The Vista Charter Academy staff is committed to making the middle school years a wonderful opportunity for students to mature socially and academically. The school leadership strives to maintain a safe environment conducive for learning. This means students learn to take responsibility for their actions and understand how to manage their behavior.
Mentoring Program
Each middle school student is assigned to a mentor and small mentoring group. Students meet with their mentor and small group once a week to discuss any social or academic concerns they have. The mentors help provide students with the direction and support they need to enjoy their learning experience at Vista.
Playbook for True Success
The Playbooks for True Success are used by our 6th -8th graders throughout the entire course of the school year. The lessons in the playbook align with our monthly moral focus virtues, giving students another perspective on those virtues that have been talked about during Opening Ceremonies.
The mission of "The Playbook for True Success" is to transform lives of youth by instilling character and hope for success in school and life. The continued emphasis of this mission and our moral focus virtues is designed to help build our middle school students to become better students and more importantly better people.
House Teams
The Vista Middle school 6-8th grade students are teamed up on “House Teams”, which is a fun new program where the mixed grade teams compete to win points for many different reasons.
The teams can earn points for:
- Good grades
- Turning in homework on time
- Positive behavior
- Participating in sports
- Participating in extra-curricular activities
- Attendance
- Uniform consistency
- House Team competitions
The winning team has a great year-end surprise!
Not only are the students learning the value of teamwork, but they are rewarded for giving their best. The students are given tickets when “caught” displaying great choices, and there are bi-weekly drawings for prizes throughout the year.
This exercise promotes teamwork, leadership, and helps the students to form positive relationships, as well as makes the Vista Middle School a fun place to be!
Career Exploration
Our 8th graders will be taking the “ACT explore test” in the spring, similar to the ACT test taken by sophomores in high school, to begin to prepare them for the college testing they can expect in the future.
Encore Classes
Life Skills, Choir, Journalism, Art, Science Olympiad, Physical Education, Spanish, Health and Fitness, Current Events, Music Appreciation, High Achievers Think Tank, Teen Leadership, Finance, Advanced Technology, and various others
To learn more about Grand Rapids' Vista Charter Academy middle school, visit us today!
All 8th graders complete a “Career Plan” language arts research project. After investigating potential jobs at the Grand Rapids Museum career day, the students research their chosen job, and follow a rubric to complete a 5 part essay, charting things like: the job responsibilities, benefits, schedule, pay range, education needed, advancement opportunities, etc… This prepares them for thinking about the future after college, and how they can make plans now to accomplish their goals.
High School Preparation
Striving toward our goal of preparing Middle School students for high school and beyond, we invite representatives from area secondary schools to Vista to meet with students, and we gather and distribute information about their orientation dates.
We are partnering with local charter high school Grand River Preparatory Academy, to enable the students to continue their current academic rigor and moral focus relevance, for their 4 high school years.
Vista students will receive “preference” when applying to attend Grand River, though they do have to fill out an application by end of open enrollment.
