Welcome To Berkwood Hedge Middle School

Berkwood Hedge Middle School excites, inspires, and engages students with an innovative and relevant program, built upon our 79 years strong foundation, cultivating the leaders our world needs now and in the future.

The next evolution of the oldest progressive elementary school in the East Bay, Berkwood Hedge Middle School offers a child-centered, hands-on program designed to meet the needs of early adolescents and to spark their interest and enthusiastic engagement. Our intention is to create a learning environment that cultivates Courage, Creativity, Confidence, and Connection.

At Berkwood Hedge Middle School, students experience a rich program of academics, electives, and extracurricular activities:

• Berkwood Hedge Middle School builds on our strong foundation of Project-Based Learning. Through student-driven, real-life experiences, we create hands-on opportunities that make sense to young adolescents and the way they learn. Projects that inspire students to dig deeply into topics that are important to them provide opportunities for them to ask, explore, and engage, developing critical thinking skills and becoming architects of their own knowledge. 

• Our STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) curriculum emphasizes how these real-world subjects are relevant to our everyday lives and play a vital role in the future. From algebra to astronomy, coding to climate change, our project-based, hands-on curriculum will challenge and inspire.

• English Language Arts and Social Studies classes are more than just reading and writing, but a deep exploration of the human experience. Our students develop an understanding of the social and political dynamics that shape history and the world we live in today.

• Wild Ways, our three-year naturalist program, builds on our foundation of outdoor education and social and environmental justice. Through regular outings in nature students learn outdoor skills, as well as traditional technologies and crafts.

• As students gain maturity and experience, leadership takes on new meaning. Student Council, the Buddies program, and Community Engaged Learning all offer opportunities for middle school students to develop strong connections to their community, advocate for themselves and others, and create partnerships with local organizations addressing issues that matter and are relevant to them.

• The focus of the Art of Living program is our students’ own lives. They explore dynamics of identity, body image, social pressure, and more, gaining perspective and tools to address the challenges of early adolescents. Restorative Justice circles and Advising help students navigate the ups and downs of middle school. Our program also builds a strong foundation in high school readiness, as well as some of the basics of “adulting”-- digital citizenship, financial literacy, time management and organization, and more.

• Students have the opportunity to explore a variety of Performing Arts through rotations such as Music, Dance, and Drama, and Public Speaking/Debate. Set-building, costume design, choreography, and lighting are also possible ways for students to participate. Students also have opportunities to deepen their study of Visual Arts: drawing, painting, photography, and clay work. We hope to build partnerships with arts organizations so we can offer metalwork, glass, or graphic art.

• At Berkwood Hedge Middle School, social justice means we strive to move beyond tolerance to celebration of differences. Through the intentional study of identity and diversity, spiritual literacy and value systems, and power and privilege, students build understanding and empathy, and have the opportunity to put their learning into practice by developing their own social justice projects through our leadership and service program.

 For more than 79 years, we have nurtured a community in which intellectual and emotional development are inseparable. Over the course of their journey with us, our students find their purpose and their passion in learning and in life, developing deep empathy for others, forming their own beliefs and values, and exercising their voices and choices. We look forward to offering your middle school student the opportunity to grow and thrive with us.