Life at Mount Zion

The Mount Zion Schools

Primary School

GRADES PRE-K - 1

Mount Zion’s youngest students in Preschool, Kindergarten, and First Grade explore and discover God’s world through hands-on, multi-sensory learning activities designed to foster each student’s individual growth and development. Their school days are centered around intentional routines that foster creativity, problem solving, and social skills.

Caring teachers and staff provide opportunities for collaborative work and play to encourage students to grow in their independence, responsibility, and perseverance. Focused instruction helps to build a strong foundation in literacy, number sense, fine motor skills, and the expression of ideas through writing. Bible verses, stories, and songs are integrated into each day as children learn about their part in God’s story.

Each school day begins with time to play and greet friends and classmates. Students meet on the rug to learn more about the day and each other. There are chances to learn new skills and practice developing ones, hear a story, and attend a specials class such as PE, library, music, art, or chapel. Each day includes time to play, rest, eat, and grow together as a classroom commUNITY. Students love helping each other to discover more about their commUNITY and the world around them.

Elementary School

GRADES 2 - 4

Second, Third, and Fourth Graders dig deeper and develop a broader understanding of mathematics, language arts, and the world around them. Cooperative learning, group work, and authentic learning opportunities provide elementary students with chances to make connections, express their ideas, and discover new perspectives.

Students begin their days as early as 7:45 with each other in Zion Hall, giving them a supervised opportunity to talk with peers and catch up with each other, and then they go to their homeroom class. Teachers challenge students to build upon previous experiences as they grow in their knowledge of the world God has created while providing real work to meet the real needs of real people. As their understanding of learning continues to grow and they see more of God’s story, they begin to see how they are uniquely made to live his story through all that they do, whether it’s in the classroom, on the playground, in the lunchroom, or in their communities.

Students have PE, library, art, music, Movement & Motion, and chapel weekly. They also get a long recess where they can climb trees, swing, play Gaga Ball, organize a game of soccer, and more. So much important development happens as students continue to learn to negotiate friendships and playing under the loving supervision of teachers and adults.

Middle School

GRADES 5 - 8

Students in 5th - 8th grade begin their days by touching base with their advisor/homeroom teacher. They review schedules, grades, and assignments from various classes and have time for morning devotions and guided discussions about spiritual, personal, social, and academic issues impacting their lives.

After advisory/homeroom, academic and specials classes like art, PE, and music begin. Our 5th-grade students are a part of a partially contained classroom. Because middle school is new and involves so many critical skills needed for future success, all core academic classes for this age group are with the same teacher. They switch classes for Bible, technology, Spanish, and specials so that they can get used to transitions and working in different spaces with different teachers. By the end of the year, they are ready to join the 6th-8th grade students and travel to different teachers for all classes.

Our primary goal in middle school is to provide a challenging and encouraging environment that is at all times sensitive to the unique developmental needs of students at this age. We aim to help students move along the continuum toward greater independence, giving them responsibility for their own work and behavior. We value the need to take risks and do all work with excellence.

There’s an important role for parents in our program! We partner with parents to encourage students to take positive risks.We know failure is a crucial part of learning, and we make every effort to help students learn from mistakes while the stakes are lower than they will ever be again.

Complementing the rigorous set of academic courses, students develop organization and time management skills, cultivate critical thinking skills, and participate in a wide variety of character shaping extracurricular activities through the arts, sports, student government, and service learning. Middle school students have the core classes of math (which is leveled according to ability), humanities (a combination of Language Arts and Social Studies), science, technology/computer, Spanish, and Bible. Eighth grade students have elective choices that change with each grading period, and all middle school students have two PE and one music classes as well as an art class weekly. All middle school students have a weekly chapel together.

Middle school students eat lunch together and have a short recess each day, and 7th and 8th grade students have the opportunity to participate in our athletic program.

In the spring they participate in “Spiritual Emphasis Week” with daily chapel/devotion times and relevant themes to support their growth and understanding of who God and what that means for their individual lives.

High School

GRADES 9 - 12

Mount Zion Christian High School combines the camaraderie of a family setting with the rigor of academic excellence and innovation. Faculty members are not only teachers of content, but take a personal interest in each student, getting to know them closely. Faculty provide individualized challenges in academics and in each student’s walk with God. Faculty come alongside students, becoming teachers of life-skills and spiritual mentors.

Life-Learning Opportunities

MRO: Each fall the high school students go on a three-day retreat to Moose River Outpost in northern Maine, where students grow closer to God and to each other, as they spend time in nature and face challenges together.

workcampNE: Each spring Mount Zion High School partners with workcampNE to bring students closer to Jesus as they serve families in the area through free home repairs.

FiA: Throughout the year, high school students are required to put their Faith in Action through community service activities of their own selection.

Innovation & Technology

Mount Zion combines a variety of methods of learning, such as direct-teaching, flipped classroom, and expeditionary and project-based learning. Students and teachers utilize cutting-edge technology through the creation of videos, websites, music, presentations, and the application of on-line educational programs.

Biblical Foundation

Through rigorous instruction, small group discussions and personal reflection, students are encouraged to make their faith their own as they reach out to the community through an annual week of caring partnership with workcampNE and individual community service. Biblical principles are examined in each class.

Academics

The high school program provides rigorous college-prep curriculum meeting NEASC Accreditation standards. Classes are leveled to meet the needs of individual students and offer honors credit. Mount Zion High School frequently hosts international exchange students, affording all students the opportunity to organically learn about each other’s culture and examine their own. In addition to the typical high school curricula, students at Mount Zion learn robotics and coding. English and history are combined into an innovative Humanities class, where literature, culture, and history are examined cohesively.

Foreign Language: High school students can take three years of Spanish with in-person learning through a conversational and communicative approach, based on the five Cs of world language learning. Senior students have the option to elect other language courses such as Hebrew, offered by on-site staff, or through online programs. If students would rather learn a different language, they can complete Rosetta Stone programs, which are online, in 24 other languages.

Dual credit & internships: Students have the option to achieve dual credit (high school and college) through online courses. Additionally, Mount Zion maintains a unique relationship with several local businesses, offering select students real-world experience and paid work study. On-site internships include ECE and Spanish internships. The ECE (Early Childhood Education) internship allows students interested in a career in early-childhood or elementary education to shadow and assist professional teachers in our lower grade level classrooms. The Spanish Internship offers a high school senior the opportunity to continue learning by using the language to assist in teaching Spanish to the younger students. Mount Zion is continuously reaching out to our professional faculty and staff, as well as members within our community, as we seek to expand the opportunities offered to our students.

Electives and extracurricular opportunities

  • Worship Arts (Instrumental, vocal & AV)
  • Digital Media
  • Yearbook
  • Chorus
  • Art
  • Student Council
  • Co-ed Soccer
  • Girls & Boys Basketball
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Your Guide to Mount Zion

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