Anonymous wrote:A long list, but these are schools I've found that appear to "get" disorganized boys and work with them to help improve organizational skills and/or to have some sort of accommodations in place for students with ADD and/or a staff learning specialist, learning center, etc. This would be for a 6th grader. Would really appreciate any input from parents who have seen the school work with their child's deficits in a supportive, constructive manner that has resulted in the student being well equipped for high school. Also, if you could share WHAT the techniques were that worked, it would be appreciated. TIA!

Bullis - I grew up in the area. Bullis always had a terrific reputation. Why is it so awful? Our educational consultant actually mentioned Bullis as a good possibility for our DS who also has ADHD

Landon - Not a good choice for an ADHD kid. super uptight, students have very entitled attitudes as do the parents. Lots of recent scandals involving students and teachers.

St. Andrew's - lovely school, nice parent population. Accommodating school to a degree. If your child has more than "mild" ADHD then look elsewhere.

McLean - great choice

Norwood - eh....good school but like STA, not really a school for an ADHD kid.

Burke - very progressive school, lots of kids with various learning profiles but from what I understand - they do not offer accommodations.

Field - only if your kid loves sports.

WES - I have a friend who's DD is a 6th grader at WES. Her DD loves it, they are new to the school. Nothing negative to say about WES.

Lastly, I would ask your question on the Special Needs board. Lots of ADHD discussions there.

My DS with ADHD started at Burke in 6th grade and is now in high school. It has been a great fit - his formal accommodation is extra time but there has been lots of help (for him and the whole class) on organization, tracking assignments, etc. I also found that the teaching methods work well for kids with executive issues - things like breaking assignments into pieces and explicitly teaching methods for each chunk are routine, more so than at many other schools. If my son's issues had been more severe I'm not sure it would have worked, but for a kid with mild ADHD it has been perfect.

Anonymous wrote:Dear OP - we tried several options including two of the schools on your list and public. The stand out was Commonwealth Academy in N. Alexandria where we have last child now. Superb school, very small, but college-prep for ADHD and exec. functioning kids. Rated no. 1 recently for DC SN schools and 16th in the nation. Obviously I don't know where you live, but call the admissions director, Josh Gwilliam, and chat with him over the phone and, if interested, he will put you in touch with parents in your child's grade. Sixth grade is a good time to enter. If distance is an issue, there is a giant map across from admissions with tacks in it for every family so that families can arrange car pools.

I'm interested in the ratings for DC and nationwide special needs schools. Can you provide links to the sources? Thanks.

Norwood has a new lower school learning specialist this year who is great. So if the PP was talking about the lower school learning specialist things are different now. I admit the LS learning specialist situation was shaky but not that has changed.

My DD was at Norwood and diagnosed with ADHD. I found the middle school learning specialist to be amazing. She advocated for my DD and worked with her to develop skills to become an advocate for herself.

Not WES. We pulled our DC with ADHD out of WES. They were awful.

It jumps out at me that OP uses the language of public school IDEA / IEP language in the context of private school.

Honestly reassess your expectations and proceed carefully.

Dear OP - we tried several options including two of the schools on your list and public. The stand out was Commonwealth Academy in N. Alexandria where we have last child now. Superb school, very small, but college-prep for ADHD and exec. functioning kids. Rated no. 1 recently for DC SN schools and 16th in the nation. Obviously I don't know where you live, but call the admissions director, Josh Gwilliam, and chat with him over the phone and, if interested, he will put you in touch with parents in your child's grade. Sixth grade is a good time to enter. If distance is an issue, there is a giant map across from admissions with tacks in it for every family so that families can arrange car pools.

Don't agree with earlier post about WES. My boy isn't ADHD, but he has several friends who are. The middle school is structured, but in a way that is meant to teach organization and study skills. I think you should check it out.

This is OP. Thanks so much for your responses. Very helpful, all!

Norwood didn't believe my child has ADHD. I had him shadowed by their learning specialist three times, each time I was told I shouldn't be concerned. Several C's later we had an outside evaluation and it was very clearly a significant case of inattentive ADHD.

I would not go to Norwood with a SN child, I don't think their learning specialist is good. And that's putting it nicely.

I don't think Landon is a good fit for this type of boy. More a formal, toe-the-line environment. Have heard good things about McLean and Norwood in this regard.

OP -- a very good question. My kids attended one of these schools. The school did various helpful things -- tell students what binders/notebooks to purchase, instructions on how to maintain them, occasional organizational check ups, frequent quizzes /smaller assessments in between major ones to be sure material is learned in manageable bits, all sorts of assignments designed to teach study skills at home, etc. But here's the thing. At the end of the day, the child who enjoyed studying more in the first place and needed these techniques less, probably got more out of them in middle school and eventually kept what worked best for that child and discarded the rest which actually became a bit clumsy by high school for that one. The one who liked studying relatively less than doing other things, learned largely the same techniques but did not always apply them as well because that child did not want to take as much time as needed to do so given that child's interests in other pursuits outside of the classroom.

So my non-expert /I'm "just" a parent opinion is this. Some of these techniques can be helpful for some students, but there is no magic to them. What is more important -- and much harder to teach a child -- is intrinsic motivation. You mention many fine schools in your post, and I wont' say which one(s) my children attended although we are big fans. But I will say that rather than get caught up in the hype about techniques -- beyond making sure the teachers/administration is basically knowledgeable /competent -- and instead focus on the teaching relationships with the students. Do the teachers really get to know the kids as individuals and are they the sort of people your children will comfortable going to if they need help. Those are helpful prerequisites for a teacher to know how to motivate a given student and in my own family's experience that is the more important piece of the learning puzzle. Good luck OP.

I think you should take a good look at McLean. We have friends there and at Field who are very happy.

Based on friends' experience with Bullis, I would stay away.

Norwood ends in 8th so that might be a general disadvantage b/c lots of kids there have been there for a while and it may be harder to break in socially.

WES is not the best place for a boy; adhd or not. They are geared toward "walk in line and don't talk".

A long list, but these are schools I've found that appear to "get" disorganized boys and work with them to help improve organizational skills and/or to have some sort of accommodations in place for students with ADD and/or a staff learning specialist, learning center, etc. This would be for a 6th grader. Would really appreciate any input from parents who have seen the school work with their child's deficits in a supportive, constructive manner that has resulted in the student being well equipped for high school. Also, if you could share WHAT the techniques were that worked, it would be appreciated. TIA!