 Upper School
Shipley is committed to fostering educational excellence, love of learning, and compassionate participation in the world. This commitment pervades the school, from Lower and Middle Schools through the Upper School. Our college-preparatory program challenges students to explore their questions and interests. Here, guided by experienced and passionate faculty, they discover their intellectual, artistic, athletic, and human potential.
As our students take on increasing challenges—in the classroom, on the playing fields and the stage and in the art studios and beyond—we help them seek answers to eternal questions that are still right for our time:
- Who do you want to become?
- What talents and abilities do you possess?
- And how can you use them to make this world a better place?
Our seasoned faculty works with each student to explore across boundaries and to see new possibilities for lives of learning and engagement in the world. Shipley cultivates adventurous minds.
Our Upper School Program features:
- A two-year academic foundations curriculum devoted to understanding fundamental disciplines and frames of mind and a robust upper-level elective program with research-focused honors seminars
- Small classes with an average size of 12, allowing for personalized instruction and strong mentor relationships with faculty, coaches, and advisors
- A shared commitment to developing the whole person, with rich arts, athletics, and service learning opportunities
- A culture of individual student success that values sustained attention, grit, resilience, balance, and individual responsibility as the cornerstones of character, leadership, achievement, and fulfillment
- A diverse, inclusive, coeducational environment where students learn to respect and find greater meaning in their cultural and individual differences and their common humanity
- A comprehensive advisory, wellness, and character education program that culminates in individualized college counseling with junior and senior seminars.
 Academic Curriculum
Students see new possibilities, even frontiers when they experience learning as passionate exploration. At Shipley our instructional model is an innovative combination of creation, inquiry, and discovery. The foundation of the Upper School is a traditional college-preparatory curriculum with emphasis on core knowledge in essential disciplines. Upper level students take honors seminars and devise research projects to explore new passions and areas of interest.
We offer a wide array of honors, standard, and advanced courses, and our commitment to student-based scheduling allows students, along with advisors and families, to structure individualized programs of study that maximize their. Each year, students take a minimum of five courses, as well as a choice of minors, with a petition option for six major subjects.
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Upper School Extra-Curricular Opportunities:
- Shipley’s Athletics Program fields 24 varsity teams with junior varsity and third teams for all students interested in league and non-league play in interscholastic competition. Every student can fulfill the athletic requirement each year either by participating in two or more seasons of interscholastic sports, taking physical education courses, or structuring an independent program in athletics. Shipley is a member of the Friends Schools League.
- Our Clubs/Activities Program meets once a class cycle and features clubs like Model UN, Yearbook, Beacon (the student newspaper), World Affairs Model Senate, and Mathletes. Student-designed clubs have had great success. Read about our students that came out on top at Local Student Marketing & Business Competitions.
- Vibrant Performing Arts Programs actively engage all motivated, interested students. They include theater—Fall One-Act Plays, Winter Musical, and Spring Shakespeare—and music—six vocal and instrumental ensembles that participate in regular performances. In addition, we provide elective options for private instruction in music, drama, and public speaking. Shipley students have a studio art-major option with double-period studios and have excelled in college art programs and competition.
- Service Learning is an integral part of Shipley’s curriculum and extra-curricular activities. Completing the required 40 hours of service learning is just part of each student’s compassionate participation in the world. Every senior also spends the last three weeks before graduation engaged in a self-designed Senior Service Project (SSP), the capstone experience of an ongoing service-learning partnership with a non-profit organization.
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