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As the oldest students on the Whitehaven Campus, students in Grades 4 through 6 increasingly (but never entirely) move out of the familiar homeroom structure and into a broader school world. Recognizing the continued value of the homeroom setting for students of these ages, students in Grade 4 study language arts and American history in their homerooms and regroup for mathematics, while students in Grade 5 regroup for language arts and mathematics. Grade 6 teachers each specialize in a core academic subject, so students have different teachers for language arts, history, and mathematics. This combination of a “home base” and academic specialization helps students in Grades 4 through 6 develop a healthy, age-appropriate level of independence as they mature. The oldest students at St. Patrick’s for most of the Day School’s history, but no longer so with the creation of the Grades 7 and 8 program, Grade 6 students nonetheless maintain that standing on the Whitehaven Campus and have the responsibilities, the leadership opportunities, and the privileges that come with it.
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St. Patrick’s Upper School program comprises more than core academic subjects, as important as those subjects are in our efforts to broaden students’ academic interests and abilities and extend their awareness of the greater world around them. In Grade 4, students take their first overnight field trip (to Williamsburg); sing in a training choir that will prepare them for the Young Singers of St. Patrick’s in Grades 5 and 6, which performs both in and out of school; present their own musical; and participate in lacrosse and basketball programs. In Grades 5 and 6, students enjoy a variety of overnight field trips; can choose to perform regularly as Young Singers and Young Ringers; enjoy a weekly activity period that includes a math club, a child development class that engages participants with faculty children in our Infant-Toddler Center, and courses in web design and sports reporting; present a spring musical; and compete as members of our junior varsity athletic teams in soccer, basketball, and lacrosse.
Grade 6 students either move on to St. Patrick’s Grades 7 and 8 program or to other schools, usually independent schools, in the Washington, DC area—a process supported extensively by the school faculty and administration. Whatever their destination, the students are well-prepared academically, socially, and emotionally to continue their studies with skill, enthusiasm, and appreciation at their next school-homes.
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