John Witherspoon Middle School is a middle school in Princeton, New Jersey. It is located across the street from Princeton High School. There are currently just under 700 students in three grades (6th, 7th, and 8th) with a staff of approximately 70.[1] The four elementary schools (Community Park School, Riverside School, Littlebrook School, and Johnson Park) feed into John Witherspoon.
| John Witherspoon Middle school | |
|---|---|
| Principal | Jason Burr |
| Admin. staff | Approximately 70 |
| Students | Approximately 700 |
| Colors | gold and blue |
| Nickname | Little Tigers[2] |
| Website | http://jw.prs.k12.nj.us/ |
JW is the only public middle school in Princeton. John Witherspoon was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and JWMS is the only school in the country named after him.
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The current two story building was constructed in 1966. Major renovations were done from 2003 to 2005, including the addition of a pool and a new gym. The school consists of a main building and six wings, A through E. The main building houses the main office, the nurse's office, a gym, an auditorium, a media center, and a cafeteria. It also holds the "Commons," an open area in the middle of the school containing a mural by Michael Graves. The six wings each serve a unique purpose. For example, C-wing houses the sixth grade and all its classes. In 2003, the addition of a new gym and swimming pool was added. The rest of the campus includes a small playground, three basketball courts, two baseball fields and a multi-purpose field.
John Witherspoon splits each grade into two Houses, groups of approximately 120 students. Sixth graders are in either House 1 or 2, 3 and 4 for seventh, and 5 and 6 for eighth. Houses have five different teachers each (Math, Science, English, Social Studies or Civics, and Foreign Language), and every student has classes with only children from their house except in their Foreign Language (French or Spanish), Health, Physical Education, Support Classes, Drama, Theatre Arts, Crossings (7th grade only) Peer to Peer and TCS leaders (8th grade only) and music classes: Choir, Orchestra, or Band.
School is held from 8:25 am until 2:55 pm. The school day is split into eight periods. Five academic classes, two EP's (Exploratory Programs: Health, Art, Tech Prep, Gym etc.) homeroom and lunch (homeroom is not one of the 8 periods). Each period is fifty minutes with about five minutes passing time (depending on the teacher). Throughout the year an extra "activity period" will be added between third and fourth period for the performing arts classes (band, choir, orchestra, drama) to practice for upcoming performances. Students who are not in these classes remain in their homerooms and use the period as a study hall.
JWMS participates in sports with other schools in nearby districts such as Grover and Cranbury. In the fall, sports are Soccer, Cross Country and Field Hockey. Tennis club plays matches and games internally.. During the winter, Basketball, Intramural Basketball, Wrestling and Swimming are offered. During the spring, Baseball, Softball, Track and Field, and Lacrosse are played. The girls' field hockey "A" team of the 2010-2011 school year was undefeated.
All three grades of English are literature based with topics in grammar, writing vocabulary and speaking. They all use different versions of the Holt's Handbook 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class. sixth readings include Alice in Wonderland, Dragonwings and Big Red among others. seventh grade reads To Kill A Mocking Bird, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and many short stories. The House on Mango Street, A Separate Peace and Romeo and Juliet are read by the eighth grade.
The regular math class uses the Glencoe Impact Mathematics books, courses one, two and three. The Accelerated math class uses the Pre-Algebra, Algebra One and Algebra Two books, also by Glencoe.
All three years of science are described as "multi-text/multi-recources" programs.[3] Sixth grade is focused mainly on Basic human biology including cells, genetics and microbiology. Other units include the metric system and basic chemistry. The year ends with an environmental science trip. Seventh grade is focused on astronomy, earth science, weather, climate and oceanography. Eighth grade repeats and goes into more depth of the metirc system and then does chemistry and physics. The physics unit is largely gravity and magnetism.