Hi all. Does anyone know if the Brooks School in North Andover, MA (1) Has Saturday classes? If so, do you know the details? Is it every Saturday, how long, does this mean students are in class more than at other prep schools? (2) Do they have a dress code, and how strict? I thought it was minor such as no ripped jeans, but I’ve now heard girls should wear skirt every day.
Same question for Governor’s Academy.
I thought many of the prep schools moved away from Saturday classes and/or a dress code.
I’m sorry I can’t answer your specific question, but all the prep schools I know (which, clearly, is not all prep schools) have Saturday classes.
Besides allowing the school to have its academic calendar (shorter school year) it also keeps the students busy. Schools don’t want a lot of teenagers with time on their hands.
Most schools also have half days on Wednesdays, so it balances out from a workload perspective, although admittedly,most kids would prefer not to have classes on Saturday.
Admittedly I’m not keeping track of girls’ dress codes, but there are few that require skirts.
Most questions like this can be found on the school’s website. An official (or unofficial) social media site would likely have images of students in their day-to-day dress
Saturday classes also accommodate the sports schedule, to allow teams to travel Wednesdays and Saturdays, which are the normal game days. I take it there’s a lot of variation among how schools structure their Wednesday’s and Saturday’s, but basically it allows the 5-day class schedule to be spread over 4 full and 2 half days. My son doesn’t mind it — it’s just part of the routine.
There are definitely more boarding schools without Saturday classes than the ones that still have them. Including the very top ones like Andover. And then there are a bunch of schools that have them some of the time, from once a month (usually to compensate for long weekends) to every other weekend. It seems the trend is to get rid of them, I believe Deerfield has done so recently. We strongly preferred no Saturday classes, it gives the kids two homework free nights, and if you have a child who plays serious sports or other time consuming extracurriculars most of the big games/meets/competitions are on Saturday so it is nice not to have to get up at 6:30am. Plus it is much easier to leave campus for family or sports commitments.
Saturday classes also tend to help create a stronger weekend culture. Not only is it harder for boarders to leave for the weekend, it brings day students back on campus.
Flip side, one weekend night vs 2 and one morning to sleep in. Honestly, pros and cons both ways. Generally, same amount of classroom time, just distributed differently. (Not unlike college, where some students avoid Friday classes, some prefer ones that meet 1x/week for 3 hours vs 4x/week for 45 minutes. )
For real information about dress codes you need to speak to kids at the schools. My kids both go to schools with much stricter dress codes than what is actually enforced on the ground. Example, my daughter’s dress code is no leggings but girls wear leggings all the time and it’s no big deal. Actually, my son’s dress code is very similar and I’ve seen girls wearing leggings at his school as well. I would say it’s more about keeping belly shirts and super cut off jean shorts out of the school.
Also, Saturday classes - I thought it would be awful, it’s not. Check out their vacation schedule. There is a lot of time off and I think it balances out. Saturday classes have become routine very quickly and don’t seem like a big burden since they would be at games anyway - it’s not like we would have our weekends as a family.
When we weighed Saturday classes we factored in what our child would prefer. Having two days “off” was needed to keep sanity, weekend homework and the club sport going.
I don’t think having Saturday classes keeps kids on campus. Most schools have Saturday sports so depending on the number of students and other factors all the athletes are there on Saturday. Not to mention that many day students will be there for various activities.
We’ve also run across schools with some Saturday classes. Oh brother. More scheduling constraints. But that seems more palatable.
Saturday classes could be a negative factor if you are a day student or live close to the school and wanted your child to come home on weekends if they wanted to. I’m sure some kids like having classes spread out. Also some schools have a half day on Wednesday and no Saturday classes, You have to check each school. It should be on the web site.
A good way to check dress code is when you visit the school. Some schools seems to enforce it more/less.