learning

Next Schools

Getting to Grade 7

Students leaving the Advent School are well-equipped to succeed in a wide variety of secondary schools because they have learned how to learn.

Advent graduates know how to think critically and to see connections between subject areas. They possess tools for working collaboratively to solve problems. They know how to develop multiple strategies for academic investigation. And they have confidence in themselves and their skills.

Finding the right school

The Advent School has a strong history of placing students in the best secondary schools in the Boston area. But what’s more important, is that Advent administrators and faculty excel at helping families find the right secondary school for the needs of each child. See Advent at a Glance for a complete list of schools that Advent graduates have attended.

Advent has established an intensive program for assisting families in the selection of the right secondary school for their student.

Is there an advantage to keeping a student at Advent through Sixth Grade?

The elementary years play a highly significant role in the formation of a child’s thinking, approach to learning, and development of sense of self. Committing to one school for the entire seven to eight-year span of time provides students with far more than the basic skills. Students are grounded in educational values and organizational strategies.

Typically, middle schools believe—as does Advent— that the benefits of staying in one’s own school far outweigh anything that might be gained by making a switch. For that reason, schools rarely accept our children from Fourth or Fifth Grades. They recognize that the developmental leaps children make from age 10-12 present enormous opportunity. Children can solidify their skills and thinking strategies, learn to apply organizational tools, and bring positive closure to their elementary school years. They depart as outgoing, confident, prepared students, who know a great deal about themselves and the part they play in a community.

How does Advent helps student learn test skills to prepare for placement tests?

In order to help our students feel comfortable with the ISEE testing experience used to place Seventh Graders, Advent works closely with a KAPLAN Test Prep professional to help students develop strong test skills.

A KAPLAN teacher meets with students on Friday afternoons in the spring of Fifth Grade and Fall of Sixth Grade for a total of eight sessions. Because the last session is close to the actual testing date, Advent student have tended to feel confident and relaxed about their test-taking experience.

Advent is one of few, if not the only, elementary school in Boston that provides this opportunity for students. Parents pay approximately half of what KAPLAN charges for courses at their facilities.

How do Advent Students tend to fare in their next school?

Because of the strategies learned at every grade at Advent, our students adapt and perform very well in their next school settings. As one parent stated, “Advent students feel so good about themselves that they respond to the demands of and bring confidence to any school, regardless of its size or composition.”

Advent graduates are stars and leaders. Our students understand academic material in such a way that they can apply it in new contexts. They perform in the classroom, in every academic subject area, in the arts, and on the field. They are team players, sensitive to their peers, and know how to work successfully in any group. They are class officers and active participants in their communities.

“What is absolutely unique [about the Advent School] is the judgment, creativity, and developmental attention with which its rich multi-cultural program has been constructed. If any school will underscore and illuminate the opportunity and challenge with which multi-cultural education can be considered, this fine, small, humane scholarly little school can do it for us all.”

— citation from the U.S. Department of Education