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
Given today’s hot weather, we felt this was a perfect time to provide you with a peek at our new pool center at Wheeler Farm! 💦
Finishing touches are underway under the dome, but we’ll be ready to dive in at our ribbon cutting on June 8 (following Field Day). We’ll share more information soon about that event, but in the meantime, if these photos have you thinking about summer, it’s not too late to sign up for a Family Pass to enjoy the pool in person (and when the dome will be off)! ☀️
Visit wheelersummercamp.com/family-pass/ for more information.
May 19
Eighth-graders recently learned about the impact of redlining on communities directly from someone who has made it her mission to advocate for those negatively impacted by it: Wheeler parent Michelle Davidson P’30, P’30, who is also a senior loan officer at Luminate Bank.
“During the school year, students in U.S. History have discovered how redlining originated during the New Deal and continued to grow in the coming decades,” shared Middle School History Teacher Colin Martin P’24, P’27, P’29. “We have explored how redlining — the discriminatory practice of denying loans and financial services to residents of certain neighborhoods, often based on race — has impacted not only people at the time, but also generational wealth, with the domino effect rippling through decades and generations. Even now, redlining continues to directly impact lives.”
As one recent example, Mr. Martin explained that, in 2023, City National Bank of Los Angeles was fined $31 million for its redlining practices.
During her visit, Mrs. Davidson spoke about her experience as a financial executive hired early in her career by Fleet Bank to address its redlining practices. She went on to transform the lending division at Fleet Bank RI before embarking on a broader career focused on educating and empowering individuals to achieve homeownership — first in Rhode Island and later nationally.
“Her career is an example of how one person can impact the financial wealth of thousands, including subsequent generations, through homeownership,” said Mr. Martin.
May 19
This summer, curiosity takes flight at Wheeler’s Aerie Summer Program ✨🚀. Designed for Middle and Upper School students, Aerie offers week-long morning intensives where learning goes beyond the classroom and into hands-on exploration, collaboration, and discovery 🔍.
From podcasting and photography to AI and advanced mathematics, students will dive deeply into subjects they’re passionate about alongside expert educators and peers who love learning just as much as they do.
Held during the weeks of June 15, June 22, and August 17, Aerie is a place to create, question, experiment, and grow, all within Wheeler’s signature “learning without limits” philosophy.
💭 Wherever their interests lead, students at Aerie will spend the summer thinking bigger, going deeper, and discovering just how far their curiosity can take them!💡You can learn more by visiting bit.ly/aerie-summer.
May 19
As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, students in the 6th-Grade Farm Program recently stepped into the woods…slowed down…and focused.🌳
Surrounded by trees, the session began simply with a few deep breaths and a reminder that whatever they were feeling, even if they were giggles, was valid. “They didn’t need to judge the feeling; just notice it,” shared 6th-Grade Farm Program Director Sam Abeshouse P’26, P’29.
“From there, students were guided through ‘forest bathing’ exercises that encouraged them to be present, using a single tree as their anchor point,” said Farm Program Assistant Teacher Diana Brennan. “The experience created space to pause, observe, and settle into the moment. At the end of the session, students reflected on their moods.”
Some felt energized; others were relaxed. “One student also complained about the eastern skunk cabbage nearby,” Mr. Abeshouse noted. “All were valid.”
Rooted in “shinrin-yoku,” the Japanese practice of forest bathing, the experience encourages connection to the natural world through our senses. “Through this process, breathing oxygen produced by the trees around us, hearing birdsong, touching the textures of bark, we are reassured that humans are not isolated, but are part of the broader world of life around us,” explained Ms. Brennan.
“Forest bathing is a natural fit with Mental Health Awareness Month,” added Mr. Abeshouse. “Exposure to the natural world by age 12 can shape a person’s lifelong connection with the environment. It can reduce cortisol and boost the immune system, and even hospital rooms with views of trees have been shown to promote healing. Now more than ever, the environment needs people connected to it. And it turns out, we need it too." 💚 #MayIsMentalHealthAwarenessMonth
May 18
