Our goal for the Riverhill School Ninth Grade program is to ensure preparation for high school’s college bound and advanced placement courses. Our staff is committed to providing an academically challenging curriculum. We care about young adolescents and want to create a safe, orderly environment that sets the stage for developing your child’s strengths.

At Riverhill School we recognize that early adolescence is a separate and distinct developmental stage, a unique period between childhood and young adulthood, one filled with its own challenges, adjustments and revelations. An awkward time at best, it is often as difficult for the parents as it is for the child. At this crucial stage of self-discovery, adolescents need the comfort and opportunities of an environment where they can discover what they do well. Riverhill students get precisely what they need without the pressures of a large environment and misguided peers. We provide a caring, comfortable environment where students can excel intellectually, physically, and socially...an opportunity for young people to establish their own identities, and to develop self-confidence as well.

Ninth Grade can help set the stage for the high school years and for the rest of every student’s life. The way we act, our likes and dislikes, our talents and abilities...these are all things that we first begin to discover and define during our adolescent years. At Riverhill, students are not overwhelmed by older students, but looked up to and admired by younger ones. This is essential in reinforcing their confidence, and also in encouraging them to test their limits and develop their leadership skills.

As tradition would have it older students are sometimes isolated from lower grade levels. By limiting their contact, it is difficult to foster natural relationships with younger children. At Riverhill, we have found that a student’s personality and character are enhanced through interaction in our community. By facilitating and encouraging this kind of interaction, we believe that we’re laying the foundation for a lifetime of caring, constructive relationships.