Succeeding in Sixth

According to Jack McVeigh, a seventh grader who arrived at Shore for sixth grade in 2017, one of the most memorable experiences during that first year at his new school was attending the award-winning winter production of Shrek the Musical. It wasn’t the performance itself that stuck in his memory, however. “When I got there with my family,” Jack recalls, “I noticed a group of kids from my grade sitting together in the audience, and I went and hung out with them for the whole show.” It was a moment, he says, that he noticed how truly connected he had become at Shore. “I really felt like it was my school.”

That was also a moment, say Jack’s parents, that they could exhale; they knew their son had found his place. John McVeigh, Dean of Faculty and the Boys Basketball coach at Brooks School in North Andover, and Candice McVeigh, a teacher at Andover High School, both emphasize the reassurance they felt as they witnessed Jack quickly becoming part of the Shore community, embraced not only by his sixth grade peers, but also by his teachers and other Upper School students in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. “It had always been in our minds that Shore was a pretty special place,” explains John McVeigh. “But once your child goes there and you see the connections they make, it’s phenomenal to be a part of.”

It helped, adds Candice McVeigh, that Jack had the chance to play intramural soccer his first fall, race with the track team in the spring, and sing with the Acafellas, the boys a cappella group, all year long. “Being on the soccer team his first few weeks of school really helped him make fast friends,” she says. “By springtime, family members who came to see the track meets were remarking at how the older students looked after him and made sure he was part of the group.” It was the same with the Acafellas.

“I certainly didn’t have middle school experiences that looked like that,” laughs John McVeigh. “Watching older kids take care of a younger student that way was incredible. Kids learn a lot when they see someone modeling values, when it’s not a parent or teacher telling them what’s right, but an older child demonstrating it. Hopefully,” says John, “when he’s in eighth or ninth grade, Jack can do the same.”

John Clark, sixth grade English teacher and a member of Shore’s Student Support Services Department, pays a great deal of attention to the experience of students new to the Upper School. “One thing Shore works really hard at is making sure every young person feels happy, healthy, and welcome on campus.” He continues, “There’s a personal drive among our faculty to attend to the whole range of the child—how they’re doing academically, what their friendships are like, where are their strengths and weaknesses, their fears and hopes. We know that taking care of the whole student puts him or her in the best position to learn.”

At the beginning of the year, whether a sixth grader is moving up from the Lower School or coming from another institution, explains Clark, the first and most important area of focus is cultivating the relationships that form a web of supportive connections for each student. In many ways, that starts with the advisor and the advisory group. “The advisor is a really critical component of Shore’s program,” Clark says. “Each student gains a sort of touchstone figure for their sixth grade year, and that advisor wears many different hats: coach, teacher, mentor, sounding board. Kids know that in any moment of their day—whether it's a failure, a success, a moment of anxiety, or something they're uncertain about—there's a grownup they can go to.” The small group of advisees who all share the same advisor meet weekly to have casual discussions, perhaps engage in more serious talks prompted by thought-provoking readings and videos, or just enjoy fun and games. The connections extend further as activities early in the school year—sports, trips, music, and other group experiences—help children feel comfortable together, invested in positive relationships, new ways of thinking, and a mindset of growth, explains Clark.

As Jack McVeigh recounts, structures such as the advisory system nurture a sense of confidence and connectedness that endures. With advisor and sixth grade math teacher Kent Vienot, he says, “One of the best things we did together was play a game called ‘Kerplunk,’ where you take turns pulling sticks from a container filled with ping pong balls, trying not to let the balls drop. We’d play whenever we had a few minutes, and Mr. Vienot kept score throughout the entire year.” Videos of Ted Talks were another favorite activity; life lessons on topics such as volunteering, mindfulness, and social media sparked lively conversations. “The kids in my advisory are probably my closest group of friends now,” Jack says.

The advisory system was just as important for Marcela Hernandez, another Shore seventh grader, as she settled into sixth grade last year, after attending first through fifth grades in the Lower School. Her advisor, English teacher Ellen Wright, was always there to help, she says. “She talked to us a lot about things like organization. For me, learning how to organize was the key to sixth grade. You have a lot of independence, so making sure you have your homework done, using your study halls wisely—these are really important.” Like her older brother, Devan, now an eighth grader, Marcela relished the challenge of learning the “landscape” of the Upper School when, as a sixth grader, she got to move from classroom to classroom for different subjects for the first time. Devan observes, “Without that one homeroom teacher reminding you about your work or the schedule like in the Lower School, you have to figure things out on your own.” While it seemed confusing at first, he admits, it quickly became second nature. “In sixth grade, I was learning how to be a good student; as a seventh grader, I applied that knowledge.”

“In the Upper School, the independence grows immensely,” acknowledge parents Jodi and Ivan Hernandez. Jodi, a guidance counselor at Peabody High School, explains, “At Shore, teachers prepare and empower their students for that independence, so we try to let our children do their own thing as much as possible—allowing them to figure out how to manage their time, organize their work, and study effectively.” At the same time, she says, deep engagement from their teachers provides students with constant support, and informs every conversation or conference with parents. “When we talk to their teachers, or read the narratives”—the lengthy and detailed written reports on students’ successes and challenges that arrive twice a year—“they’re spot-on. It’s gratifying to see how well they know our kids.”

Ivan Hernandez, a manager with Santander Bank, underscores the importance of that kind of connection. “I’m excited for Marcela and Devan to be at a school where they are clearly so engaged. I see it at home—they love to teach their younger siblings about something they learned at school, and share new ideas with us.” “We’ve seen the kids’ thinking change dramatically since their time in the Lower School,” continues Jodi. “Around the dinner table, they want to have much deeper conversations with us about more meaningful topics. The critical and analytical skills they’ve gained are wonderful; the way teachers ask sixth graders to look at ideas from multiple perspectives is unbelievable.”

Much of the intellectual and social growth parents see in their sixth graders can be traced to the use of discussion-based teaching and learning around Shore’s Harkness tables, which occupy history, English, and science classrooms. Around the table, Marcela Hernandez says, “It’s all about learning how to communicate with classmates—learning how not to interrupt. When you can see everyone’s face, you know if someone’s about to talk, and you can step back and listen. At the Harkness table, it’s up to you and your classmates to figure out how to make sure everyone gets a turn to share their thinking. You have to work with each other instead of compete with each other.”

Jack McVeigh remembers well his early sixth grade encounters with Harkness-style discussion, in Pat Coyle’s history class. “At first I found myself either not talking at all, or talking too much. As the year went on, I learned to listen to what other people had to say, and try to look at things from their point of view. By the end of sixth grade, I was able not only to add onto and extend what other students were saying around the table, but also to express what I was thinking in a way that allowed room for someone else to add their own thoughts.”

A history assignment that arose from a Harkness table discussion is one he’ll never forget. “It was answering the question, ‘Why do we study history?’” explains Jack. Candice McVeigh interjects, “He came to me after thinking about this for some time and said, ‘Mom, I don’t even know where to begin.’” But answer the question he did. “I wrote that we study history not only to understand what people did well in the past—famous achievements, wars won—but also to learn from what they didn’t do well.” What he realized, Jack says, is there’s always another side to history. “At that point, it really felt like the education was on a deeper level,” observes John McVeigh.

The challenges of balancing homework, sports, and extracurriculars also reach a new level in sixth grade, of course. “The workload definitely became heavier,” admits Jack, “and I was asked to think a lot more about the topics we were studying. At the beginning of the year, it took some time to get used to the pace. But,” he says, “I also found there was more time to study in my schedule.” A dedicated “Extra Help” period built into almost every day is treasured by Upper Schoolers as a time to get a head start on homework, meet with a teacher about an assignment, or make progress on a special project. “As the year went on,” recalls Jack, “I got better at balancing it all; I started to enjoy spending more time writing and thinking about my work.”

“When your child comes home from school,” explains Candice McVeigh, “and you see him becoming more organized, see the study skills growing, you breathe a sigh of relief—you know the school is right there with you in trying to instill those every day.” The high expectations and the challenge are real, adds John McVeigh, but so is the support. “Teachers at Shore are experts at understanding and meeting the needs of their students. When we talk to Jack’s teachers, it’s so clear they appreciate the good, they see the things that need work, and they have a strategy for our son. It’s not just that they are great at understanding him,” John concludes, “it’s that with their help Jack’s learned these things about himself, too, and knows what it will take to move forward. That’s allowed his love for learning to grow.”

According to Shore’s John Clark, an area of increasing focus in the Upper School, particularly during the momentous transition into sixth grade, is bringing about faculty-wide awareness of how each individual student learns best. “Our charge,” explains Clark, “is ensuring that the whole school can think constructively about why particular kids are doing well or not so well, and then generate really specific strategies built on that knowledge.” At the center of this drive, Clark says, is taking into account everything that affects a student’s ability to succeed at Shore—from behavioral regulation to the ability to work with peers to discrete study skills. Perhaps most importantly, this focus on the whole student also includes the concept of well-being. Along with School Counselor Katie Hertz and Dean of Students Sean Melia, says Clark, “We meet with teachers weekly and ask, ‘Where is the student socially and emotionally? Do they have positive relationships? Do they have a sense of self-worth? Do they feel confident?’ All that is critical to understanding the student as a complete person, and it’s also vital as we work with teachers to help them position each child to become an independent learner.”

For Clark, that notion of independence is a touchstone at Shore. “Something that always strikes me about this community,” he observes, “is how well the institution nurtures a passion for learning, an eagerness for self-challenge, and a desire to tackle the next horizon. As our students graduate each year, you get the feeling they’re ready not only to transition successfully to high school, but also to meet the next stage in their lives in a healthy way.” And this, believes Clark, is the result of all the moments of success and failure throughout their Shore career, of applying themselves with caring mentors by their side, and of the opportunities to test their skills and spirits to discover and grow.

And of having fun, insists John McVeigh. “The academic experience is one thing, but the fact that it’s also enjoyable is something special,” he says. “All together, it’s everything we were hoping for Jack.” His experience has been so positive, say the McVeighs, that they accelerated their timetable for his younger sister, Kelly, to come to Shore; she’s now a fifth grader.

For Marcela and Devan Hernandez, fun has been a big part of the Shore experience, too. They mention Upper School overnight trips—to Hulbert Outdoor Center in Fairlee, Vermont, in sixth grade, and to Hosmer Point Camp in Craftsbury Common, Vermont, in seventh—as among the highlights of their school career. Devan, a talented performer, also cites the annual Upper School winter musical as a high point. “Being in the musical is great, because it’s not just your own grade; it’s the entire Upper School. You get to know so many people, and it creates a special bond. Putting yourself out there when you’re singing and performing, you feel everyone’s support, and you find confidence in yourself.”

Jack McVeigh, one of the youngest members of the Acafellas and a soloist in the 2018 Upper School Spring Concert, felt much the same impact. “Middle school is such a critical time,” says John McVeigh, “when kids start making more decisions on their own, and choosing a direction for themselves. You want to find a setting where there are many voices you can trust and your child can trust, many new experiences he can throw himself into. You want your child to be in the place where he’ll become his best self, and that’s what we found at Shore.”

Testimonials like the McVeighs’ seem to confirm John Clark’s view that Shore prepares children not only for high school, but also for life. As the coach who transformed the Boys Varsity Lacrosse team into an undefeated force-to-be-reckoned-with during the 2018 spring season, Clark says, “For many kids, sports provides a glimpse of what it means to contribute to a community, looking beyond what they may get in return. Through competition, they experience risk-taking, struggle, loss, failure, and success—all of those things we face in the classroom and in life. And ultimately,” he says, “while we hope here at Shore that we’re educating model learners for the high schools that are lucky enough to have our students, more importantly we hope we’re educating model citizens—not just talented learners, but strong members of future communities.”