion;
World Junior Games UWG: team champion;
To be continued...
Coaching Team
The coaching team is composed of 10 senior coaches in the tennis field, including Chinesenational first-level athletes, Chinese national first-level referees, former Croatian national youth team coaches and former Croatian national team athletes.
These coaches also have an identity as educators. Not only will they teach children tennis skills, but, more importantly, they will pass on sportsmanship to win games on the inner court- the heart.