The Puma Prints looked into what the student experience is like at a couple other Seattle independent middle schools, and how it is different from UPrep. We talked to students and asked them about their curriculum, their typical day, and unique features about their school.
The first students we talked to were from The Evergreen School. Evergreen offers classes from pre-K through the eighth grade and is located in Shoreline, just north of Seattle.
Evergreen was founded in 1963, thirteen years before UPrep. Each grade level at Evergreen is about the same size as UPrep’s according to the schools website.
At Evergreen, middle school students have 7 classes total, each 45 minutes long. All 7 of their classes are in one day. “I would say weekly I get about 3 hours of homework, two hours on better weeks.” Seventh grader Serena Saleih said. Unlike UPrep’s middle school class schedule.“The school focuses a lot on diversity and is a safe space for everyone in the school,” Evergreen seventh grader Sadie Chou said. “All of our teachers are very kind and helpful, we have really great teachers here at Evergreen.” On the topic of sports, sports teams are very relaxed at Evergreen. “I played on a school sports team a couple of times, they were very relaxed and easygoing,” seventh grader Pia Apurva said. “We played against a few other small schools, but a lot of our games got canceled.”
The other school we talked to was Seattle Academy, or SAAS, which is a sixth through 12th grade school located near downtown Seattle. SAAS was founded in 1983 “The kids are very inclusive and kind, it is really easy to make friends here at SAAS.” Seventh grader Lily Carter said. “My teachers are very supportive and helpful.”
The class schedule there is similar to UPreps; students have 4 classes in a regular school day, but 8 classes total, with 70 minute long class periods. “I really like my current schedule because I have 4 classes a day out of 8 classes total,” Lily Carter said. “I have less homework and I get to see my friends for longer.” SAAS has 6th and 7th graders study the Latin language, and when students get to 8th grade, get to choose to learn Spanish, French, or Chinese.
Advisory at SAAS meets three times a week, and students have clubs the two other days.