Student Life

MS Co-Curricular Activities include clubs and intramural style sports. Clubs are based on student interest and encourage students to try new things, build skills, and socialize. Intramural style sports are teams where skills in a variety of sports are taught and developed and teamwork is encouraged.

Students of all levels and abilities are encouraged to participate. 8th graders are eligible to tryout for Junior Varsity sports through the Activities Office. Please note that any students hoping to be JV athletes will be expected to participate in the Middle School sport as well. Please refer to the Athletics & Activities section for more information about the competitive teams and individual sports programs. Select Saturdays will offer clubs, encouraging Global Citizenship and adventuring outside the school walls.

Club offerings vary throughout the year and can include the following:

• Swimming
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Volleyball
• Soccer
• Basketball
• Cross-Country
• Track and Field
• Badminton
• Tennis
• Speech and Debate
• Model United Nations
• Band and Choir
• Yoga
• Student Council
• English Support
• Art Club
• Service Learning Support
• Arabic Language Support
• French Language Support
• Orchestra/Pep Band
• Drama Club
• Mathnasium
• Mechatronics
• Go Green
• Arabic Calligraphy
• Dance
• Robotics

ACS’s commitment to community service is reflected by placing it as a High School graduation requirement and in preparation for this, all Middle School students are encouraged to participate in community service activities. In line with ACS’s Mission Statement, we empower students to solve problems with creativity and integrity, to lead well-balanced lives, and to serve Lebanon and the world community with understanding and compassion. The objective is for students to connect in an authentic way with the communities in which they live and to learn that being a citizen means accepting responsibilities as well as enjoying rights.

Our Week Without Walls programs contain a service learning component. In previous years, ACS Middle School students have raised funds to purchase a new water system and painted classrooms for a school in Sri Lanka, planted trees in Turkey, purchased and distributed sports equipment for a school in Armenia, and hosted Syrian refugees for a day full of fun and educational activities on campus.

The Middle School offers many different ways for students to engage in Service Learning through activities such as The Green Team and the MS Student Council as well as organizing community-wide events and activities such as clothing and food drives. The Middle School Service Learning Club is a co-curricular activity where students plan ways that they, and ACS as a school, can make positive contributions to help their immediate and broader communities. Some examples of previous work are students working on environmental concerns by designing recycling activities, beach clean-ups, food and clothes drives, and various awareness campaigns.

The Middle School firmly believes in the value of outdoor education for our students. The Outdoor Education Program at ACS is rooted in the belief that using the outdoors as a classroom is a powerful learning tool. At the beginning of each school year, each Middle School House takes part in an outdoor education retreat in which they participate for two days and one night off-campus. These retreats serve as building blocks throughout the year for student and teacher bonding, peer relationship building, personal responsibility, and facing challenges. During these retreats students participate in adventure-based, collaborative activities such as a high ropes challenge course, zip line, rock climbing, and hiking. These outdoor trips provide our students with optimum opportunities to explore the natural world around them, to experience the outdoor lifestyle, natural history, ecosystems, local geography – learn and undergo hands-on learning, in ways that are not possible in a classroom.

Middle School outdoor activities help show children the fun side of learning, with a range of activities adapted to the students’ skills level. These activities evolve as the students grow and mature.

For more information, please visit our Outdoor Education webpage.

Counseling

The Middle School counseling department at ACS addresses academic, social and emotional needs of students in a safe and nurturing environment. The counseling department consults continuously with teachers, parents and administrators to ensure the welfare of students. The counseling department offers individual and group counseling services to students, as well as support for parents and teachers. The counseling department also leads and plans the Middle School Advisory Program which focuses on students’ personal, social, and emotional learning.

Learning Support

Middle School students in need of learning support may be referred to a team of faculty and specialists. This team addresses the students’ academic needs in a collaborative manner and develops active and personalized interventions to support effective learning and growth. Students with learning needs continue to attend regular classes and meet requirements with a minimum of special assistance. The Learning Support Program provides academic support for those students experiencing mild learning difficulties.

English Language Learners

In the Middle School, ACS supports English Language Learners (ELL) through differentiating the mainstream curriculum and by providing some specialised extra support where needed. Students need to be proficient in English to be enrolled in Middle School but full fluency is not a requirement. The goal is to provide identified students with specific, targeted support to facilitate growth and development in the English language so as to enable access to the full curriculum as soon as possible.