About the Middle School
Taipei American School middle school program is designed around the natural enthusiasm of students. We strike a balance between the social-emotional well-being of adolescents and the academic rigor that is delivered by our middle school experts. The goal is to prepare our students not just for upper school but for whatever comes next by helping them become more independent, adaptable, and resilient, both as learners and as people.
TAS is a close-knit community of learners. The day intentionally begins with students in their homerooms, small groups of 10-12 students with one teacher, all building positive relationships and discussing meaningful topics around wellness. We want our students to benefit from individualized instruction, and our faculty is attuned to the unique developmental needs of students of this age. Homeroom teachers at each grade level work as a team under the guidance and supervision of the wellness coordinators, grade level leaders and counselors to provide relevant and engaging content. At the end of the day, we want our students to have thoroughly enjoyed the learning process and to be proud of their hard work. Middle school students created the MS Character Code that aligns with the TAS values of honesty, respect, responsibility, kindness, and courage. These principles guide our daily interactions along with the MS mantra “Character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking”.
The academic program is designed to expand our students’ horizons. All of our courses challenge them to make the critical links between subject areas. Along with core classes in English, history, and science, we offer levels of math to meet all student needs as well as multiple levels of Mandarin, Spanish, and Latin/Greek. We also offer students new challenges through experiential settings such as our Camp Taiwan trips in the fall.
Our electives program offers a further mix of classes such as drama, debate, ceramics and robotics. In addition, all students participate in a performing arts class during each year of middle school. Our after school co-curricular program includes a vast array of additional activities. Middle school clubs are all sponsored by middle school teachers and include over 30 different activities that allow students to further explore their interests in such things as the middle school musical, MathCounts, Model UN, and VEX EDR. Many of these clubs include traveling for competitions. With 13 after school sports and fitness training offered throughout the year, our students have innumerable opportunities to learn, grow and shine.