We have a 9th grade boy currently at a Boston Collegiate Charter School. He’s an ADD kid and this school is terrific at working with ADD kids. As a result, he’s gone from an indifferent student to 1st or 2nd Honors every term. But the school has almost no sports or extracurriculars, Additionally, (without any test prep whatsoever), he scored pretty low on the SSAT: about 40th percentile.
We have friends who have been suggesting Proctor to him for some time and we are visiting soon. But we have several questions. We want him to repeat 9th grade if he goes to an independent school.
How does academic success at BCCS (one of the state’s most successful charters) map to a school like Proctor? We’re not sure what the transition will be like.
Are there other New England boarding schools who focus on different learners? From what we can see, Proctor’s Experiential Learning focus seems an excellent environment for him. Some other schools seem to think ADD support means a convenient line for medications at the health center.
A high school graduate friend has a daughter at the Dublin School and praises it. He works at a good day school in my area so he has a good perspective. They seem to have athletics although if I might recall, your son likes hockey and they don’t appear to have it…
Look at Worcester Academy.It has a robust Center For Learning (CFL), hockey, and a unique, welcoming community for all kinds of kids, from future Rhodes Scholars to artists and athletes and activists.
We too have friends with a son at Forman who love it, though I think Forman is really geared toward LDs, not just ADHD/executive functioning. I’ve also heard good things about Dublin, but I have the idea that their athletics aren’t particularly strong.
From our research and investigation last year, I think that a lot more schools offer learning support than feature it prominently in their materials. My son has ADHD and received some support through middle school, so we focused on schools with established learning centers, including The Gunnery, Berkshire, Avon, Salisbury (where he is enrolled), and Lawrence Academy. (He didn’t want to go as far as VT/NH, so we ended up never looking at Proctor.) Different schools have different degrees of experiential programming. Salisbury is pretty traditional, but as an all-boys’ school, I think they do a good job of understanding boys and what makes them tick. My son hasn’t used the learning center at all; the structure of the school day and teachers’ availability and involvement are awesome.
Yes, I was going to suggest Salisbury, Berkshire and Suffield. All have great sports and a pretty typical boarding school experience. Suffield in particular is very impressive in terms of support.
Hun (NJ) is mostly day (so maybe not what you are looking for) but has boarders and a good reputation for serving kids with LD. It is more structured than some so helpful with exec functioning. And it is very sporty. But I am guessing you’ll find what you are looking for closer to home…
We toured Proctor today. Extremely impressive. The combination of the experiential learning approach and comprehensive review of each student’s background leads to a lot of customized support. They support students who went to try and get off medications they may be taking My son does not like taking anything that isn’t “natural” although this does not extend to macaroni and cheese.
Ironically one of our tour guides transferred from Worcester Academy after a year. We had a lengthy and detailed tour, Newly rebuilt athletic center and beautiful gym and Rink. The school has their own Ski area but it was not open yet. Met football and hockey coaches, and they work hard to develop the kids there rather than import them.
Good to hear. We are visiting Proctor on Saturday. We’ve also looked at New Hampton, Brewster, Vermont Academy and Kimball Union and liked them all. I think those are good fits for people that are also looking at Proctor. Cushing is another one, but we haven’t visited there yet. You can also check Cheshire, Kents Hill and Tilton.
I’m a Proctor alum parent and can vouch that the school is an amazing place. The campus is gorgeous - there have been huge investments in recent years thanks to a very strong and supportive parent and alumni network. It also provides opportunities not available at other schools (Ocean, Euro, Wilderness etc). Oh and then there’s the ski hill.
Between my two kiddos, I feel like we visited many of the above schools and this is a great list. I would 2nd or 3rd Berkshire, Suffield, Dublin, Proctor. How important is hockey and at what level? NMH likely does have enough support for your son. They have a learning center and you can see a teacher there every day I believe (and no extra fee!), but classes are all extended (90 minutes I think) which is a negative for some adhd kids. Classes are lively and discussion based though and I think a great strength of the school (we have 1 recent grad). Varsity hockey is nearly all recruits at NMH, Berkshire, Cushing and some others above, but my child made the JV team as a total newbie ( strong skater though) and had a great time. Tons of ECs as it is a bigger but very warm school.
Berkshire has robust support and by far the nicest hockey rinks we saw (yes, they have2!) and science center. We nearly sent our youngest to Dublin and it is a lovely, cozy school. If your son is not aiming towards playing hockey in college, I would definitely consider them. They have their own ski slope like Proctor, a mountain biking course and some other less common sports. My youngest is now at Darrow also in the Berkshires which is tiny and also offers robust support and all classes are experiential. Very laid back and definitely stronger in the arts than athletics but if a small, progressive, hands on school is appealing, we are impressed with them so far. Putney might also be a good fit if hockey is not a must. White Mountain School is also nice and I have heard good things about Cheshire. Millbrook also has good support and families seem to love it but maybe no hockey - but they have a zoo! Mercersburg was on my oldest’s list and might work too.