Birch School thread

[Anonymous]

Created a thread as someone wanted this so the school could be discussed.

We looked at this school when we thought it might be appropriate for our son. It's really small. I'd put it above York Prep in terms of quality of school.
We also considered Trevor and Columbia Grammer.

We have a friend whose son goes there and very pleased with the school.
We have a friend who son went to York Prep for a year (after we looked at it) and said it was horrible fit. Kid didn't learn a thing all year.

We ended up sending out son to CGPS. He's doing fine there.

>>>I think this is a helpful sub-discussion about Birch that should be spun out of this thread as someone looking to learn about Birch likely isn't looking for info in a super long thread about 2Ts. I do not know how to do this.

[Anonymous]

I'm interested to understand why you chose CGPS over Trevor and Birch.

[Anonymous]

This is for high school: We really liked BWL too. My DC has ADHD. Surprisingly, BWL did not try to upsell us on their supports program (I forget what they call it)...they told us proactively that they thought our child would do fine without the mandatory study halls and EF teachers, but that if a time ever came that they needed it, they could be switched easily into it. All classes are mainstreamed... additional help happens during designated study hall periods. We felt that school was warm and supportive, and the students were happy and confident. My child was super enthusiastic about the robotics team when they met them, and as parents, we felt like the administration worked hard to meet children where they were, and provided classes that met a spectrum of learning interests and abilities. We preferred it to Dwight, which felt larger and flashier, and we did not apply to York after looking at it because it felt more like a special needs schools than the others and our child did not need that level of support.
The head of school at BWL seems very driven and dynamic, and they are definitely trying to up the academics. They lean heavily on APs for rigor it seemed like (as opposed to schools like Trevor and Grace who clearly state that they do not teach to the AP tests although a student is welcome to take it on their own). A reason we discussed the importance of APs is because my child has expressed interest in going to college abroad, and I learned this year that if you do not go to a IB school, foreign universities require often require a certain number of APs to demonstrate proficiency and rigor, and if a school doesn't offer them, you have to be strategic in planning your high school curriculum (hence also looking at Dwight and Leman).
I also know some people have feelings about how BWL handled DEI...I can't speak to that since we weren't aware of that until friends told us about it well into the application process.
For comparison, we applied to Trevor, Friends, Browning, Packer, Grace, CGPS, Leman, BWL and Loyola. My child got into them all, and we ended up at Grace, which has a robust Learning Center, and appealed to my child due to the size, breadth of offerings, and 9am start time (we are also a downtown family). We have a plan in place to take AP tests. If there was a spectrum of supports, I'd say in the schools we applied to it went from most supports at BWL, to least at Friends and Packer (Loyola doesn't have any either, but it is so small it didn't feel like it would be a problem).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm interested to understand why you chose CGPS over Trevor and Birch.

The class he was going into was pretty small and we thought that could be very tough to make friends.
How viable was the school was a legitimate concern of ours. (not saying it was correct).

We liked Trevor as well. There was more spots open at CGPS and the class expands in 9th grade so we thought
a bigger school might be beneficial to DC.

The college outcomes at CGPS were very much with what were hoping for our son to get. his target is the 25-50 range of schools if you go by ranking.

The NYU, Tufts, Lehigh, Wisconsin - that kind of range.

we also felt like CGPS focused more on the kids overall mental health versus just gung ho stressful scenario.

[Anonymous]

i have never heard of someone getting into 9 private schools! wow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i have never heard of someone getting into 9 private schools! wow!

We did not expect it either, and were warned not to apply to so many, but when we started looking we had no idea what their test scores would be, and with their ADHD, even though he is a very strong student with some great outside interests, we were unsure what schools would consider him so we targeted a broad range. By the time the test scores came in we were basically done with the applications and were well into the interview process, so it made sense to just keep on the original course. They ended up testing very well, which shocked us, and would have had a legitimate shot at TT schools, but with the ADHD it just would have been a slog for them.

I think that for these schools, we were able to spin their ADHD journey, and how we have managed it as a family, into a positive, which worked as a hook for these schools (and also demonstrated that we were proactive and already had supports set up outside of school, so it didn't look like we were expecting them to do all of the work). We really did not think they'd get into Packer or Friends, but again, I think the strong test scores made it possible. The whole process is so opaque. We know kids who got into barely any schools even though they had strong scores and GPAs...I'm glad to have it all well behind us!

[Anonymous]

How is it for very bright kids who are overly literal and could use some social skills support? Are there any families there from outside the neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

what issues did the ADHD create in lower school years and how early did you know about it and did you medicate?

[Anonymous]

I'd be cautious about assuming ADHD right out of the gate and get an outside assessment without the school being involved. Sometimes these schools have very particular environments or lean very heavily on diagnoses rather than assessing their own learning environment. For example, at my daughter's girls school, there was a lot of redshirting, and one year, all the people with younger kids were told their daughter's had ADHD. Elementary school is boring for gifted kids, and if they are being compared to kids a year older, they look squirmy, while the older kids are very good at doing the very basic exec function tasks gifted kids actually need to learn how to do. It's not an ideal mix, and you get told oh your kid has ADHD, and you think it's right because surely the school knows. People with really active boys send them to boys' schools because they know that compared to girls they look like they are misbehaving when they actually just need more running around than a girl would, etc.

Get an outside neuropsychological and then talk to them about what the school is saying vs. what you see and then also talk to them what they think of the school and how they handle it. Also, ask the school about how they handle standardized testing. You want a school that just does the ERBs and gives you a score. It's a way of making sure the kids are on track and a way to keep an eye on their progress. The main thing you want in a school is transparency, and you don't want to ever entirely rely on their assessment of your kid.