Independent Private Middle School Omaha
Middle School: Grades 5-8 (Ages 10-13)
Program Overview
Brownell Talbot’s Middle School offers one of the best independent private Middle School programs in Omaha, NE. It is designed to provide boys and girls, ages 10-13, with a strong junior high school education. In addition to building foundations for academic success, it encourages a lifelong love of learning.
Our Middle School is home to a grade-level faculty with proven experience in classroom teaching, pre-adolescent development, and strong parent communication. With small class sizes, an impressive variety of instructional environments, and a whole-child approach to pre-adolescent learning, Brownell Talbot takes pride in building skills that help students transition from curious children into responsible teenagers.
A Whole Child Focus
The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade curriculum at Brownell Talbot provides an intentionally balanced education that promotes academic excellence, physical activity, emotional engagement, social interaction, and age-appropriate life skills. Research has shown that this balanced range of engagement makes it far more likely that lessons will be retained and internalized. This approach to junior high school education in Omaha helps students become more confident and considerate decision-makers with more opportunities to explore individual passions.
Beliefs and Philosophy
Students may begin their BT education as early as 3 years old and continue straight through to high school graduation. It is not uncommon for friendships to become lifelong. As such, our students often interact as a large extended family within our community, and such is our commitment to them as teachers, leaders, and role models.
The Middle School curriculum emphasizes guided decision-making for each student. At this age students choose semester electives, have over 20 sports and enrichment activities to participate in, and learn mindfulness training to reduce stress and anxiety. Required classes in the arts, along with single-gender physical education, allow students to explore risk taking in a safe, supportive, and age-appropriate environment.
Features and Differentiators
- Small class sizes (14:1 teacher-student ratio).
- Semester electives (math, science, theatre, music, robotics and more).
- Single-gender physical education with weekly swimming.
- Life skills advisory (study skills, time management, life balance).
- 1:1 guided tech/iPad program (internet safety and responsible usage).
- World language program (focus on oral proficiency).
- World-ranked robotics team (both middle and upper schools).
- On-demand access to grades, schedules and lesson plans.
- 20+ extracurriculars to choose from.
Raider Zone: Early Drop-Off / Late Pick-Up
Our Raider Zone extended care program offers early drop-off and late pick-up options to meet the needs of families with demanding schedules. This allows your child to be dropped off as early as 7:00 am and picked up as late as 6:00 pm. Additionally, the program provides additional fun and engaging activities outside of the day’s curriculum, as well as homework help.
More About Our Omaha Private Middle School Curriculum
The Middle School environment is designed around personal growth and exploration. Students learn in an atmosphere that challenges them academically, encourages self-discovery and responsibility, and inspires them to thrive.
Semester Electives
- Keyboarding - Students learn the basics of typing in order to build speed and accuracy.
- Exploring Nature - For students passionate about nature who may want to pursue AP biology in Upper School and/or a career in biology.
- Motivate Math - Learn about competition math and prepare for activities like Math Counts and Academic Decathlon. This is not just for aspiring mathematical minds - Motivate Math is also for those that feel they may need extra math support.
- Visual Arts - Have a passion for the visual arts? This elective gives you extra time in the school day to create!
- Speech - Get a jump start on the ins and outs of speech. This is an excellent primer for students who hope to join Yakking Raiders (2019 state speech champs!) in Upper School.
- Quiz Bowl - Learn the basics of this academic competition and prepare to compete on BT’s Quiz Bowl teams in later grades.
- Robotics - Begin to master the fundamentals of robotics and engineering design and become a part of BT’s regionally, nationally, and world-ranked team!
Extracurricular Activities
- Robotics Team
- Theatre/Drama
- Jazz Band
- Choir
- Football
- Volleyball
- Track and Field
- Swimming
- Basketball
- Chess Club
- Quiz Bowl
- Speech Team
- Geography Bee
- Student Government
- Mathcounts/Math Contests
- Community Service Projects
- Brownell Talbot Youth Sports Organization (Grades 5 and 6)
- NSAA Sports Teams (Grades 7 and 8)
Is BT Right for Your Pre-Teen Child? Schedule a Visit.
Finding the right middle school in Omaha, NE, for your young son or daughter can be a challenging task. At this age your child may seem to be growing up too fast and developing a personality all their own. We encourage all families to involve their children in selecting a new school, and invite you to tour our fantastic campus. After all, many families choose to make BT their home from Lower School straight through to Upper School, and your middle schooler may soon be tomorrow’s graduating class leader. We take great pride in our community and look forward to sharing it with you, so please don’t hesitate to reach out. We look forward to getting to know you and your child better in the near future.
Independent Private Middle School in Omaha NE | Middle School at Brownell Talbot