Middle School
INSPIRING CHARACTER, CONFIDENCE, AND CREATIVITY
The TFS Middle School welcomes our adolescent learners into a culture crafted to support academic curiosity, emotional energy, crazy creativity, and constant growth.
Small class sizes at the TFS middle school give teachers and students space to discover together. Our students take on a challenge because they trust their teachers can support them.
Students learn in a collaborative and engaging environment as they are immersed in stories, experiences, and real-world scenarios. Their creative juices flow in art classes, drama productions, and musical performances.
Opportunities for teamwork, building confidence, and developing leadership skills abound in clubs, fine arts, athletics, and our character development program. TFS teachers, counselors, coaches, and administrators are dedicated to ensuring that our middle schoolers are supported and encouraged as they move toward future independence.
Facilities
The Lucy A. Willard Academic Complex features state-of-the-art classrooms, a student activity center, an outdoor classroom, green space for recess, forest trails, and a pond for habitat observation and exploration. Students regularly participate in aquatic activities in our natatorium. In addition, we have access to the Northeast Georgia mountains right out our backdoor for kayaking, swimming, hiking, fishing, and more!
Academics
Our middle school students begin to encounter the particular perspectives of scientists, historians, writers, and mathematicians. They develop confidence in speaking and writing while gradually working toward greater independence and creativity. Students become problem solvers and critical thinkers. As they experiment, calculate, ask questions, and examine the past, they become global citizens working to shape their future.
Our teachers bring their energy and passion to our middle schoolers' formational thinking and provide access to specialized knowledge to help them identify future paths of deep understanding and engagement with their world. This approach to teaching a challenging college preparatory curriculum gives our students confidence and courage to be successful in their academic pursuits.
Experiential Learning
Our middle school students take multiple interactive and experiential learning field trips. These experiences provide students with genuine connections with each other and an awareness of cultures and worlds outside of their community.
Our sixth graders take day trips to local zoos, farms, and the beautiful Northeast Georgia mountains right in our backyard. The yearly rafting trip is always a favorite.
Seventh graders travel to Chattanooga for several days of action-packed adventure. They visit the aquarium, Rock City and Anna Ruby Falls. They take a duck boat tour where they learn about the city's history and the river that flows through it before visiting the Challenger Center, where they run a simulated mission to Mars.
Eighth graders travel to the Georgia Gold Coast in Savannah, where they take a historical walking tour of the city. They explore the coastal ecosystems on Tybee and Jekyll Islands and take a shrimp boat tour down the coast.
Every January, the entire middle school spends a day skiing on the slopes at Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley, NC.
Exploratories and Fine Arts
As our middle schoolers fine-tune their creative pursuits, we find ways to engage their curious minds. Every nine weeks, they rotate through various courses, including art, music, chorus, digital art, yearbook, and drama. This is a favorite time of day for students as they explore activities that pique their interests.
Students perform in concerts and plays throughout the year. Seventh graders put on a fabulous show at the spring madrigal – an interactive medieval dinner theater. Students participate in multiple ways: building puppets, making costumes, designing the set, acting, singing, sword fighting, and dancing.
Character Development
We don’t just talk about character, we live it! Our mission is to thrive in life by elevating character and intellect! The two go hand in hand.
Character development starts at the lower school with the Tallulah 12 and our house system, which begins in fourth grade and continues through graduation.
The Tallulah 12 is a set of guiding principles that inspire character, confidence, and commitment.
Houses bring students into the school community through collaborative projects and friendly competition. Incoming fourth graders and new students are inducted into a house - the Owls, Ravens, Wolves, or Hornets. As students build relationships across grade levels, they cultivate community, build social connections, and step into leadership opportunities.
Swimming Opportunities
By providing all of our students with the basics of swimming through the American Red Cross Learn to Swim program, we are able to springboard into fun and exciting aquatic activities like water polo, snorkeling instruction, aquatic-based PE classes, and if they so choose, competitive swimming. In addition, the benefit of proficient swimming and water safety lasts a lifetime.
Counseling & Academic Resource Center
We work closely with students and families to assist students as they transition from the lower to the middle school.
Counselors provide a range of student learning and behavioral services. Counselors support all students with academic achievement strategies, emotional growth, interpersonal skills management, and planning for postsecondary options.
We do this collaboratively through individual and small group counseling, classroom guidance, grade-level meetings, and various learning activities based on the Tallulah 12. They are designed to teach self-awareness, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, social awareness, and self-management.
The school counselor provides bi-weekly school counseling/classroom guidance lessons with fun, interactive activities to help teach essential life skills.
- Screenings and provider referral and interpretation of psycho-educational testing
- 1:1 private tutoring on campus (additional cost)
- Occupational Therapy space for private providers
- Coaching and classroom support
Technology
From online educational games to immersive virtual reality, TFS students have an abundance of technological resources, including interactive boards in every classroom, a 1:1 laptop program, Z space labs, virtual reality, campus-wide internet access, computing classes, and IT support.
Middle School Sports
Beginning in the sixth grade, middle school students are able to compete on school athletic teams. Our sports programs provide multiple opportunities to develop confidence, competence, and leadership skills.
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Bass Fishing
- Cheer
- Cross Country
- Equestrian
- Golf
- Soccer
- Softball
- Swim
- Tennis
- Track and Field
- Volleyball
Middle School Clubs
Our middle school students have additional opportunities to participate in on-campus clubs. These clubs allow students to explore their passions in a fun environment where they continue to build their curiosity, creativity, and courage!
- Tome Society (Literary Club)
- Science Olympiad
- Water polo and synchronized swimming clubs