Welcome

  • Welcome to the Rupert A. Nock Middle School. With over 560 6th through 8th grade students and a staff of over 80, we are a vibrant, active learning community.

Team-based Teaching

  • Students attending the Nock learn on a team-based model.

    Each grade level has two heterogeneous teams consisting of six teachers: English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Spanish and Special Education.

    Being Newburyport Clippers, our teams are named Crimson and Gold.

     

Creating a Community of Learners

  • Our students are growing socially, physically and academically. Young adolescents are striving for independence while continuing to need support when handling new responsibilities. As recent brain research confirms, the influence of peers is often stronger than that of trusted adults or parents, making it critical for educators to create opportunities to develop positive peer leadership.

    With these developmental needs in mind, Nock courses and community-wide initiatives include opportunities for students to build confidence in creating new friendships, setting personal goals, and taking healthy risks.

    We call our community development program The Nock Advantage. The Nock Advantage is based on the Clipper Values of respect, responsibility, kindness and awareness. 

Developmentally Appropriate Practices

  • Our educational approach is grounded in the developmental needs of 11-14 year olds.

    A team-based teaching approach allows us to provide specialized instruction in the content areas while also offering a whole-child, interdisciplinary approach.

Guided by our Portrait of a Graduate

  • Portrait of Graduate logoOur goal is to support students to become literate, engaged citizens across all the content areas. Students learn and practice work habits such as persevering through academic challenges, managing projects, and meeting deadlines. They become more skilled at reading and writing across the disciplines as they learn, for example, to think like mathematicians, read like scientists, and write like historians.

    Students also explore the content and skills of music, art, physical education, engineering, world language, and wellness. “Explore” classes meet daily and provide further opportunities for students to develop literacy in many disciplines.