Middle School Student Activities

COMMUNITY SERVICE BOARD 

The Community Service Board affords students an opportunity to engage in rewarding activities that benefit the local and surrounding community.  Students also grow to understand the importance of human interaction through their involvement in community service.  The ultimate goal is to challenge students to be stewards of the community, enabling them to find a genuine sense of reward in the services that they can provide to others. 

INTRAMURALS

An intramural athletic program has been included as part of the school curriculum to insure that all our students are provided the opportunity, regardless of athletic skill level, to participate in various sports activities in a safe and professionally supervised environment.  The students will be engaged in a healthy spirit of competition, sportsmanship and teamwork.  This will also allow our students further social interaction and the opportunity to experience leisure activities that will contribute to an active lifestyle and enhance physical fitness.  Intramurals will take place concurrently with TRL.  Students will participate by grade level.  The intramural program will rotate through each grade levels approximately five times per trimester.  All students are required to participate and dress in their PE clothes.  When a grade level is not at intramurals, they will attend TRL in their homerooms.   A schedule of intramural dates is printed in the Student Planner.      

MATHCOUNTS

Students at Saint Andrew's Middle School have the opportunity to participate in the MATHCOUNTS program.  The goal of MATHCOUNTS is to promote math excellence among middle school students.  All students are welcome to participate in the MATHCOUNTS program.  Meetings are held regularly during TRL.

MIDDLE SCHOOL MUSICAL

Every year, the Middle School sponsors a musical that includes students from grades 6, 7, and 8.  Musicals are usually well known hits from Broadway.  There are parts for students who do not have a strong singing background, but wish to participate.  Typically auditions are held several months prior to the January performance dates.  The early rehearsals are scheduled around other commitments, but during the two weeks prior to the musical, a more intensive rehearsal schedule requires full cast participation.  There are usually three performances.  The first is a matinee presented to the Middle School community, followed by two evening performances for family and friends.

PEACEMAKERS

The objectives of PeaceMAKERS are to help students develop social responsibility, act with integrity, and to help promote peace in the community.  At the end of each grading period, two students, one boy and one girl per grade, are selected by the Middle School community to be PeaceMAKERS for the trimester.  In May, the middle school community will choose one PeaceMAKER of the Year for each grade from the six trimester recipients.

What does PeaceMAKER  stand for?

• Patient with others
• Empathetic and willing to share other's feelings
• Able to see the larger picture and move out of selfishness
• Calm and contemplative, never quick to judge
• Engages non-participants in dialogue
• Makes a difficult situation better
• Amiable and an inclusive friend to many
• Kind and respectful to all living things
• Enthusiastic and optimistic, always looking for the light
• Respects fellow students!

PeaceMAKER Guidelines:

• Stay calm
• Talk about the problem
• Listen to others
• Get all the information
• Understand different viewpoints and find common ground
• Consider others' feelings
• Let others solve their own problems, unless they ask for help
• Find possible solutions
• Work for a compromise
• Report (potential) violence

SCIENCE OLYMPIAD

The goal of Science Olympiad is to improve the quality of science education through competitions similar to sporting events.  Just as students are motivated to compete in various sporting activities, students compete as a team against other schools in different events that range the spectrum of science subjects.  The events are inquiry based and the team is open to all students.  Meetings will be held during TRL as well as after school. 

SAFE SCHOOL AMBASSADORS

Safe School Ambassadors is a nation-wide program that utilizes students as resources to advocate and promote positive changes in the school.  The program is used to complement the educational and social trainings taught in school by teachers, administrator and life skill programs.  The job of a Safe School Ambassador is to use communication skills to diffuse small incidents among peers before they escalate, support students who are mistreated, excluded or ridiculed and to challenge the perceptions of others in order to make the school a more positive place to go. Students are nominated for the program by their teachers based on their abilities to communicate, carry influence with their peers, make sound judgments and willingness to make a change.  The students are trained in a full-day workshop on how to build upon their communication skills to meet the programs goals and the group meets every two weeks to discuss events that have occurred and ways that they have tried to help.  This program is run through the counseling office of the middle school.

STUDENT COUNCIL

The goal of the Student Council is to blend leadership, community building skills, school spirit and positive social interaction among students.  Through student government, charity drives and social events, students are given many opportunities to demonstrate leadership skills.  Student Council sponsors several evening activities that provide an excellent opportunity for students to develop social skills in a comfortable environment.  All events are chaperoned by faculty members to ensure the safety of all students.

Running for the Executive Board of Student Council is a great way for students to take an active role in the middle school community.  Students must be in the eighth grade and have a cumulative grade point average of 2.5 or better to run for office.  Students may not run for class office if they are on an Academic, Disciplinary or Honor status.  Once elected, any class officer who is placed on Disciplinary or Honor Probation during their year of service or their GPA drops below 2.5 may be removed from office.