Academics

Lower School

Confidence, Cooperation & Critical Observation

Essential skills — whether organizing a backpack or annotating a text or reading a line graph  — are the essence of the Lower School program. Students develop orderly, logical thinking, deepen their powers of critical observation and expression, and gain the confidence and ability to work independently and cooperatively. In each successive grade, we encourage students to take increasing responsibility for their own learning. 

Our Program

The Lower School is a combined elementary and middle school, consisting of grades 4-8, or Forms C, B, A, I, and II. In its academic program, the elementary level emphasizes essential skills in reading, writing, and mathematics with an eye toward developing orderly, logical thinking and powers of critical observation and expression. The students in the middle-school grades, Forms I and II (7-8), having gained confidence and ability in the elementary program, prepare for Upper School through a departmentalized secondary-level experience.
 
In each successive grade, we encourage students to take increasing responsibility for their own learning. We hope that along the way they gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others, learn to work independently and cooperatively, and use their growing knowledge and ability for their own sake and for their communities.

Course Descriptions

List of 6 items.

  • Form C (Grade 4)

    About forty boys arrive at St. Albans in Form C, the entry level of the Lower School. This form uses team teaching in an open-space setting, an approach that allows for flexible groupings and takes advantage of each teacher’s strengths to make the students’ initiation into the rigorous academic atmosphere of St. Albans a rewarding experience. In addition to classes in English (reading literature, writing, studying vocabulary, and spelling), mathematics, and geography taught by the three classroom teachers, the boys also take Spanish, science, religion, art, and music with specialists in those areas.

  • Form B (Grade 5)

    The Form B year continues and reinforces the skill-building of Form C. The boys move from an open space, team-taught classroom to three self-contained homeroom sections. Although an ancient history course takes the place of world geography, teachers continue to rely on geography as a way of understanding human experience. In addition to instruction in English and mathematics, classes in Spanish, science, religion, art, and music also continue.

  • Form A (Grade 6)

    In Form A, six to eight new boys join the group as students continue in three self-contained homeroom sections. In history, students pick up the thread introduced in Form B, proceeding through the Renaissance and beyond. The science class, now with a focus on life science, meets three times a week. Spanish, religion, art, and music studies continue. For the first time, students have a choice of athletic activity in each of three seasons.

  • Form I (Grade 7)

    Form I, in which thirteen to sixteen new boys join the class, is the first year of full departmentalization by academic disciplines. English, foreign language, American history, pre-algebra, and science provide the core of the curriculum. Form I students also take religion, decisions, music, computer, art, and drama for a portion of the year. Because at least one-third of the students are new to St. Albans, teachers are careful to make the newcomers’ entry into St. Albans enjoyable and productive. 

    Form I and II students no longer have homeroom teachers and meet instead with faculty advisors. Shortly before the start of the school year, the advisors in each form meet and divide the class into groups of eight or nine students, and these groups meet two or three times weekly for seasonal-themed and community-building activities. In addition, some students seek out their advisors privately. The advisor oversees in a broad way a student’s progress from quarter to quarter and writes a summary comment on each report card.

  • Form II (Grade 8)

    Form II is the senior class of the Lower School. The students prepare for a future in the Upper School by learning to work independently and to handle their time responsibly. Form II students take English, twentieth-century American history, algebra, environmental studies, a foreign language, music, and two arts electives. Programs such as a week-long camping trip teach the boys more about themselves as individuals and as members of their class. 

    Because students in Forms I and II no longer have homeroom teachers, they meet instead with faculty advisors. Shortly before the start of the school year, the advisors in each form meet and divide the class into groups of about nine students, and these groups meet two or three times weekly to for seasonally themed and community-building activities. In addition, some students seek out their advisors privately. The advisor oversees, in a broad way, a student’s progress from quarter to quarter and writes a summary comment on each report card.

  • Lower & Upper School Courses

    The complete list of classes available to Lower and Upper School students appears in this Course of Study.

Browse Lower School Courses

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Explore St. Albans

Located in Washington D.C., St. Albans School is a private, all boys day and boarding school. For more than a century, St. Albans has offered a distinctive educational experience for young men in grades 4 through 12. While our students reach exceptional academic goals and exhibit first-rate athletic and artistic achievements, as an Episcopal school we place equal emphasis upon moral and spiritual education.