In February of 2008, Belding Middle School was recognized as a National School to Watch. This award, sponsored by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-level Reform, recognizes middle schools that show exemplary efforts and progress. BMS is one of only six schools in the State of Michigan to receive this honor!
The four main criteria to determine a school’s eligibility for this award:
- Academic Excellence
- Developmental Responses
- Social Equity
- Organizational Structure
Academic excellence at Belding Middle School is demonstrated in many ways. Our teachers work hard to design engaging lessons that are aligned to the state curriculum standards. They also collaborate to write common assessments that accurately measure each learner’s understanding of the concept. This work is reflected in our MEAP scores where we continue to achieve above the state average in every category.
Belding Middle School is responsive to students’ developmental needs by maintaining an orderly building where students feel respected and return that respect to the staff and to their peers.
BMS also offers many programs such as mentoring and support groups that respond to students when individual needs arise. BMS strives to make achievement possible for all students by offering many inclusion and extra learning opportunities for our students who need them while also offering programs for students that achieve at high levels.
A feature that we are very proud of at Belding Middle School is our team structure. Each student is placed with a team of two, three or four teachers for his or her core classes. These teams meet regularly to discuss the needs and achievement of students. It is our structure that allows for teacher collaboration on assessments and lesson plans.
We encourage visitors to browse our web page and see the different programs that we offer at BMS. In addition to our core classes we have a full array of encore classes that feature an award winning band program, Spanish, two high-level computer application classes, health, physical education and art. We also have many extra curricular activities for students that range from competitive athletics to Science Olympiad to the National Junior Honor Society. Many of these activities are featured in more detail within the BMS web page.