Are sixth graders considered part of the Elementary Division or the Junior Division? What’s the difference?

Deerstream’s Elementary Division serves students ages 5 to 12 who typically are in grades K-6; the Junior Division targets students ages 12 to 14 who generally are in grades 7 and 8. The requirements of the Junior Division are more rigorous than those of the Elementary Division. Junior Division students are responsible for homework, lab reports, tests and quizzes, and class presentations. There is a strong emphasis on study and organizational skills in preparation for high school. In contrast, Deerstream’s Elementary Division program offers curriculum that is thoughtfully sequenced and academic in nature, but requires minimal work outside class.

Deerstream views sixth grade as a transitional year.  In our Language Arts and Science programs, we call the 11/12 year old year “Junior Division Prep.”  Compared to elementary students, more is required of sixth grade students outside of class―but not as much as we expect of Junior Division students.  Junior Division Prep students will practice using a textbook as part of their learning and will be required to keep papers organized in a notebook.  They will have some homework each week, and periodic tests and quizzes will be assigned.  However, they will also retain the hands-on spirit of science that has characterized their elementary learning.

In choosing a lighter academic load for sixth graders, Deerstream heeds the advice of experts from the Gesell Institute of the Study of Human Development. According to researcher Louise Bates Ames’s book, Your Ten to Fourteen Year Old, sixth graders are typically very fatigued and in need of increased sleep. They “tire rapidly and, as a result, tend to show an inconsistent learning pattern,” writes Ames. “One day, the child does remarkably well, the next day appears to be not so bright… [sixth graders] show fatigue by becoming very scrambly, and when finally let loose may run wild. These fatigue patterns are similar to those shown at the earlier age of five and six and a half,” according to Ames.

Ames recommends a shorter school day for sixth graders; we translate this recommendation into a lighter load for our sixth grade students at Deerstream.