After a disappointing experience with a local Montessori school, we decided to look into other…read moreoptions for our daughter.
Though I wish we had found SIS before the start of the year (avoiding the whole nasty mess with the other school) the staff and teachers at SIS were wonderfully accommodating and worked hard to ensure that the transition would be a smooth one for my daughter.
Really, I couldn't be more thrilled with the learning environment, structure of the program and my daughter's enthusiasm.
From the first day that we came to observe the school, we were swept off our feet. They begin each day with a morning meeting in which all the children in the school, from Kindergarteners to 6th graders, as well as the teachers and administrators attend. It is hosted in the great room of this beautiful Adirondack campus, and all take turns greeting one another and shaking hands. Our intent was to sit in the wings and observe quietly, but one student (I estimate his age to be around 10 or so) came up to us, looked us in the eyes, introduced himself, offering his had for us to shake. He welcomed us, and our daughter to his school and asked if she would like to come sit with him at morning meeting. (She turned him down because she was shy) We were so impressed by this confident and polite young man, who I believe is a wonderful example of the embodiment of all that the school stands for.
The children are taught a sense of community and mutual respect (along with the typical lessons) that I feel is so often lacking. It is a mixed age learning environment, and the older children help the younger children, as well as working together to solve problems and explore their lessons in a hands on manner.
To teach about animals, they have class pets (including guinea pigs, turtles, a hedgehog, fish, butterflies and some type of small lizard - gecko perhaps? I'm not certain). To understand science experiments, they apply them hands on. Each child has a "job" that they are responsible for to help the group - from sharpening pencils, to stacking and unstacking chairs.
The groups are small - I believe there are 5 children in my daughter's Kindergarten class - but they mingle with the larger group frequently, and combine smaller groups (such as K-2) for specialized classes such as Science, Social Studies, Math and Language arts. They are grouped by ability, not age, and each child's studies reflect their needs individually, rather than being pushed along some type of set schedule.
The teachers all know all the students by name, not just those in their groups, and all the children know each other well enough to greet each other by name every morning.
Progress reports just came out and rather than a check list full of Os, Ns and Ss that I am used to, it was a 5-6 page booklet in which all the teachers wrote a paragraph to a page on where our daughter was in her lessons. It covered her strengths and weaknesses and had a plan for the ways in which they would move forward. As if that were not comprehensive enough, we also had a 30 minute conference which was more in depth and personal.
My only complaint (and given all the positive, is really not much of one!) is that I find the fund raising to be a bit pushy. The school is reasonably priced (for a private institution of this caliber) but I find that I am asked for additional funds, assistance or offered fund-raising initiatives more often than I feel comfortable with.
However, it is a very small price to pay for such an amazing and advantageous learning environment. I HIGHLY recommend checking it out. You won't regret it, I know I didn't! :)
