Welcome to the Upper School (fourth through sixth grade) at St. Paul – our program for students in grades four through six!  The St. Paul upper school experience is thoughtfully designed to compliment and extend the foundation laid in our lower school.

It is characterized by new challenges and new opportunities and, most importantly, rooted in loving relationships that inspire our students to see themselves as image bearers of Christ.

In the upper school, our academic curriculum remains anchored in the four core disciplines of mathematics, language arts, science and history but our students experience these subjects by rotating through discipline-specific faculty rather than a self-contained classroom with a single teacher.   Each upper school homeroom teacher also serves as a subject-matter expert in a core discipline.  This structure allows us to focus more intently on each subject in order to meet the challenge of preparing our students well for entrance into and success in the most rigorous and selective preparatory schools in Nashville.

At this stage of development, students are eager to extend their interests and relationships beyond the school day and outside the classroom.  We accommodate this interest by providing a broad selection of co-curricular activities to our upper school.  Fourth grade students are able to participate in chorus and track.  Fifth and sixth grade students can choose to participate in Spirit Team, basketball, football, and our acting troupe, the St. Paul Players.  Of course, being able to successfully manage a commitment to any co-curricular activity depends heavily on one’s ability to balance classwork, homework and practices.  Our faculty work hard to equip students with tools and habits needed to meet this challenge.  In addition to a study skills class, the end of each day in the upper school is devoted to careful examination of homework assignments for the following day as well as short-term and longer-term projects.

In the upper school at St. Paul, we are growing independent learners and confident leaders who, after sixth grade, are ready to leave us and make a lasting impact in the school of their choice.  If you have questions about the upper school, I would deeply welcome the opportunity to spend time with you.

In Christ,