Templeton Academy

[Anonymous]

Any recent experiences for high school? We have a rising 9th grader and are looking for a small school environment. Our DS has no learning issues but wouldn’t lost in a large public HS.

[Anonymous]

It’s a very student-driven learning experience and TINY. 65 kids in the whole school, grades 6-12. There’s a big difference between wanting something smaller than public because your kid will get lost in a 500-person grade and choosing a school with 10 kids per grade.

[Anonymous]

We looked into it in-depth, and it was just too small for my kid. She wanted a larger community than that (without resorting to our public, which is way too big for her) and wound up at a small private. I think there are about 70 kids in her year.

[Anonymous]

I’ll try to come back later to say more but in sum, our kid is having a great experience. There are 20 kids in the 9th grade FYI.

Nice kids, teachers who seem to like their jobs and want to be there, kids get a level of independence (for example leading themselves to “field work” at museums), the afternoon block class that rotates each quarter is super neat (like “Belief and Persuasion,” “American History through Film” — seminar-ish.)

The model is designed to give kids agency and work on meaningful projects; I feel like it leads to the kids really enjoying school. But you have to embrace that Templeton will do things their own way and does not have AP or IB classes.

It’s a happy, supported, academically engaging, mentally healthy community IMO. And it’s $24k a year, a great price for private. Very minimal extracurriculars though (you have to build that outside of school for your kid). But the kids socialize, they go to the gym and Taco Bell and Starbucks and shoot hoops and go to the mall etc. In other words: tho it lacks the structured extracurriculars like sports teams and theater, it feels socially normal. They have fun being downtown. And the school does make a good effort to have special events like prom and Halloween dance and a lock-in and educational overnight trips. And of course kids do extracurriculars on their own (mine does sports.)

It’s an unusual place for sure, and it’s absolutely not everybody’s cup of tea. But just here to say it’s proving to be a great environment for my kid. It’s a nice place to go to high school, IMO.

[Anonymous]

My kid attended for a year and got a wonderful
immersion in downtown DC. The city really is the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Resurrecting this thread … how big is the HS now?

[Anonymous]

Total school population is about 68 students with about 50 in high school.