Current Commonwealth Academy Parents? (cross-posted in independent schools forum)

[EVERGREEN]

We are looking at a number of private schools for high school for our son with ADHD. We checked out Sycamore School over the weekend (not for us) and are looking seriously at Commonwealth Academy. Would love to hear your experiences there, and would love to chat with current parents if anyone would like to DM me. Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

We have experience with Commonwealth, it was great for calming my child's anxiety. Ironically it was not great for ADHD when we were there, its assumed students will take the initiative to plan long term projects, study for tests, track and keep up with homework, work on their assignments during study hall, and a myriad of other things you'd find in any school. All that is fine but I'm not really sure how they got a reputation with being focused on helping with ADHD/executive functioning. We also found some behavioral issues distracting. I guess it depends on how much support your son needs. I don't know how it compares to Sycamore but was curious as to what turned you off of that school? Is it ADHD focused?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have experience with Commonwealth, it was great for calming my child's anxiety. Ironically it was not great for ADHD when we were there, its assumed students will take the initiative to plan long term projects, study for tests, track and keep up with homework, work on their assignments during study hall, and a myriad of other things you'd find in any school. All that is fine but I'm not really sure how they got a reputation with being focused on helping with ADHD/executive functioning. We also found some behavioral issues distracting. I guess it depends on how much support your son needs. I don't know how it compares to Sycamore but was curious as to what turned you off of that school? Is it ADHD focused?

OP here- I found Sycamore to be highly unstructured, and even one of the parents told me she was not really sure what her kids were learning, but was happy they were happy. The teach until mastery, and could not/would not answer my questions about how they assess students/ keep them on track for graduation. Our son needs structure. He did not end up getting into Commonwealth, I'm assuming due to past behavioural issues that have since been sorted out, but it makes me feel better I guess that they really wouldn't be able to support his executive functioning.

[Anonymous]

Good decision on Sycamore. My kid is there and I have no idea what 'grade level' they area at, nor am I sure what they've mastered. It is good for some things like taking a break from a typical school environment if a kid needs one for whatever reason. I also think the HFA population is growing there.