Upper School at Wheeler
Students in Wheeler’s Upper School of Grades 9-12 embrace academic challenges, take risks, work hard and find joy while doing all of the above! Our students are high achievers who know how to collaborate. They are confident public speakers who are also good listeners. They know relationships matter while they are finding their own voice. Each is prepared to take the next steps to college and life.
Our Philosophy
It is our belief that giving students (that’s you!) the opportunities to take risks, embrace challenges, and find great joy in the learning process is as important as what each student learns. We hope that you, with the support of teachers who are experts in their fields, will not only graduate with a strong foundation of skills for college but that you will develop interests that will sustain you throughout your life. You can take a traditional path through a rigorous curriculum that is expansive and inspired. You can also take a road less traveled through our Design Shop seminars and follow a studio approach to learning with project teams and critiques that mirror the world of innovative design thinking.
Our Program
The Wheeler Upper School is academically rigorous, artistically rich and athletically competitive. Curricular disciplines are not so much crossed as melded — 11th graders in a short story elective create a three-part fictional podcast in Wheeler’s Digital Production Studio, for example. An intentional curriculum focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion, health and wellness, metacognition and social-emotional learning. We build the ‘muscles’ of empathy and resilience. We share, listen and laugh together. We disagree with respect and we learn with purpose.
Our Co-Curriculum
Upper School students participate in a variety of co-curricular experiences. Through Wheeler’s signature Aerie Approach, we connect students with passionate interests (from quantum physics to learning Turkish) with academic mentors from the surrounding colleges and the Providence community. Community Service Learning (CSL) is an important part of the Upper School experience at Wheeler and a graduation requirement. The program is designed to broaden horizons, foster individual responsibility, and strengthen leadership skills through a commitment to service. Through structured reflection, students assess the impact of their service on the organization, the community it serves, and themselves. Opportunities exist to assume leadership roles as members of clubs, class officers, and participants on one of our many academic and athletic teams.
Contact Neeltje Henneman (neeltjehenneman@wheelerschool.org), Upper School Head, for more information.
Upper School Administration
See Our Stories
With the temperature soaring, this is a great time to sign up for a Summer Pass to Wheeler’s new Swim Center! 💦
For just $500 for a half summer membership, you can enjoy our picturesque pools, along with everything else Wheeler Farm has to offer, from pickleball and tennis courts to expansive and shady nature trails. Day passes are available as well.
You don’t have to be a member of the Wheeler community to take advantage of this offer: Summer Passes are open to all! ☀️
Visit wheelersummercamp.com/family-pass to learn more and register.
Jun 30
We’re joining longtime PE teacher, Coach Eric Stein, for this post to remember a furry and fast-moving face that was familiar to many of us who frequented the farm: Coach Stein’s beloved dog, Knox. Sadly, Knox recently passed away.
“He had a tremendous life, and Wheeler was a daily part of it from his time as a puppy and through the majority of his 14 ½-year-life,” Coach Stein shares. “The first nine years together, he was a staple at the farm with me in the afternoons and early evenings, running and fetching the ball in between practices and games, as he put on a show of incredible agility, speed, and athleticism.
“He was always a resilient little man, and even though he lost his sight to retinal atrophy and cataracts, he still had his personality shining through and he was able to maintain a quality of life until recently. We didn’t get to spend much time together out at the farm after 2021.
“I just wanted to share this story with all of you because he not only touched my life, but there are Wheeler faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, and bus drivers that remember him fondly and have stories of the little dog that would run for hours and smile all the time!”
Thank you, Coach Stein, for making us all smile with these warm memories of Knox.
Jun 24
Summer at Wheeler is in full swing ☀️. While @wheelersummercamp and Summer at @thehamiltonschool are returning favorites, the brand new Aerie Summer – an extension of our longstanding and legendary Aerie Enrichment Program – is entering the second week of its first summer session.
To get a glimpse of Aerie in action, we stopped by a few of the classes taking place on our Providence campus. Students designed original video games in 3D Animation & Game Design with Extended Reality Coordinator and Immersive Tech Teacher Travis Dumais, explored Coordinate Geometry with Middle School Math Teacher Linda Leonard P’18, and strengthened their storytelling through Creative Writing and Photography with Middle School English Teacher Britt Page P’25, P’27.
While every classroom had its own energy, one moment perfectly captured what makes Aerie so special. Program Coordinator Trevor O`Driscoll P’27, P’29 walked into the final 20 minutes of the 3D Animation & Game Design class and found several Upper School students gathered around a 7th-grader`s original computer game, enthusiastically testing it.
"It was a marvel to watch them all interact and speak the same language as they praised and critiqued the Middle Schooler`s work," remarked Mr. O`Driscoll. "Tiny class sizes led by expert teachers where going deeper is limited only by a student`s imagination. It`s got all the hallmarks of a Wheeler Aerie program."
A limited number of seats are still available for Aerie`s August 17 session. Follow the link in our bio to learn more! 🚀https://wheelersummercamp.com/camps/an-aerie-summer/
We’ll be back in the coming weeks with more stories from our various summer programs, as participants explore their curiosity, make new friends, and have fun on both of our campuses, inside and out!
Jun 23
Wheeler’s offices and campuses are closed today in recognition of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
As the National Museum of African American History and Culture explains, “Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as ‘Juneteenth,’ by the newly freed people in Texas.”
We join in this celebration of freedom.
Jun 19
