Academic Life

Middle School Learning Environment

The Avenues Middle School will occupy the seventh and eighth floors of Avenues’ flagship Chelsea campus. The floors are connected by an internal stairway adjacent to common areas that allow the entire Middle School to be together as a self-contained unit. Outside of this area, Middle School students will have access to the indoor gym facility, as well as a weight room and locker rooms. On a regular basis, Middle School students will travel to Chelsea Piers for physical education and inter-school competition.

Art studio

Beginning in Middle School, Avenues students will benefit from increased flexibility and variety during their school day. Reflecting this, students will spend time in “learning studios,” large, open areas containing student workstations, personalized storage areas and “soft” areas for relaxed, independent study. Middle School students will learn independent work habits in these spaces. The technology-rich studio environment will support traditional instructional needs with a range of learning opportunities, including self-directed, independent or team project-based activities and one-on-one mentoring—all within a continuous space. Workstations distributed throughout the studios allow teachers to assist in individual and team research efforts. By structuring their own work for a portion of the day, students are better equipped with the skills and resourcefulness to succeed in Upper School and college.

The interdisciplinary science studio is a suite of lecture and lab spaces tailored to reflect each element of the science education process and to ensure that valuable lab space is used with optimum efficiency. As in the learning studios, students in the science studio will cycle through a series of purpose-built spaces within a science class, splitting their time among direct instruction, research/analysis, simulation, experimentation and the reporting of their findings.

Beginning in the seventh grade, students will have the opportunity to expand their learning environment outside of New York and the United States. During Avenues Summers, students will have the chance to enrich their classroom learning with “on-the-ground” instruction in a foreign language and academic content that is age-appropriate and relevant to their current interests.