middle SCHOOL


 

amy dichristina,
HEAD OF middle SCHOOL

 

MEET our head of middle school

Ms. Amy DiChristina, our Head of Middle School, believes that it is critical to foster a supportive and challenging environment for students during their middle school years. “The middle school years are a time of great change for our students: mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially and we want them to feel like they have both the freedom and the support to explore all the different changes they may be experiencing,” says Ms. DiChristina. 

At Park we focus on our four core values of Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, and Kindness to foster our students' intellectual curiosity. Middle school teachers work hard to collaborate across divisions and disciplines to engage our students in learning that will help them navigate the world around them as they begin to discover their own interests and personalities. 

Ms. DiChristina found herself at Park in 2022. She earned a Masters Degree in Urban Education from the University of Long Island, Brooklyn in 2008 and during her 10 years working in Brooklyn she taught high school history and was a founding faculty member of a charter school in Bushwick. In 2016 she transitioned to working in the nonprofit sector as the Manager of the Hamilton Education Program for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History until she returned to Buffalo in 2020. 

If you have any questions about the Middle School, including the academic program, extracurriculars, and student life, please contact Ms. DiChristina at adichristina@theparkschool.org or at 716-839-1243 x 152.

overview


Park’s Middle School combines a rigorous academic curriculum with a stimulating and supportive environment to help students negotiate those competing needs and to build each student’s responsibility for active learning while maintaining the joy of discovery.


The Middle School curriculum  is designed to provide an academically challenging and developmentally appropriate learning environment for a range of learners ages 9-14 in keeping with ideals first drafted by Mary Hammett Lewis, the founding head of The Park School. Recognizing that each child develops differently, our experienced faculty utilizes experiential learning and differentiates instruction to meet each student’s individual needs. Our mission is to develop in each child the foundational skills necessary for a successful future, including a sense of self-awareness; a respect for others’ rights; the ability to think critically and express ideas clearly; and an understanding of academic, civic, and personal responsibility.

MS ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS      GRADE 7 & 8 CURRICULUM GUIDE