Re: Seeking Diversity & Top Academics K- 12 Bay Area
We chose The Academy for its small supportive atmosphere and strong academics, but the diversity is also amazing--not only different American ethnic groups but many nationalities-- children from all over the world, with many languages spoken in the homes, etc. It's a fantastic school, and I highly recommend it. I didn't see the original post, but only the replies, hopefully it is a place that will work for you! a very happy parent

Re: Individualized instruction for advanced student?
The Academy in Berkeley has a fair number of academically gifted children. They teach to the child and, because of the small class size, can work with each child's level of skill. Your child would be hard pressed to be academically bored. The program includes Latin and French so an older child coming from a less rigorous program would have to work to catch up. Our child has attended for two years and we have been quite happy. She's not one of the astoundingly advanced kids but she is working well above grade level and, best of all, she's having a lot of fun. The parents and kids are a warm and welcoming community as well. Best of luck in your search. - Academy Parent

Re: Summer Academics for Gifted 7yr old
My son had a wonderful experience with the summer camp at the Academy, around the corner from Willard Park in Berkeley. The morning consists of an academic program. Incoming 3rd and 4th graders will be taught by an author of childrens' books (and popular but occasional subsitute teacher at the Academy), Doug Evans. My son took the program for entering 5th and 6th graders, half of which was taught by a math teacher, the other half by the English teacher. Both programs were very structured and paced according to the skills level of the individual child. Both teachers were great. One can pick up one's child at noon or childcare & other programs, such as swim lessons (or just water play at Willard Pool), are available until 6 PM, and there are outings such as ice! -skating on Fridays. You pay for extras, but the basic childcare of hanging around the yard is also good. The after-care staff (who work year-round) have been with the school, one for 20 years, the other for about 10. One of them is an older man who helps kids with basketball. You are charged only for as much after care as you actually use, though you get a better price if you pay for it in advance. (But you'll be refunded whatever portion you don't use). My athletic kid had more fun there than he did at Golden Bear, which he went to the previous summer. xp

We've been touring private schools in and around Berkeley and really liked The Academy. Our daughter will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall. We'd love to hear from Academy parents about the current goings on at the school (the archived reviews are a couple of years old). - R.K.

All the kids learn to read music and all of them sing. It's a small school and they put on a lot of shows, so everyone performs all the time. The Gilbert&Sullivan shows put on by grades 3-5 have been remarkably good. In the regular school curriculum there is no individual instruction in instruments (many kids get that outside school, and I seem to remember some kids getting individual music lessons in the after-school program). There's an after-school chorus which is very popular.

Fifth grade is holding monthly poetry-reading sessions this year. We hope that this will soon spread to the rest of the school. The upper school puts on a Shakespeare production each year.

As for the French, most of the kids have good accents and are solid on grammar by 8th grade, but they don't speak fluently. When they enter high school they place very well (skip a couple of classes) and do very well, even compared to the kids who come from French-immersion schools. I think they should speak more, and better, but there's no problem with the reading and writing.

The kids are physically active and very fit. We were worried about the size of the yard but it doesn't seem to matter. They use Willard Park as well. They have an enthusiastic but perennially losing basketball team, and good soccer and volleyball teams. Again because it's a small school, pretty much anyone who wants to can get on a team.

The fraction of students that stay till 8th grade varies quite a bit by year, but is at least 50%. Families go through many changes as their kids go from age 5 to age 14 - job transfers, separations, etc. Those are more common reasons for leaving a school than dissatisfaction with the program. There is always some back-and-forth with other schools, e.g. some families leave to go to School X and other families move from School X to The Academy.

My son is happy at the school, enjoys a variety of activities, and is hardly ever bored. Academically he and his classmates are very strong and have already developed good work habits. They know that practicing a skill is not a punishment - it's the only way to develop the skill. So there are no battles about hw, or about practicing piano. At least there's nothing more than occasional grumbling.

Hope this helps. Good luck in your search. Academy parent

December 2003

November 2003

The lively arts are an integral part of the program. All the kids perform in musicals and plays, all learn to read music, and all do arts and crafts and study art history and music history.

I recommend visiting the school when the kids are in the playground. You'll get a real sense of community - big kids playing with little ones, groups of friends of both genders and all ethnicities. No cliques, snobbery, or ugly language.

My son and his first grade classmates treat the school as an extension of their homes. In addition to the three R's (as well as French, art, music, science, computers, and PE, all taught by specialists starting in kindergarten) the school teaches them to treat others with respect and affection and to be tolerant of differences. The teachers are nurturing and supportive, and the small class size enables them to ensure that each child rises to the high expectations of the school.

It has been a delight to watch our son grow in confidence and ability over the past year. I'll be happy to answer questions about the school by email, but please put ''Academy'' in the subject header. Ani

Jan 2003

2002

1999

This is the kind of school that only a certain kind of kid will thrive in. It is targeted toward the child who is highly motivated to spend most afternoons reading and writing and studying, and whose classroom behavior is very orderly, compliant and predictable. (Or, it's for the parent who is motivated to make the child be like this. It was kinda sad - the kids who were not into it at all, but whose parents were.)

The school is academically oriented, and children are tested before admittance is granted. There is French beginning in Kindergarten, and Latin begins in 6th grade. The school is K-8. It's very small, one class per grade. My son's 5th grade class had fewer than 10 students. This appealed to me originally. But it turned out that the school's expectations of students were so rigid that small class size made no difference in the way the teacher responded to each student. Every student was taught in the same exact way, regardless of learning style or background or special talents. There was no tolerance for anything outside of the school's model of how students should learn and how they should behave.

My son couldn't keep up with the homework demands, even though he was starting on homework right after school, and doing nothing else till bedtime. If all the homework was not turned in, the child's parents were called and the child stayed after school for detention. This got to be a regular everyday thing for my son, which is not exactly encouraging to a kid. Worse, the teacher began to ridicule him in front of the class. She would say "Well, I see ____ has managed to finish all the math problems for a change." I confronted her about this - I couldn't believe my son's stories - and she confirmed them by saying "Well, what do you expect me to do if he won't do his homework?" This really surprised me - I never saw anything like this in public school, where teachers had many more students and kids who really needed help. Here, there were 10 kids, all smart and all well-behaved, but there was no individual attention at all.

I think we had a rather bad teacher, which may be more a reflection on the teacher than on the school. Nevertheless, the school had kept her on board for many years. And other teachers were similar in their intolerance. The French teacher graded my son as if he had been taking French since Kindergarten with the other kids, even though she knew this was his first exposure to a foreign language. The headmaster had assured me when we first applied that this wouldn't be a problem, but it was, and there was never any attempt by the school to catch him up. He just got Fs. The playground supervisor asked my son repeatedly "Why do you want to look like one of those drug dealers down on Telegraph?" referring to my son's Berkeley-post-punk taste in clothes. He just didn't fit in.

I know that there are children who thrive on a demanding and highly focussed academic environment. I might have liked the school myself as a child. But it's not for everybody. If you have a child who spends a lot of time quietly reading, drawing, etc. and who is very conventional in habits and tastes, then this might be the school for you. But for other children, it may be a very unhappy and discouraging place. Anonymous

Our elder daughter attended the Academy for the 7th and 8th grade. Before the Academy, she attended a good local public elementary school. Our younger daughter also followed the same track and now attends the 7th grade at the Academy. Obviously we have been satisfied with our daughters' experience at this school.

Before either of our daughers commited to attend, they spent a day at the school attending all classes to get a flavor of the school environment. Children are tested before school admittance to determine if they are significantly behind the rest of the class in any area.

The classes at the Academy are small, about 12. The school puts emphasis on academics, which we parents liked. Students get homework each day for almost each subject. The homework load is average 3 hours every day at the 7th and 8th grade. As one parent reports in the Jan 14th digest, it is possible that a student who often brings in unfinished homework may face ridicule in class.

The enrollment is quite diverse in terms of national origin and ethnic mix.

Both our daughters started in the second year of Latin class (7th grade) when they joined, with no prior exposure to Latin. The school made some accomodations for easing their entry into the language. The elder daughter attended the 6th grade Latin class and the rest of the subjects in the 7th grade classes. The younger daughter attends the 7th grade Latin class, but seems to be doing fine.

The French language classes teach at a pretty leisurely pace, so only about 65% of one year's coursework (one book) is covered over the 6th, 7th and the 8th grades. Both the daughters picked up 7th grade French directly joining the 7th grade class with no prior exposure to French.

There is an informal dress code. If a student puts on make-up, hair-do, or clothes that are deemed unacceptable by the principal, the student is sent home to change clothes or asked to wash off the make up before attending classes.

We were looking for a school that would provide a solid academic foundation for going to high school, and we were not disappointed. - A Dad