Admission Brochure 2014-15

LOWER SCHOOL (GRADES PRE-K – 5)

In the Lower School we create in each child a love for learning by integrating language arts, math and science, world languages, and hands-on learning.

A cornerstone of our program includes building a love of literature through Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop. Students at Wooster become deeply engaged in mathematical thinking through the Singapore Math program.

Students learn to be proficient problem solvers and understand mathematics deeply with this approach. In the early grades, students learn the encoding and decoding skills they need to be successful readers through Fundations.

Our early childhood students look forward to this fun program each day.

MIDDLE SCHOOL (GRADES 6 – 8)

Wooster’s Middle School offers a challenging curriculum taught in small cohorts by dedicated faculty. Faculty and parents work hand in hand to navigate the waters of early adolescence and create autonomous learners with a true passion for learning. Meaningful connections are made for students by integrating experienced-based learning with technology and traditional classroom learning. Access to the arts, athletics, and co-curricular activities round out a student’s experience, preparing them for a successful Upper School career.

UPPER SCHOOL (GRADES 9 – 12)

In the Upper School at Wooster, we prepare every student for college and beyond by engaging them in meaningful work within and across traditional academic disciplines. Because we blend the traditional and the progressive in an intimate learning environment, nobody can fade into the woodwork at Wooster. In a culture of thinking, everyone’s thinking is made visible, so students collaborate and take center stage on a regular basis. In order to foster this kind of learning environment, we are redesigning many of our traditional learning spaces to allow for the kinds of purposeful, creative, and critical thinking that is required in university settings and in the contemporary idea-driven, knowledge economy. The Felton Learning Studio in the newly renovated Coburn Hall is one of several innovative spaces for visible thinking and learning.

ACADEMICS

At Wooster School, our academic program is generated by our culture of thinking. We are a professional learning community that puts thinking at the center of the learning enterprise. Our teachers value collaboration and see themselves as learners as well. We ground the academic experience at Wooster by operating from the premise that strong skills in numeracy, problem-solving, reading, writing, and communicating will generate the best thinking in our students. We develop those skills by engaging students in a challenging, inquiry-based curriculum that takes students deeper into the study of various disciplines and “big ideas” as they progress through grade levels. Because of our small class sizes and excellent ratio of teachers to students, we are able to accomplish these goals in learning environments that make learning personal, meaningful, and visible for teachers and students.

Wooster School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools, Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, the National Association of Episcopal Schools, and the Cum Laude Society.

Wooster School is committed to creating an environment where students can thrive both academically and socially. To maximize the learning opportunities for students with language based learning disabilities, between 6th and 10th grades, Wooster School provides two unique programs.

PROSPECT PROGRAM

The Prospect Program serves students in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades diagnosed with language based learning disabilities, ADHD, and executive functioning weaknesses. The Prospect Program is for students who can be successful, but have not achieved grade level success due to their diagnosed learning disability.

COLLEGE MATRICULATION

The following are among the institutions students of the past three classes (2012 – 2014) have been accepted to:

The University of Alabama Alfred University American University Bard College Belmont University Bentley University Berklee College of Music Binghamton University Boston College Boston University Brandeis University Bryant University Bucknell University University at Buffalo Carleton College Carnegie Mellon University The Catholic University of America University of Central Florida Clark University Colby College Colgate University Colorado State University Columbia College Chicago Connecticut College University of Connecticut Cornell University Davidson College University of Dayton University of Delaware Denison University University of Denver Dickinson College Drexel University Eckerd College University of Edinburgh Elmira College Elon University Emory University Endicott College The Evergreen State College Fairfield University Flagler College Florida International University Fordham University Fort Lewis College Franklin Pierce University George Mason University The George Washington University Georgetown University

Gettysburg College Green Mountain College Hampshire College University of Hartford Hartwick College Harvey Mudd College Haverford College Hobart and William Smith Colleges Hofsta University College of the Holy Cross University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Indiana University Iona College The University of Iowa Ithaca College Johns Hopkins University Knox College Lafayette College Lasell College Lawrence University Lesley University Lewis & Clark College Loyola University Maryland Macalester College Manhattan College Manhattanville College Marist College Massachusetts College of Art and Design University of Massachusetts, Amherst McDaniel College Miami University, Oxford University of Miami University of Michigan Mount Holyoke College Muhlenburg College New England College The New School New York University Nichols College University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Northeastern University Northwestern University University of Notre Dame Ohio Wesleyan University Pace University Pennsylvania State University Providence College Purchase College Purdue University Quinnipiac University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rhode Island School of Design University of Rhode Island Ringling College of Art and Design Rochester Institute of Technology University of Rochester Roger Williams University Rollins College Sacred Heart University Saint Joseph’s University Salve Regina University Sarah Lawrence College Savannah College of Art and Design School of the Art Institute of Chicago School of the Museum of Fine Arts The University of Scranton Skidmore College Smith College University of South Florida St. Lawrence University State University of New York at Albany Stetson University Stony Brook University Suffolk University Syracuse University The University of Tampa Tel Aviv University Trinity College Tulane University Union College Vanderbilt University Vassar College University of Vermont Villanova University Virginia Polytechnic Institute University of Virginia Washington College Wellesley College Wentworth Institute of Technology Wesleyan University Wheaton College (MA) Willlamette University Williams College The College of Wooster Worcester Polytechnic Institute York College of Pennsylvania

Wooster School Where learning is personal, meaningful, and visible.

BRIDGE PROGRAM

The Wooster Bridge Program is a 9th and 10th grade literacy program for high achieving students diagnosed with language-based learning disabilities. Students in the Wooster Bridge Program enter in 9th grade.

Bridge students are projected to transition from a literacy-focused, moderate support model in 9th and 10th grades to a traditional Wooster School experience in 11th and 12th grades.

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CONTACT US

91 Miry Brook Road, Danbury CT 06810 Email: admissions@woosterschool.org

Phone: 203.830.3916 woosterschool.org

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At WOOSTER SCHOOL, our learning environment is built on the bedrock of relationships because we know that people learn best when they feel physically, intellectually and emotionally safe. Through our small class groupings (5 – 15 students) students learn to develop relationships with teachers and fellow students that allow them to best develop their own intellectual and emotional intelligence. While developing “academic skills” like reading, writing, and computation is an important part of our mission, our ultimate goal is to produce independent thinkers who can use those skills to observe, analyze, understand, collaborate and create in multiple contexts. We don’t just want to create “academic rigor” for our students, but rather want students who build skills and pursue intellectual rigor through our academic programs. We also recognize that if we aspire to produce independent, successful, young adults who have an emerging sense of purpose, we need to teach our students at all levels how to use their developing skills and dispositions in the service of the communities within which they live and work. As such, an emphasis on the whole life of the Wooster school community, and the roles and responsibilities of students as community members, has been intrinsic to our culture since our founding in 1927.

BEING HAPPY

Our expectations are high, our kids work just as hard as students at other schools, and they are facing all of the challenges inherent in growing up in our modern world. Yet when people come to visit our campus, they frequently observe that our students appear to be happier than those that they’ve seen elsewhere. We hear from our own parents that their kids look forward to coming to school. We put a high emphasis on creating relationships with adults and other students because we know that students are more open to taking risks and to working harder when they care about those with whom they do their daily work. From the comfort of familiarity comes the willingness to embrace the kinds of discomfort that leads to the best learning. We’ve designed a place where students can be happy because happy people learn better.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE MATTERS

At Wooster, our programs are designed so that every student should make a difference every day. Collaboration, participation, and meaningful input are mandatory. In our learning environments, students have to make their thinking “visible,” and as they get older and progress through the Upper School, students can see the difference that they are making in the life and culture of the school community. Simply “surviving” school, staying on the margins, or “slipping through the cracks” are not options for students at Wooster. As on long-time Wooster faculty member put it, “at Wooster, every student has to agree, over time, to show us who they are.”

SELF-HELP

Our Self-Help philosophy dictates that all students participate in the life and culture of the school, from cleaning and maintaining the campus through our Jobs Program, to daily participation in our smaller classes. Self-help has been in place for decades and is testament to the fact that we figured out a long time ago how important dispositions are in the development of young people.

Our school prayer urges us to produce and nurture students who are “gentle, generous, truthful, kind, and brave,” and we have built on that philosophy by incorporating much of the latest thinking on learning and behavior into creating young people who know how to learn, and are critical and creative thinkers. At Wooster, Self-help means learning about resiliency, persistence, and collaboration through taking responsibility for the physical and cultural environment of the school. All of our 6-12 students have jobs, and perhaps more importantly, must take responsibility for others’ job performance as they get older.

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PURSUING INTERESTS AND PASSIONS

We understand that young people need the opportunity to explore developing interests and passions as they progress through school. This is one of the best ways to build skills, dispositions and confidence. If properly nurtured, these interests - in art, music, athletics, theater, service, and leadership – can become integral to a meaningful life in adulthood. Unfortunately, in many schools, the pursuit of these passions ends up being limited to those that are “the best” in any particular area. More disturbing is the fact that decisions about who is the best are often made when students are just beginning to develop the mental, emotional, and physical strengths needed to fully engage in a personal passion.

At Wooster, we strive to create opportunities for all students to pursue passions regardless of their current level of skill or expertise.

Students at Wooster still play three sports, or participate in theater for the first time, or take an Art Intensive class to explore their curiosity about art regardless of their past experience. We want students to explore and participate, because that is how they will learn more about themselves. We use competition to build skills - through practice, performance, and contests against other schools - not to eliminate students from the things that they love to do. We never tell a student that he or she is not good enough to be a part of our team. Not coincidentally, our students put on amazing shows, bring home trophies from Model UN, win league athletic championships, and create award-winning art and publications.

When given the chance, and faced with our high expectations for them, Wooster students just keep getting better.

SKILLS, AND DISPOSITIONS, AND KNOWLEDGE

Skills, dispositions and knowledge are the three pillars of our approach to thinking and learning. While all three are complex concepts that overlap in many ways, at the most basic level of distinction, skills are what you do, dispositions are how you do things, and knowledge is what you gain as you go along. We make our students thinking “visible” to them by design. We ask our students to think about their own thinking, and how to make it better, as a regular part of our programs. We also know that thinkers and problem-solvers need to apply skills and dispositions in their personal, school and eventually, professional lives, so reading, writing, numeracy, and design skills are the threads that hold the Wooster tapestry together from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY

Because we learn more every day about the brain and how it works, particularly how it learns, today’s schools need teachers who are also students of the art and science of teaching. Wooster School prides itself on being this kind of community of learners. We create the time for teachers to study and discuss teaching and learning, and to collaborate on enriching their own practices in the service of better student outcomes. In order to teach at Wooster, one must have deep disciplinary knowledge and a keen interest in the craft of teaching, what noted educational expert Richard DuFour would call a “persistent disquiet with the status quo.” Our teachers model for students the skills and dispositions that we want them to develop – curiosity, questioning, design, experimentation, reflection, and many more.

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