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The Academy of the Holy Names in Albany will restructure its middle school program to include a more challenging curriculum next fall.

The middle school program will relocate to the upper school building on AHN's New Scotland Avenue campus and become a division of the upper school, giving middle school girls access to individual advisers and college counselors and opportunities to take high school and online courses.

They will follow the high school schedule and share the gym, library, cafeteria, science and computer labs and other upper school facilities.

Advanced middle school athletes will also interact with high school teammates more regularly, and students will have access to a math lab, writing center and learning workshop.

Student councils are planning combined activities, but both schools will maintain distinct identities, said Mary Anne Vigliante, current upper school principal. She will also administer the middle school when the changes take place.

"We're not seeing them as just smaller high schoolers," Ms. Vigliante said of the middle school students. "The middle school program is definitely a more structured program."

The middle school will keep unique clubs, field trips, retreats and traditions, such as the eighth-grade pin ceremony to name girls leaders of the school.

The new structure will more strongly align with recent New York State standards that divided curricula into kindergarten- through fifth-grade and sixth- through 12th-grade groups, she said. Sharing space with older teenagers also helps middle schoolers meet important developmental milestones.

"We know that adolescents desire to experiment and take risks," Ms. Vigliante said. "They desire to lead and make their own decisions. [The new structure] makes a kind of more natural alignment of services to their needs."

The announcement comes after years of studying the possibility of restructuring. The change will bring 60 more students to the upper school building; the upper school has 192 students.[[In-content Ad]]

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