The Learning Center at Winchendon

THE WINCHENDON SCHOOL

&

BROOKLYN LEARNING CENTER

have partnered to create an exciting and unique solution for college-bound, high school students with significant potential who will benefit from comprehensive academic, emotional, and cognitive supports.

We are pleased to introduce...

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Introducing a compelling new solution for high school students who have significant potential but who are not making progress in school.

The Brooklyn Learning Center(BLC) and The Winchendon School (TWS) have come together to create The Learning Center at Winchendon (LCW) for the many high school students who are uninspired, bored, or misunderstood in more traditional schools.

The LCW is for students who have significant potential that has been stifled by a placement in a school setting that cannot address their cognitive, emotional,and learning challenges.

Students enrolled in the LCW benefit from an integrated and comprehensive platform where they: •

Participate in a project-based, collaborative, and rigorous academic program which embraces personal interests and passions.

• Benefit from individualized and integrated cognitive and emotional supports designed to complement (and not conflict with) a mainstream high school experience. •

Have access to a college counseling program with a track record for successfully placing students into the best colleges and universities.

Students will have the benefit of being supported by BLC neuropsychologists through School Therapy while fully immersed in a rigorous, mainstream, college-prep setting.

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The Learning Center team coordinates directly with and participates in the ongoing training of TWS’s faculty and team of Learning Strategists to ensure a “learning-difference friendly culture” throughout the School. This benefits all TWS students whether or not they face challenges.

Our solution is a fully integrated approach to the many neuropsychological and educational challenges that students face.

We incorporate individual and small group interventions to address emotional and cognitive issues within an innovative, rigorous mainstream academic setting. Through our collaboration, the LCW provides the ideal environment for students who have failed to make academic progress in other school settings. If you know of a student or family who might benefit from our distinctive approach, please contact either of us or Amirah Mahdi, Admissions Coordinator for The Learning Center at TWS. Email: amahdi@winchendon.org | Phone: 347-462-0136

Am󰉘

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Amy Margolis

Sean Duncan

President and Director of Neuropsychology

Head of School

Brooklyn Learning Center

The Winchendon School Brooklyn

Amy@brooklynlearning.com

sduncan@winchendon.org

718-935-0400

347-328-5622

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Who Is the Learning Center at Winchendon For? Do any of these students sound familiar? The following profiles

describe students who have successfully made academic progress at The Winchendon School and with The Brooklyn Learning Center.

Each “composite sketch” represents high schoolers who we engage, support, and guide through school and then on to great colleges and universities.

Damien was attending one of Brooklyn’s top day/public schools for his 10th grade year. After always getting A’s in middle school and even in 9th grade - a combination of total boredom at school and stress with his peers resulted in him being asked to leave school in 10th grade.

The irony is that he was among the smartest students in his class yet was receiving failing grades. For the last year he has bounced around schools and tutorial programs. He needs to find a school that will let him explore his passion for computer programming and help him be more successful with his peers both inside and outside the classroom.

Damien is tired of feeling as if he is always at odds with his peers as well as with his parents and teachers.

Lori is currently an 11th grader who loves dance, lacrosse, literature, and art and attends one of the city’s highly desirable specialty public high schools. Recently, Lori has struggled with getting to school due to notable social anxiety and fear of being judged by her peers. She is looking for a school that will provide her the opportunity to get back on track in her AP classes, integrate coping strategies for anxiety into the support she gets at school, and prepare her for acceptance into a top arts school - all while continuing her work at the dance studio.

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Who Is the Learning Center at Winchendon For? (cont.)

Lucy loves basketball and being at school - and continues to work hard to overcome learning disabilities and dysgraphia. This can be frustrating when her teachers don’t seem to understand that she is super bright and can do well with certain modifications. Her real fulfillment comes on the basketball court where she is a leader on her AAU team. She is hoping that her hoops prowess will help her get into a great university so that she can study the very brain science that impacts her own neuro-functioning.

Sam was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in 2nd grade at his local elementary school. He received an IEP and was placed in an ICT class and did relatively well with medication, tutoring and teacher support.

His middle school was a good continuation of the ICT program and, although his grades were not outstanding, he was holding his own.

However, once he started at a large high school he became totally disenfranchised with school. While deep inside he would really like to find success in school and potentially explore a career in politics or business, but it has become much more frustrating to make any effort at school. Sam just gets told to “try harder” or “focus more.” In fact, recent independent neuropsychological testing reconfirmed his diagnosis of significant ADHD, slower processing speed than his other abilities, and associated weaknesses in executive functioning. His parents are worried that he will want to quit school, unless Sam goes to a smaller school with individualized special instruction that understands his learning profile.

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Who Is the Learning Center at Winchendon For? (cont.)

Danielle has always felt like the outsider. She likes her classes and does well but is tired of always feeling isolated from the other kids.

Since she was five, Danielle has hated the tics caused by Tourette Syndrome. Unfortunately, the tics only get worse when she feels like she is being watched by other kids at school who don’t seem to understand her or don’t have any interest in hanging out.

She wants to be an engineer, but the thought of being in AP math and science classes with a lot of other students turns her stomach - even though she knows that she can ace the classes.

Rich can’t remember the last time that he really liked going to school - and that has led him to make some pretty stupid decisions along the way. His teachers are always telling him to try harder and to focus more. Without any specific direction for how to do this, he started hanging with kids who didn’t make his parents happy, and then he just started skipping school. His grades plummeted, and there was little in the classroom that intrigued him. He is most interested in starting a programming business - and doesn’t even know whether he wants to go to college. However, he had a near perfect score on his math PSAT without prepping or getting a good night’s rest. A recent neuropsych evaluation highlighted his cognitive strengths and executive function deficits. He and his parents believe that somewhere there must be a high school that would “get him”.

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Who Is the Learning Center at Winchendon For? (cont.)

Susie is an 8th grader with dyslexia who has been in a special education school since 1st grade. She loves environmental science, art, theater, and her friends. Throughout middle school, Susie and her parents have wondered if she could move to a mainstream setting for high school, without losing the academic remediation and support that has helped her become so successful. She is eager to position herself for admission into a selective liberal arts college where she will be able to combine her interests in the sciences and the arts.

Howie is a 10th grader who finally was diagnosed with NonVerbal Learning Disorder in 8th grade. He has struggled with math and with making friends all his life. In middle school both of these things were extremely challenging for him. Howie is happiest in the art studio. He is looking for a high school where he can deploy his amazing verbal skills, read and discuss great literature, and, at the same time, have specific intervention for the dreaded geometry class.

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How The Learning Center at Winchendon Works: The LCW is specifically designed for high school students who are

ready and able to be in a rigorous and highly collaborative learning setting. Our students are successful when their daily experience incorporates significant, personalized academic and emotional support. LCW students participate in mainstream classes at The Winchendon School. Additionally, their experience includes customized treatment that utilizes an integrative approach: “School Therapy”. This approach combines tutoring, cognitive remediation, and psychotherapy, to ensure continued development of academic skills and cognitive strategies. This additional support is tailored to match each student’s unique learning profile and will include: •

Working directly with a neuropsychologist specifically trained in “School Therapy”, a psychological and educational intervention specifically designed by BLC for students with learning and emotional challenges to be delivered in school.

Our Learning Center (LC) therapists use evidence-based best practices to address each student’s unique learning and emotional challenges, both one-on-one and in small groups. LC therapists use each student’s current academic coursework as the platform to address specific challenges including specific learning disorders (dyslexia, reading, writing, math), executive functioning and ADHD, anxiety, depression, and spectrum disorders. Meeting individually 2-3 times per week, the LC Therapist will be a key resource for each student.

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Attending small group sessions targeting specific needs such as developing strategies for building effective collaborative and group skills, overcoming school-related anxiety, learning strategies for test taking, and strengthening organizational habits.

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How The Learning Center at Winchendon Works (cont.) : •

Gain course credit through creative, individualized programming to address a specific learning “gap”, skill deficiency, or missing credit.

•

Study hall support 3-4 afternoons each week to ensure that assignments and projects are understood and planned for.

Students will leave with clear direction for completing those assignments that challenge executive functioning.

•

Close coordination and collaboration between LCW staff and Winchendon’s faculty. Every week, each LCW student benefits from intensive communication, planning, and training that includes all members of each student’s team.

Effective personalization is achieved through understanding: how to engage each student, which pedagogical methods and approaches are effective for that student, what remediation or accommodations that student needs, and if the student needs alternative courses or curriculum modification.

The total number of students enrolled in the LCW will be limited to approximately 20% of TWS’s total enrollment, ensuring that the overall experience for all TWS students is an authentic, mainstream high school experience.

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The Learning Center At Winchendon At A Glance The Learning Center is structured to support students with, but not limited to, the following profiles:

ADHD and executive functioning challenges, possibly in conjunction with some anxiety or depression, who with the structured support of the LC and the TWS team are able to flourish and learn.

Specific Learning Disorder (e.g., dyslexia or math disability), who will succeed with a combination of remediation, specific supports, accommodations/modifications and/or core curriculum relief.

Notable anxiety or depression, perhaps having led to some school refusal, but who are able to be successfully engaged in TWS’s mainstream and hands-on pedagogy and program.

Neurodevelopmental disorders, (high functioning ASD, Tourette Syndrome, or NVLD), with or without a specific learning disorder, who with specific coaching and in-site therapy, are able to thrive in TWS’s collaborative setting.

Significant school struggles with a mix of challenges such as prior school refusal, self confidence problems and weak study habits, and/or Executive Function challenges who with the development of new strategies, skills and self-esteem will participate and succeed in the TWS core curriculum.

Students in The Learning Center at Winchendon have average to above average intellectual ability. Our comprehensive admission process carefully assesses the appropriateness of each applicant and our assessment that they will be able to make good use of our program.

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About Us Brooklyn Learning Center For over 25 years, Brooklyn Learning Center has provided students and families with the guidance, cognitive remediation, and emotional support needed to overcome challenges stemming from specific learning disorders, executive dysfunction and ADHD, anxiety, depression, and spectrum disorders. The team of neuropsychologists at the BLC leverages the most contemporary research in adolescent brain development to provide cutting edge solutions for students. BLC is led by Dr. Amy Margolis, an assistant professor of medical psychology at Columbia University, who conducts neuroimaging research to understand the brain basis of anxiety and executive function problems in learning disorders. Amy and her team of neuropsychologists created Homework Therapy, an individual treatment for students with neurodevelopmental disorders and have helped thousands of students to overcome learning disabilities, school and testbased anxiety and depression, and other developmental challenges. Now, with TWS they have developed School Therapy to deliver their unique approach IN SCHOOL.

The Winchendon School Since 1926, TWS has provided students with significant unrealized potential a distinctive college prep learning experience. TWS has created an “academic oasis” where students flourish in a rigorous, mainstream setting with personalized academic support and the opportunity to immerse themselves in topics and learning experiences that are most important to each of them. TWS graduates go on to thrive at many of the country’s top colleges and universities and in compelling careers. For most of its history, TWS‘s transformational learning experience has only been available to students attending the School’s boarding campus in Massachusetts. In 2018, TWS opened its first satellite day campus in NYC, creating greater access for students and their families seeking a better option for high school.

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One highly capable but struggling high school student one integrated academic and therapeutic solution.

The Learning Center at Winchendon the best program for high school students who have been struggling at school and want to get back on track and en route to college.

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