Belmont Day School is a private school located in Belmont, MA. It was founded in 1927 and serves students from pre-kindergarten to 8th grade. The school is dedicated to high academic standards as well as providing a well-rounded and joyful educational experience.
Excerpts from the school’s Mission Statement
Belmont Day School was founded in 1927 by a group of parents committed to providing children with a strong academic foundation and many opportunities for creative expression. Today, as then, the school's program guides and challenges the intellectual, social, emotional, moral, artistic, and physical growth of each child. Belmont Day School strives to be a diverse community dedicated to academic excellence and intellectual discipline where students feel secure, experience the joys of learning, and know their accomplishments are valued.
At Belmont Day School we view education as a process by which children become self-motivated life-long learners who take responsibility for themselves, each other, and the world around them. The curriculum is dynamic and rigorous and reflects an understanding of the many ways children develop and learn. In every grade, new concepts are introduced, reinforced, and mastered through a range of concrete experiences and opportunities that develop abstract reasoning.
Academics
The school offers an academic experience where students are encouraged to make their own personal explorations and discoveries. This includes projects where students are required to deeply immerse themselves into particular subjects. This can mean taking the role of a colonial settler or building a robot. The school uses an integrated approach to education where teachers cooperate to connect subjects when possible. For example, art lessons may be combined with history lessons, making the class more personal and interesting.
Many subjects of the school’s curriculum are shared across the entire school at age-appropriate levels of complexity. This includes:
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Mathematics
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Social Studies
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Science
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World Language
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Visual and Performing Arts
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Music
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Social Competency and Health and Wellness
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Woodworking and 21st Century skills
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Physical Education
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Information Literacy and Technology
Arts and Music
At Belmont Day, arts are an integral part of the school day and teachers are providing a supportive environment for students to explore their creative ideas. Their visual art experiences start in kindergarten where they explore a wide variety of materials and processes. By grade 8 students can make choices about their own artistic direction and can choose from among nearly 30 elective arts courses in music, performing arts, technology, visual art and woodworking.
The school offers music education starting from kindergarten where students are introduced to different musical expressions, including singing, dancing and starting with simple musical instruments. Then, in fourth grade, students start working with keyboards, rhythm instruments, guitars and recorders. The heart of all classes includes a core period of group and solo singing as well as playing on Orff instruments.
Sports and Physical Education
In the Lower School, physical education is provided as part of the school day. With a focus on cooperative play, teamwork and good sportsmanship, students learn a progression of increasingly complex athletic skills and strategies.
The Middle School offers a wide selection of sports options with the goal to create healthy habits, teamwork and self-confidence. Athletics at the school are mandatory and students are allowed to try out different sports. In the later middle school years, students can then compete in interscholastic sports teams. Sports offered include soccer, field hockey, flag football, cross-country, basketball, badminton, fencing, dance, lacrosse, tennis, track and field and ultimate frisbee.