The Middle Years - They are unique and they matter!
Written by Adolescent Success
“The middle years, from around age ten to fifteen, span the years from childhood to adolescence. Young adolescents during this time experience a range of significant physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and moral changes”.
Who we are
Adolescent Success Inc is a not-for-profit association for teachers, schools, businesses and other educators who care about young adolescents and education in the middle years. We serve Middle Years Educators with current best practice and research, providing events, publications and networking opportunities so that leaders, teachers and carers can best educate young adolescents in a holistic way.
Why the Middle Years?
“During puberty, young adolescents experience more rapid and dramatic hormonal and structural changes than at any other period in their life. The sequence of physical change is generally similar from one person to another, although the onset, rate, and timing of these changes are highly individual, often creating stress and feelings of insecurity for the adolescent. Changes to brain and cognitive development peak during this period. Apart from the first five years of life, at no other time does the capacity and functioning of the brain undergo such an overhaul. This affects the learning ability of young adolescents and their success in managing the emotional, social and moral challenges of this stage. Disengagement, alienation and boredom in school often peak in the middle years and this may lead to a decline in achievement. Hence the middle years, particularly with respect to the productive engagement of young people in schooling and other contexts, is a priority for educators” (Adolescent Success, 2008).
Middle Schooling Today
Adolescent Success sees Middle schooling as an intentional approach to teaching and learning that is responsive and appropriate to the full range of needs, interests and achievements of middle years students in formal and informal schooling contexts. We advocate that Middle schooling has the following elements:
Clear philosophy relevant to the context.
Comprehensive range of signature practices to engage young adolescents in relevant, meaningful and challenging learning, along with organisational initiatives to facilitate their implementation, such as:
higher order thinking strategies
integrated and disciplinary curricula that are negotiated, relevant and challenging
heterogeneous and flexible student groupings
cooperative learning and collaborative teaching
small learning communities that provide students with sustained individual attention in a safe and healthy school environment
emphasis on strong teacher–student relationships through extended contact with a small number of teachers and a consistent student cohort
authentic and reflective assessment with high expectations
democratic governance and shared leadership
parental and community involvement in student learning.
3. Evidence-based approach with clearly articulated outcomes, such as:
developing current and lifelong learning attributes
enhanced academic outcomes
creation of a love of learning.
The Adolescent Success Middle Schooling Model based on our Position Paper (2008) drives the work we do with our middle years community.
Our Position Paper is founded upon an analysis and synthesis of current research and evidence about middle schooling (grades 5-9).
There is a distinct and intentional interconnectedness between the four concepts of Educators, Places, Pedagogy and Adolescents, all critical for success in and of the middle years. Middle schooling approaches optimise the learning opportunities for young 'Adolescents' during this critical phase, meaning that their potential to live and work successfully in contemporary society, today and in the future, is enhanced. We further espouse that middle schooling approaches must feature the adoption of interdependent and aligned 'Pedagogies' across the domains of pastoral care, assessment and curriculum, and through organisational initiatives in their learning 'Places' with key middle years 'Educators'.
Developed in alignment with our Position Paper, the Adolescent Success Middle Years School Improvement and Diagnostic Tool is a strategic audit tool school leaders and middle years’ teams are using to gauge the effectiveness of their own middle years practices.
This tool encourages reflective, evidence-based conversations about what is current practice in the school; enables prioritisation of opportunities for improvement; and leads to devising an action plan to implement change, by recognising strengths and indentifying areas for improvement. Once completed, the middle years’ team will have strategically:
engaged in a thorough reflection, analysis, and evaluation of the middle school program,
prioritised key areas requiring action,
created an action plan, and
be ready to implement the plan for improved student learning.
Our Middle Years School of Excellence Program (MYSOE)
As an association, we recognise, acknowledge and endorse schools who demonstrate an intentional and successful approach to middle years learning, learners and their middle years communities. We do this through our MYSOE Acknowledgement Program which is open to any school that educates students aged 9/10-15 years old in Australasia.
The MYSOE program aims to:
Acknowledge and celebrate schools that are committed to implementing the essential attributes and characteristics of successful middle years/schooling practices.
Provide schools with the resources to support their continuous improvement journey.
Grow a network of schools that can learn from and support each other.
Our current MYSOE Schools are:
Redlands College, Wellington Point, Qld (2024-2026)
St Francis Catholic College, Edmonston Park, NSW (2024-2026)
Hillcrest Christian College, Reedy Ck, Qld (2024-2026)
Padua College, Kedron, Qld (2024-2026)
St Luke’s Catholic College, Marsden Park, NSW (2025-2027)
Santa Sophia Catholic College, Gables, NSW (2025-2027)
The middle years – they are unique, and they do matter!
By joining Adolescent Success, you are making a key decision to enhance your professional network and to connect with other like-minded, passionate educators and businesses who are dedicated to the education, development and growth of young adolescents. The Middle Years is a unique time in a young adolescent's life and the educators who work with them deserve to have opportunities to collaborate and celebrate this critical time in a young person’s life.