The Academy - Why did you leave?

We left The Academy because we moved, but in retrospect it was the greatest blessing that could have happened to us. When our kid now describes their time there it is heartbreaking. The social environment is just too small, and there isn't any focus on social-emotional education. Yes, many teachers are warm, but they wouldn't help with my kid's relationships. But if your kid doesn't gel with the few kids in their grade, what are they supposed to do? All the kids of the same gender in my kid's grade would get together for playdates and my kid was the only one not invited. That is really harmful. They told my kid they liked school better when they weren't there. (My kid isn't non-binary, I just don't want to add potentially revealing information.) Also, there was a real social difference between kids whose mothers worked full-time versus those who had much more flexibility. As a mother who worked full-time and couldn't, for example, take kids out for ice cream and playdates after school, my kid suffered. When we changed to a bigger school, our kid became much happier. The new school had a social-emotional curriculum in addition to regular school stuff. At the new school they taught about how to resolve conflicts, value differences, etc. There's more to having a successful kid than academics. I wish I'd known that before.

My child entered in middle school and graduated from the Academy and moved on to the high school of their choice. They see their time there as a really happy timeand loved their teachers. In my child’s time there two classmates left. Both families chose to move out of state for family reasons. My child also had a classmate that left The Academy in elementary school and returned in middle school. I have another child at another well regarded private school where half the class left over the course of their elementary school time. Families make different decisions to leave and in my experience at both schools, the decision to leave had more to do with family decisions (financial, life change, location preference, wanting child to walk to school) versus issues with that particular school. It sounds like you are unsure about the school and I would dig deeper into the reasons why you feel unsure. I would advise you to see if your son feels comfortable and seen at the school as he will be the one to spend the most time there. Maybe you need another trial day. At the admissions process The Academy was the only school that allowed my child spend  the entire day there and because of that, they felt seen, challenged and felt that it was right school for them. All that mattered to us that they found the right fit and they did. Good luck to you.

Congratulations on your son's acceptance! My information is a little dated (this was more than a few years ago), but just in case you don't get any other responses: We left The Academy after fourth grade because we realized our child needed more advancement in some areas, and more support in others, than they were able to provide. The school has some flexibility in both directions, but our kid just turned out to be kind of a square peg. We loved the school, though; it was a very warm and lovely environment, with great teachers and wonderful families. If I had another kid now, I would definitely be interested in going back.

We left the Academy despite some wonderful subject matter teachers (especially in science), great friendships, and high academic expectations (especially for writing). We left because the school is not well equipped to deal with variance. The kids are expected to be exactly a year (or maybe two) ahead. In other schools, if a kid is very ahead or very behind in a subject, there are quiet spaces or a library where they can work alone and a few support staff that can help with differentiation. The Academy is much too small and too rigid for this. Even if a kid can easily document mastery of some material, lots of class worksheets and repetitive homework needs to be completed.  Small size also matters for friendships. We lucked out in this regard, but this is not always the case.