<p>I am desperately seeking information about the Winsor School of Boston. I know that basic information that is on the web, but I am looking for insights from people who have daughters at the school or from people who are or have been students at the school. I am interested in hearing your thoughts both on the middle school and the upper school. I need to make a decision in the next couple of weeks, so your input will be very helpful.</p>
<p>Bump. Anyone?</p>
<p>I have an upper school student at Winsor, and she started in Class I (5th grade), so Iâve seen the entire middle school experience. Since I could write a very boring book about the Winsor experience, perhaps you could ask specific questions, or list areas of concern, and I could address them.</p>
<p>A short summary. </p>
<p>Academics. The classes are generally rigorous, especially in the higher math and science tracks, and there is a lot of homework. Nobody makes a 4.0. The English department takes pride in its grade deflation. AP courses are offered, or not offered, by department. English and History faculty have decided not to offer AP classes, but you still find them in math, the sciences, the languages, and art. Girls still take the English and History APâs via self study. The writing curriculum is excellent, IMHO. I think the schoolâs approach to history, which emphasizes the modern world at the expense of earlier times, is misguided, and Iâve grown tired of the race, class, gender, and sexuality approach to everything under the sun, but thatâs a minor nit, and one with which most parents donât agree. The academics are incredibly strong and, IMO, a nice combination of new and old techniques.</p>
<p>Socially, most everyone seems to find a clique that they enjoy, but it can be very cliquey, with a lot of animosity between groups, especially in 8th and 9th grade. There are a lot of very wealthy families, which can be strange, but Iâve never experienced any economic snobbery at all, and neither has my daughter, though we are decidedly middle class. I find Winsor families to be remarkably welcoming and just nice.</p>
<p>The college matriculation data is insane. Girls do very well in the college admission process, and the school makes an effort to emphasize fit over prestige, however much good it does.</p>
<p>Flat out, itâs not a very diverse environment. I donât lose a lot sleep about it, but I know some people care. Lots of really ambitious and confident white and asian girls. Lots of Jewish girls.</p>
<p>The lack of boys is an issue for some girls. If someone struggles with the opposite sex, it can be very difficult to meet boys. Dances are bad places to meet boys, plays are better. Most girls have boys in their lives, though, if they want them. Itâs just a lot of work for some of the girls.</p>
<p>Again, any specific questions you have, Iâll be glad to answer. My daughter adores The Winsor School, is very proud of her achievements there, and considers it an important part of her identity. I canât describe how much sheâs grown while there.</p>
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<p>Thanks for your comments, Angry Dad. It looks like there is some socioeconomic diversity, at least. What about sports? I know that the school offers a variety of sports and participates in interscholastic leagues. Is it socially important at Winsor to be on one of the more competitive teams (varsity, junior varsity)? Our main interest is academics but I am curious about the various dimensions involved in âfitting inâ.</p>
<p>Great question, IB.</p>
<p>There are plenty of Winsor girls who have been playing their sports since they were three, take it very seriously, and intend to play in college. And they get a lot of respect. But itâs not an important part of âfitting in.â There are other ways to find a crowd â clubs and plays come to mind, and Facebook is an increasingly important part of the schoolâs social landscape, of course.</p>
<p>My daughter is one of those girls who played a few sports in middle school, dabbled at the JV level, and then hit that wall past which only serious athletes venture. Winsorâs thing is finding what youâre good at and running with it. That can be sports, but it doesnât have to be at all. She has friends who are nationally ranked athletes and friends who have never played a sport in their lives, and I think youâd see that mixture in other groups as well.</p>
<p>(As an aside, in the upper school if you donât play a sport and are not taking a health and fitness class that semester, you have to create a workout plan and come to the fitness room to workout 2 or 3 times a week.)</p>
<p>Ok, thanks, AD. Can you elaborate on the cliques that you mentioned? Are they based on classic high school stereotypes (jocks, nerds, etc.), ethnicity, religion, neighborhood/town?</p>
<p>A second question is the extent to which the lower and upper schools are connected. Do girls from both interact with each other? Are the academics very different philosophically?</p>
<p>AG, thanks for your insights. I have two questions, which I think you might be able to fold into answers to other people.</p>
<p>First, could you briefly compare the academics between the middle school and the upper school at Winsor? Frankly, I have been hearing some things that the academics at the middle school might not be that strong (no course grades until 7th or in some cases 9th grades, questionable math program, etc.)</p>
<p>Second, you said that some of the upper school girls take AP tests even when Winsor does not offer an AP course. Do these girls hire tutors to help them prepare, or is the Wisnor course by itself enough?</p>
<p>Many thanks for your candid thoughts.</p>
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<p>I donât think itâs any of those things.</p>
<p>My take, and you should understand that teen aged girls baffle me, is that itâs mostly based on personality traits and personal style. What are you interested in? Are you confident? Awkward? Outgoing? Reserved? Are you boy crazy?</p>
<p>Everyone seems to have a group of four or five that they are extremely close to, and then a bunch of individual friends from other groups that they hang out with situationally (French class, Engineering club, carpool, sharing enjoyment of 90210, whatever). </p>
<p>One would think (or at least I did) that such a small school would be very difficult for new kids to break into. But the small class size makes the girls long for new blood, and as the class expands from 25-30 in Class I to 60 or 70 in Class V, new students seem to be assimilated very quickly. Youâd never guess which girls in my daughterâs crowd were new this year, and which have been there from the get-go.</p>
<p>Finally, I think more and more girls âfloatâ as they get older, and the groups become less rigid the further they get from middle school.</p>
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<p>Middle school and upper school are in the same building, and they all use the same halls. I donât think thereâs a huge amount of interaction generally, though. At the beginning of Class V, the first year in the upper school, advisory groups met with the older girls in âpeer supportâ and discussed social issues â things like proper behavior at dances and the increased workload in the upper school.</p>
<p>I donât think the academics are different philosophically, but there is an enormous jump in what is expected of the girls, work-wise and also in how independent theyâre supposed to be, starting in Class V. There is a month or two of extreme doubt at the beginning of upper school life, until everyone adjusts to the change.</p>
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<p>In Class I and II, I think there was a lot of focus on basics. Theyâre getting kids from a broad range of elementary schools who are at wildly different levels. Some have already studied the ancient world to death, for example, whereas some have never had any history at all. So the girls learn to type, do homework, write, read and discuss a text, have class conversations about touchy subjects, and more, in a joint English/History class that I thought was absolutely wonderful. So thereâs some getting up to speed, and I can see how some parents would think it was a waste of time. I didnât.</p>
<p>There are no grades until 7th grade, and no grades in English until 9th grade. The students put a lot of pressure on themselves, and the parents expect them to excel, and my suspicion is that the school wants to postpone as much pressure as possible for as long as possible. The reports cards in the middle school contain written descriptions of your daughterâs work, and that continues into the upper school. I never associated the lack of grades in middle school with weak academics â I think they realize that theyâre working a bunch of eleven year olds pretty hard, and donât want to make it any worse than it has to be.</p>
<p>Can you be more specific about the middle school math program? I think you may be referring to this: Winsor doesnât accelerate in math. Everyone takes one version or another of the same course in the same year. So, for example, in Class IV you take Algebra. One group might learn it in greater depth, but all groups are in basically the same place at the same time. I think that may irritate some of the stronger students (you read about kids on CC taking Calculus freshman year, and thatâs just not how Winsor does things) and their parents. Perhaps thatâs what you were talking about?</p>
<p>My opinion is that the academics in the middle school were plenty strong.</p>
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<p>I donât know if anyone hires tutors. Iâm not going to. Many girls take the Biology SAT after Class V, and some self-study is necessary to prepare for that test. The school says that its English sequence (Class V Lit, Class VI US Lit, a mandatory non-western lit class, and electives like 19th c. English Lit or Shakespeare) is sufficient preparation for the English Language and Literature APâs, and I take that to mean that study for those exams is mostly review, rather than learning new material.</p>
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<p>Itâs my pleasure. I only hope that, in being candid and answering specific questions, my absolute delight regarding my daughterâs experience at Winsor isnât being lost. Itâs just been unbelievable.</p>
<p>AD, your comments are very helpful, thanks! I want to echo your point about not misconstruing the focus on potential negatives in this thread as a balanced reflection of Winsorâs obvious quality. Even though we are not officially a Winsor family yet, the data that we have seen about the school clearly point to outstanding academics. Also, our first-hand experience with Winsor so far has been extremely positive.</p>
<p>IB, did your daughter do either of the visiting days last week? If she decides to attend, start a thread next year to let me know what Iâm wrong about. ;)</p>
<p>She visited last week, and will be at Winsor next year. Weâre extremely happy about this. Thanks again for your comments. Maybe I can send you a PM if I encounter any surprises. Likewise, please feel free to PM me if you would like to share any additional thoughts.</p>