Overview
Twelve academic disciplines in the Junior School are staffed by 30 of the Academy's full-time teaching faculty members. The student-teacher ratio is 5 to 1 and the average class size is 15 to 22 students.

Field Trips
Students participate in age -appropriate educational field trips to enhance the classroom experience. Students also work on interdisciplinary projects which integrate skills learned in their various courses.

The Notre Dame Junior School Graduate
 The Middle School years are significant in a young girl's maturation process. It is a time that offers an opportunity to address their special concerns. Notre Dame's expectations for the young women who graduate from the Junior School are that they will:

• perform successfully at the high school and future academic levels;
• understand their own religious beliefs and respect those of others;
• interact meaningfully with peers and appreciate diverse cultures;
• desire to live a life of service to others;
• appreciate and participate in the fine and performing arts;
• use technology competently and responsibly;
• participate in physical activities that promote a healthy lifestyle.

In light of these objectives, Notre Dame’s Junior School curriculum strives to provide a balanced program that stimulates growth in knowledge, skills and personal qualities. Some of the programs offered are as follows:

Critical Thinking
One of the objectives chosen by the Academy for its Middle States Evaluation was to raise students' critical thinking skills - particularly through reading and writing. For the foreseeable future each academic area will emphasize these skills with our students.

Mathematics
The Junior School program addresses specific topics and skills sequentially by grade. In accordance with the Academy’s Middle States Objectives, the curriculum will emphasize problem solving. All eighth grade students take Algebra..

Foreign Language
Sixth Grade students now have an opportunity to sample French, Spanish and Latin, each for a third of the year, before making a decision to pursue their choice in seventh grade.

Guidance
The Notre Dame Junior School has its own Guidance Counselor who not only provides classroom sessions on pertinent topics for each grade but who takes the time to know and guide each child.

Campus Ministry
Each grade in the Junior School participates in a scheduled Social Service activity throughout the year: Sixth Grade visits senior citizens at Fair Acres; Seventh Grade joins in a program with the youngest children at Saint Cyprian's School; and Eighth Grade helps with food distribution at the Patrician Society of Norristown. The Junior School Campus Ministry Team directs fundraising for such causes as the people of Dafur and charities of the Sisters of Notre Dame.

The Instrumental Ensemble
At present the Junior School has the greatest number of students performing in the Notre Dame Ensemble which bodes well for the future of the music program. Participants take lessons either privately or through the school. They practice on Wednesdays at ninth period and after school for two major performances at Christmas and in the Spring.

Technology  
All sixth grade students take technology classes with an emphasis on keyboarding skills.Students are introduced to the software applications and the technology available to them at Notre Dame. These include using the campus computer network, using and managing their email account, the Citrix remote access system, Edline (classroom course management system), and online research tools such as the Notre Dame library page, subscription websites, and the online card catalog system.

Core technology concepts are reinforced in seventh and eighth grade as students utilize technology applications in course projects. Assistance is provided for projects assigned to the students by faculty who are integrating technology into their curriculum.