Middle schoolers enjoy a wide variety of activities, extra-curriculars, co-curriculars, special events, and traditions. Students attend plays, musical performances and dance programs in conjunction with classroom work.

Advisory Groups


The Middle School advisor is an adult advocate with the opportunity and responsibility to know and support individual students. The advisory is a small, often close-knit grade-level group in which each student has automatic membership. Belonging to groups and having a comfortable place to “decompress” are developmentally important for early adolescents. All middle schoolers meet with their faculty advisor and fellow advisees during Homebase at 8:25 a.m. each day and then again at least once a week for a full-period advisory meeting. Advisory groups focus on issues that relate to students in their roles as people, as learners, and as members of the community with the ultimate goal being for students to understand themselves better in each of these roles. Throughout the year, students will explore topics as varied as developing personal goals, celebrating accomplishments within and outside school, and examining what factors enhance (and interfere with) their learning.

The advisory group is intended to offer students a safe, supportive forum for dealing with issues of significance to them. Advisors are there to provide advisees with an attentive ear, caring support, and sound advice throughout the year. Similarly, Community Building Groups (an offshoot of the advisory system) are cross-grade level groupings of students who meet throughout the year under the guidance of advisors to have fun, get to know students at different grade levels, and to perform service activities for both the Lake Ridge and wider communities.

Aims of the Middle School advisory program:
(1) Create opportunities for students to discover what is unique about themselves and about others so that they might come to better appreciate, respect, and make the most of the many differences among people.

(2) Help students understand themselves better as learners and, thereby, to cope better with academic concerns and to set goals toward a satisfying and engaging year. Understanding oneself as a learner also has payoffs outside of the classroom – benefits which we would like to accrue to each of our students.

(3) Create meaningful opportunities to students to contribute to Lake Ridge Academy and the community – as well as to celebrate those contributions.

(4) Promote critical thinking and the making of responsible choices through discussion, problem posing and problem solving.

(5) Develop a variety of skills which enhance effective communication (and lead students, in the words of Stephen Covey, to “seek first to understand, then to be understood”).

(6) Create meaningful opportunities for students to engage in shared decision making in ways that: build self-esteem, increase students’ acceptance of responsibility for their own actions, and cultivate personal integrity.

(7) Use group dynamics to cultivate healthy, positive relationships.

Holiday Project

In their advisory groups, students “adopt” families in need from Lorain County, shopping for holiday items, wrapping the gifts, and making personalized cards for the families. Student council members then deliver these gifts to the Three Kings Celebration for distribution in early January.

Middle School Community Building Days


During the first weeks of school, the entire Middle School (faculty and students) spend time together outside the classroom getting to know, respect, trust, and enjoy each other. Students have an opportunity at the very beginning of the year to work with a variety of Middle School classmates (in various grade levels) along with many Middle School teachers. To create and maintain a Middle School in which we take pride require hard work. Community building lays the groundwork for our working together and for cultivating an atmosphere of mutual respect in which we appreciate the special gifts each member of the Middle School has to share.

Annual Canoe Trip

As a celebration of the end of summer and the beginning of the new school year, the entire Middle School loads buses and trundles off to Camp Hi Canoe in Hiram, Ohio for a day trip down the Upper Cuyahoga River. Paired with a student from another grade level, students enjoy the beautiful early fall scenery while collaborating with a new friend to work their way through the seven-mile course. By the end of this trip, students know another student at another grade level just a bit better. This dovetails with our efforts throughout the year to connect students across grade levels so as to broaden their perspectives and enrich their friendships.

After-school Care Program


This program offers supervised time for those middle schoolers who remain on campus beyond 3:40 p.m.

Arts Performances (see also Fine Arts)

Middle School Musical
In alternate years, the entire Middle School student body participates in the Middle School musical either on stage, or behind the scenes as a member of stage crew, as a musician, or in producing programs. Scheduled during the first trimester it is a community-building event which brings all middle schoolers and their teachers together in working toward a common goal.

Winterfest
This mid-January, café-style celebration of the arts involves middle schoolers in choral, instrumental and dramatic performances along with a display and sharing of the visual and language arts. Winterfest is done during alternate years from the musical.

Instrumental Ensemble and General Music
Students may choose between Instrumental Ensemble and General Music as a fulfillment of their music requirement. The instrumental program is open to all students who have played or are currently playing either privately or in a group setting. The general music program is open to all students. Both programs involve performances in the winter and spring for parents and friends.

Offerings in the Arts


During the fourth quarter, middle schoolers have the opportunity to select an arts course which is of particular interest to them. Each course is designed to give special focus to the imaginations and creative impulses of our students. Past offerings have included photography, wood sculpture, watercolor painting, handbell playing, desktop publishing, video production, voice, theatre/dramatic performance, drawing, and dance.

Eighth Grade Speeches


Over the course of several months, eighth graders work through the process of writing a speech in language arts class. From mid-winter, the eighth graders present their speeches before the Middle School in Bettcher Convocation Center.

Independent Work Time

Three to four times during a six-day class cycle, students have the opportunity to engage in Independent Work Time. The purpose of IWT is two-fold:

(1) To give students an opportunity to touch base with their teachers (and their teachers with them) regarding course work outside the regular class meeting time.

(2) To give students an opportunity to engage in daily assignments and course projects with ready access to needed resources in the form of teachers, library materials, other students, tutors, software and hardware.

Information Exchange


Each Monday (or the first day of the school week), students and faculty gather just before lunch for general announcements as well as an exchange of information concerning special events, schedule changes, field trips, student council information, and the like. This weekly orientation is led by eighth graders.

Cedar Point Trip


In the spring, the entire Middle School celebrates the final day of classes by loading buses for Cedar Point Amusement Park.

Field Day

In the spring, this is the first official get-together of the following year’s Middle School classes. Current fifth, sixth and seventh graders are grouped into cross-grade-level families. Following a hot-dog lunch, the families play volleyball, capture the flag, softball and challenge games.

Spring Trips

Sixth Grade Spring Project
The sixth grade brings its year to a close with a series of culminating activities and multi-media projects, which celebrate their work (and accomplishments) across the curriculum.

Seventh Grade Leadership Trip
This camping trip offers the almost-eighth graders a unique opportunity to develop further as a community by participating in a variety of activities designed to promote communication, cooperation, trust and leadership – and to lay the groundwork for the leadership roles they will adopt in their eighth-grade year.

Eighth Grade Quebec Trip
This annual trip to Quebec City offers students the opportunity to employ their French speaking and listening skills and to explore the sights and culture of Quebec City and Montreal.

Ski Club


For each of six Wednesdays during the winter, students in grades 6-12 who join ski club head off to Boston Mills/Brandywine Ski Resort southeast of Cleveland for several hours of skiing or snowboarding. Students may rent equipment or bring their own.

Class Day Celebration


The final day of school each year is marked with a special celebration focusing on the accomplishments of the entire student body. The event begins with breakfast on the library patio followed by student performances and presentations and culminating with a student-produced year-end retrospective video featuring the members of the eighth grade class.

Pep Squad


The Middle School pep squad, created from the idea of two seventh-grade students, is an active after-school club which leads cheers at sports games, helps build community enthusiasm for our sports program and takes part in athletic recognition.

Middle School Family Picnic


The Family Picnic gives students, their parents, and their families a chance to connect names with faces and to spend a relaxing Saturday afternoon together at Lake Ridge amid picnic food and games. Middle schoolers enjoy food, fun and time with their classmates while parents chat with other parents (both within and across grade levels) and meet their middle schoolers’ classmates, friends, and teachers in an informal setting. This year’s picnic involved a variety of student-organized intergenerational games, including the following: Water balloon toss, apple on a string, tootsie-roll-eating contest, and marshmallow-tower building.

Student Council

As a democratically elected body in the Middle School, Student Council is composed of twelve elected student representatives. Four hold Officer positions: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. By tradition, the Officer positions are reserved for eighth graders only. The remaining eight positions, called Advisory Representatives, are selected within each of the nine Middle School advisory groups (3 in sixth grade, 3 in seventh grade, and 3 in eighth grade).

Aims of Student Council
All members of Student Council, Advisory Representatives and Officers alike, are charged with carrying out the six aims of Student Council as defined below:

(1) To unite the Middle School students into a body, strong enough to provide helpful, thoughtful feedback to teachers and administration on issues of concern and importance to the student body.

(2) To have student-directed service projects, with the help of the faculty, for the enjoyment of the student body and the betterment of the school (and, when possible, the wider community).

(3) To raise funds for social events and school needs.

(4) To aid in student relations.

(5) To enhance the organization of social events.

(6) To help in the selection of ideas, activities, speakers, and programs for assemblies/Town Meetings.

Student Council Committee Structure

Members of Student Council serve on one of four Middle School committees. Students who are not members of Student Council may choose to serve on a committee as well. All committee members are charged with carrying out the responsibilities of their particular committee to the best of their ability.

(1) Communication Committee
The Secretary of Student Council chairs this committee. Members document and report on student life in the Middle School. This could include the use of digital and video cameras, the creation of bulletin boards and display cases, and the publishing of a middle school newspaper. Future projects could include video broadcasts and possibly a WEB page on the LRAnet. (The Secretary takes minutes at plenary sessions of Student Council, types those minutes, and distributes them to Advisory Representatives, Advisors, and the Middle School head in a timely fashion.)

(2) Community Responsibility and Service
The President of Student Council chairs this committee. Members assist in the planning and implementation of service projects that provide opportunities for all students in the Middle School to become involved. Service may be performed during special community-service days, during the school day, or after school. (The President presides over plenary sessions of the Student Council. In particular, the President is expected to provide leadership and a strong, clear sense of direction to the Student Council in its efforts to achieve its six central aims.)

(3) Finance Committee
The Treasurer of the Student Council chairs this committee. Members are in charge of planning and running the various fund-raising activities in which Student Council is engaged. Students set budgets and establish fund-raising goals. These activities are not limited to pizza and doughnut sales. New ways to raise money will be needed to fund the various projects. (The Treasurer works closely with the faculty moderator and the other committee chairs in communicating the financial status of Student Council. Specifically, the Treasurer is charged with maintaining an up-to-date spreadsheet, which accurately reflects the financial health and well being of Student Council.)

(4) Social Committee
The Vice President of Student Council chairs this committee. Members plan, organize (set up), run, and organize clean up of the three dances held during the year. The committee plans other events that take place during the school day or activities that occur during a community-building day. (The Vice President is responsible for providing special leadership in the organization and execution of all aspects of all social events.)

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