Student Life

COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND SERVICE LEARNING

St. Anne’s middle schoolers participate weekly in programs developed to help others while expanding their knowledge of the community to which they belong.  Sixth grade students travel to a local church every six days where they work and interact with elderly folks.  They share their schoolwork, learn about the early life experiences of their elder partners, and generally get to know one-another.  It is an enriching exchange for both groups.

Seventh graders spend two hours, 11 to 1 pm, every Thursday serving lunch to, on average, 200 homeless and in-need members of the Denver community.  Students serve the lunch, wipe then store the chairs and tables, and sweep and mop the assembly hall at the Trinity Methodist Church. In addition, seventh graders participate in an event we call Denver Day.  Denver Day is a day of outreach spearheaded by the 7th grade advising team.  With the guidance of their advisors, students petition local supermarkets, grocers, and food producers for pledges of donations.  They then take the donated goods to make lunches which they take downtown to the Denver Rescue Mission, a non-profit organization whose mission is to help those looking to transition to a stable lifestyle.  After handing out lunches, students spend the afternoon working in Denver’s Urban Garden, an organization that provides opportunities for participants to supplement their diet with produce grown in nearby public gardens.
In eighth grade, students travel once every 6 days to Field Elementary, a local public elementary pre-IB school.  Here students work in groups of 2 and 3 in elementary classrooms assisting lead teachers with tutoring children one-on-one and in small groups.

Along with regular service in the community, students in the middle school raise money for various organizations throughout the school year via bake sales and other student initiated events. Eighth graders raise funds annually through an all-school Valentine sale.  Proceeds from this sale are given to an organization proposed by individual students and voted upon by the class as a whole.  

OUTDOOR EDUCATION

Experiential learning plays a big role throughout the middle school years.  The sixth grade makes two visits to school’s 17-acre mountain campus up in the foothills outside of Denver.  On the first of these trips, students catch local insects to help them complete their sixth grade “bug project.”  This project involves collecting, pinning, and cataloguing over 20 distinct insects.  On the second visit to the hills, students stay overnight in the dormitories and take part in numerous outdoor group activities.  They learn about the local ecosystem on day-long hikes in the surrounding hills and spend time examining things with an eye to learning more about their surroundings.

The seventh grade ventures out on two significant outdoor trips.  The first, a 3-day winter trip, takes students up to Colorado’s Keystone Science School to study snowfall and avalanche dynamics.  Students cross-country ski, prepare meals and perform clean-up, all while participating in a range of group-building activities.  On the second trip, students travel south with faculty in the school’s busses to the Great San Dunes National monument.  Following an overnight in tents and a day hike with park rangers, the students head back north to go whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River.  A study of water and a visit to an operational mine round out students’ study of Colorado water use and mining. 

In eighth grade, students take a winter trip to Winterpark ski area to further build class unity in advance of their spring class trip to Washington DC.  The overnight trip includes an evening of “tubing,” and the following day involves skiing on the slopes of Winterpark and MaryJane ski areas.  In April, the entire eighth grade travels to Washington DC.  The group starts in Williamsburg, Virginia, a central point in American history.  From there, the class continues to Norfolk,Virginia, home of the Atlantic fleet and site of the naval museum.  Continuing up north, the class hits a number of national monuments, tours the Holocaust Museum, Arlington National Cemetery, the Smithsonian and National Archives and takes in an evening play a the Kennedy Center.  The trip provides a comprehensive look at the nation’s capital.

SCHOOL CLUBS & STUDENT LEADERSHIP

St. Anne’s offers panoply of extra-curricular opportunities for student participation and leadership.  The last period of nearly every week is a dedicated Activity Club period.  Current clubs offered include Running, Media Literacy, Video Yearbook, Scrap booking, Fly-tying, Gardening, Orienteering, Hovercraft Building, Literary Magazine, and Board Games.

St. Anne’s Student Council offers students important leadership opportunities and a voice in school matters. Each year, students are elected for executive and grade-level representative positions. Election speeches before the middle school serve as a good practice for those elected, for they are, in turn, responsible for running weekly middle school assemblies, presenting proposals to administration and teachers, and garnering the support and contributions of their schoolmates.  Student Council also manages the middle school snack machine, oversees the school’s Lost & Found, and helps to promote and organize school dances, outside visits, and school surveys.

Athletic teams offer many students a venue to play as a team and enjoy various sports in competition with local schools.  For more, see Athletics.

In the fine arts, students enjoy a rich involvement in drama, instrumental and vocal music ensembles, and art.  For more, see Fine Arts.