Academics

Middle School (Grades 6 - 8)

Middle School Overview

Palm Valley’s Middle School years are a defining period for students as they transition from childhood into adolescence. Our middle school students experience an engaging balance of joyful and rigorous learning in a challenging and supportive educational environment that nurtures autonomy and competence and promotes academic, personal, and social-emotional development.

Our ability to focus on individualized attention, offer robust advisory, arts, and athletics programs, and provide a variety of course electives, clubs, sports, outdoor education, and service-learning experiences enables our students to grow to understand who they are and where they want to go.

With Palm Valley School’s Mission and Values in mind, the whole of every middle school student is embraced in positive and purposeful ways to advance their academic and personal potential and celebrate their uniqueness.

Browse Middle School Departments

A Positive and Purposeful Learning Environment

At Palm Valley, we provide a collaborative and dynamic learning environment that is:
  • Prosocial and Responsive – Understand the developmental nature of young adolescents and take advantage of the many learning opportunities it brings to life in middle school.
  • Encouraging and Challenging – Recognize that all of our students can learn and prosper when they are encouraged and held to a high standard.
  • Empowering and Impactful – Provide all of our students with the tools and resources they need to become adaptive creative thinkers, problem solvers, and well-rounded individuals ready to engage with higher learning in a rapidly changing global environment.
  • Creative and Joyful – Our students thrive when they understand what they are learning is meaningful and delivered in a compelling and creative manner. When middle school students are embraced, inspired, and valued, they are motivated to nurture positive relationships, demonstrate competence, assert their autonomy, and find joy in growing up.
  • Facilitating and Nurturing – Our humanistic approach promotes facilitative teacher-student relationships characterized by accountability, care, empathy, flexibility, and support. Our comprehensive advisory program, and the awareness, empathy, insight, and understanding of our advisers, provide precisely the guidance and support our students need to become passionate, purposeful, and confidently self-reliant young scholars.

Pick Up Drop Off Times: Monday: 8:45 AM-2:20 PM; Tuesday-Friday: 8:45 AM-3:15 PM

Additional information regarding the policies of the Palm Valley Middle School can be found in the Handbook for Students and Families. Please email Mr. Peter Koehler, Head of Middle and Upper School at pkoehler@pvs.org with any questions.

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Contact our admissions department today for more information!

Palm Valley Private School occupies 34 acres in Rancho Mirage with stunning mountain views. The campus features separate campuses and buildings for each of our four divisions – Preschool (toddler to 5 years), Elementary (Grades K-5), Middle School (Grades 6-8), and High School (Grades 9-12), along with a full-size gymnasium, several separate recesses and athletic fields, a black box theater and a smart lab.