Frequently Asked Questions
For some other facts and figures, click here for About MICDS.
What is special about MICDS?
Why do we have single gender classes in the Middle School?
What are the teachers like?
Does the School have a policy that promotes diversity?
Do you have after school care?
Do you have summer camps?
What is the Admission Testing like?
How old does my child need to be to start Junior or Senior Kindergarten?
Q.What is special about MICDS?
A. MICDS faculty, programs and facilities provide an environment that doesn't put limits on learning.
- Carefully constructed curriculum to meet the needs of our students from youngest to oldest
- Extraordinary teachers who are actively involved with students in the classroom, advisory, athletics, and activities
- Challenging and innovative teaching and technology
- Connections and continuity afforded by the JK-12 program
- Unique blend of single gender and coed classes in our middle school
- Attention paid to respect and compassion
- Small classes which create a spirit of community within our spacious campus
- A four-year, personalized college counseling program that places our graduates in the nation's finest colleges and universities.
- The breadth of involvement of our parents and alumni
MICDS is a school where learning and living are connected.
- Small class sizes and highly trained professional educators ensure that students are challenged with a rigorous academic program, building their knowledge in such a way as to encourage critical thinking, reasoning, personal expression and respect for self and others.
- Approaches to learning are tailored to the intellectual and developmental needs of students.
- Character development is woven into all aspects of the curriculum, and service learning projects are integral to the life of the School.
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Q.Why do we have single gender classes in the Middle School?
A. MICDS is recognized nationally for the design of its middle school program. Our Middle School (grades 5-8) has a unique single gender framework. This framework consists of:
- single-gender advisories and classes in math, language arts, science history and physical education
- co-educational classes in the arts and foreign language, assemblies, lunch, and recess
The result is a dynamic and sound framework for young adolescents to grow and learn. Our design takes into consideration the developmental differences between boys and girls at a time when those differences are most apparent and allows us to nurture our students' social development, self-esteem and confidence while continuing to challenge them intellectually.
The MICDS Lower School and Upper School are fully co-educational.
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Q. What are the teachers like?
A. Meet these members of the MICDS faculty. They are just a few of the extraordinary people that work with the students here. These teachers have recently been recognized with Distinguished Teaching awards. For more on our extraordinary Faculty, click here
- Greg Stevens, Lower School Coordinator of Technology
It is clear that exploring the frontier of technology remains for schools today one of our greatest challenges and opportunities. There is so much to see and know, and there is so much potential for teachers and students. We need wise guides who can cut the right path and keep us out of traps. Greg Stevens is such a guide, and as he cuts a path for us in this new frontier he keeps his eyes fixed on the goals of helping teachers become better teachers and helping students become better learners. - Susan Good, Upper School English Teacher and Department Chair
Susan possesses a genuine enthusiasm for life and students are drawn to it. Her classroom and her advisory are colored by this zest for life. And her students learn there is much in life to be interested in. She can engage or be engaged by a play in our football game, a paper a student wrote, a novel featured in the NY Times, a fact almost lost about St. Louis, and the courage of one of her advisees. She enriches the life of this community. - Charlotte Dougherty, Middle School Theater Arts
When we teach, we ask students to engage in a process of looking deep within themselves for answers, for truth and we ask them just as often to get out of their own skin and understand what it must be like to be someone else. Both exercises are valuable, and both exercises can result in learning. And both exercises require a teacher. Charlotte teaches students every day how to look deep within and how to gain a sense of and even be someone else. She does this in a way that honors each student and supports the student in his/her efforts to learn two of life’s most valuable lessons. - Darryl Martino: Upper School Science, Wrestling Coach
Darryl invites us to explore the relationship between teaching and coaching. He coaches in the classroom: he demonstrates, he sees the need for practice, and understands how the emotional and intellectual link. And he teaches on the athletic field. He instructs so that students learn about what to look for and how to think creatively and critically. One of the reasons we do well athletically as a school is because our students see a seamlessness in the instruction, teaching, and coaching they receive. Darryl demonstrates in the lab and he teaches in a sweaty, stuffy gym in the winter. He coaches students to think critically, and he teaches athletes techniques that give them a chance to compete in an arena where natural ability would say our kids do not have a chance. And he is the only wrestling coach in Missouri with a Ph.D. in Oceanography.
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Q. Does the School have a policy that promotes diversity?
A. Yes. The MICDS Board of Trustees writes:Inclusiveness at MICDS means creating a sense of community based on mission that seeks and welcomes diverse backgrounds and perspectives as integral components of the foundation of excellence upon which our School is built. The MICDS community values diverse viewpoints that intellectually stimulate and enhance the quality of the educational experience at MICDS and strives to create an atmosphere where students learn from differences, develop effective listening skills and become productive learners. The MICDS community fosters involvement by creating opportunities and roles that maintain inclusiveness, promotes meaningful and appreciated participation by each and every member of the community, and seeks to bring its constituents together in a positive fashion. School wide
- There is a mix of students from diverse city and county neighborhoods and from a variety of public, parochial, and independent schools.
- 24% identify themselves as students of color
- our families live in over 60 different zip codes throughout the greater metropolitan St. Louis area
- approximately 22% receive financial aid.
For more on diversity at MICDS, click here.
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Q. Do you have after school care?
A. MICDS offers an extended day program for students in Junior Kindergarten through Grade Eight Monday through Friday until 6:00 p.m. On selected days when classes are not in session, the School provides a Holiday Camp program of fun and social interaction for students in grades JK-6. There are separate and flexible fees for extended care programs.
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Q.Do you have summer camps?
A. Camp Pegasus is an innovative and unique summer experience for children entering grades K-9. Call (314) 995-7342, or email rives@micds.org for information about Camp Pegasus.
MICDS hosts a wide variety of outstanding athletic camps and other specialty camps for children kindergarten age and up. Call (314) 995-7301 or email mirvin@micds.org for information.
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Q. What is the Admission Testing like?
A. Standardized testing is one of the ways we gather information about children, their academic development, achievement and ability to succeed in our school program.
- Applicants for grades JK, SK and 1 are tested individually with standardized testing designed for young children; the older grades are tested in group settings, also with standardized tests geared to age and grade level
- Results give us information about a child's learning as an individual as well as in relation to the applicant pool and national norms.
- Parents of students applying for 5th grade and above will receive scores directly from the Independent School Entrance Exam organization.
- Parents of younger students who wish to review the results of their child's evaluation may make an appointment to do so with the Admission Office after decision letters are mailed.
- Admission testing is only one piece of the admission portfolio, and is viewed in conjunction with school records, teacher recommendations, observations and interviews.
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Q. How old does my child need to be to start Junior or Senior Kindergarten?
A. As a starting point, MICDS follows the Missouri State guidelines for kindergarten entry, which is that a child needs to have turned five by August 1 of the year starting kindergarten. (We lower that age to four for Junior Kindergarten.)
- Chronological age is only the starting point, however. Our admission process is designed to determine as best we can developmental readiness for our academic program.
- We do this through conversation with parents, preschool developmental screening, classroom observation, and preschool teacher recommendation.
- Developmental readiness means that a child has "acquired the broad range of social skills, cognitive skills, pre-academic skills, independent skills, motor skills and problem-solving skills needed to be an effective learner"* in our junior or senior kindergarten classroom.
- For those children with summer birthdays it can be a difficult decision whether to send the child to school or wait a year. Many bright young children have strong pre-academic skills but do not show the same social/emotional readiness.
- In a challenging and individualized academic setting, the child's academic needs will continue to be challenged. But "even more important than the level of challenge is the meaningfulness of the work, and older children who are more developmentally ready will find greater benefits in the enrichment activities and discovery of everyday applications which make learning meaningful."*
- That being said, each child is an individual and we bring the best knowledge and experience possible to each child's application when we are making our decisions.
* Jim Anderson, "Kindergarten Readiness" Eden Prairie School
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