Who comes to The Community School?
Our students are a unique mix of people who want to be actively involved in their learning and in shaping their school experience. They are often students who learn best by applying what they’ve learned about in a classroom setting, by getting out into the real world to test their knowledge. They’re kids who like to travel, who have opinions they’d like to share, who want their interests to be a part of their school day, and who like personal challenge. Most Community School students want to go to college (and do!), take their learning seriously, and enjoy the small class sizes.
Who teaches at TCS?
Our staff hails from a wide variety of backgrounds, with extensive life and subject-area experience. Most have at least one Master’s degree. Many of our teachers come to us with a mix of teaching and other real-world experiences under their belts. Some have run non-profits, some have worked in social service or industry careers, and others have been in the Peace Corps or worked internationally. The common threads binding all of our staff are a deep respect and love for adolescents.
How are classes organized?
Each class, whether a core, block, or stewardship class, has between 5 and 12 students participating in it. The core classes—English, math, and foreign language—meet every day for one hour in order to help students establish a consistent relationship with individual teachers and groups of their peers while building their basic skills. Block classes are designed to let students explore subject-specific areas over time. These three-month classes meet three to four days each week. They involve field research, classroom time, labs, travel, project work, and much more. Stewardship classes meet once each week; during this time students and teachers will stretch their minds and bodies in ways designed to be fun while offering new experiences or information.
Travel seems to be important at The Community School. Why? And how often do students take trips?
One of our core beliefs is that a sense of place is essential to our ability to work toward a sustainable future. To that end, we spend a lot of time exploring and studying our 310-acre campus and the towns, forests, open spaces, and water ways close by. We also believe that it’s important to see how others live, so we travel to cities and more distant parts of our nation in order to get a sense for the issues we, as a country, face. Students take day trips in their classes—to do field research, to perform community service, to visit museums or cultural events. Twice each year we will hold trip weeks, once in mid-October and again in May. Every student and faculty member at The Community School will participate in a trip. These adventures in learning might include planning for and hiking a stretch of the Appalachian Trail, visiting historic sites along the eastern seaboard, performing community service in a nearby city like Portland, visiting an island off the coast of Maine to study marine ecology while reading maritime literature, or any other experience we can conceive of and plan! Trips offered will represent a variety of interests and costs.
Are there opportunities for my child to travel abroad with The Community School?
We have on-going relationships with a school in Costa Rica and a village in Madagascar. We regularly take students to Canada where they practice their French speaking skills. We are investigating the possibilities of establishing a connection with a small island school in the Bahamas and re-establishing our relationship with the Scholas Humanitas in the Czech Republic. Students raise money to cover their travel expenses for these experiences.
How is a day at The Community School structured?
We sometimes hear students say that TCS is “unstructured”. When we probe deeper into this statement we find they mean that every minute of their day is not micro-managed and that they are responsible for their own learning. Teachers share their expectations at the beginning of (and throughout) each class; students know what they should be doing at any given time and the belief is that students can and should take control of their own education experience. Because most of our students come from a public school paradigm which allows almost no individual input into how time is spent each day, there is sometimes an adjustment period as new students feel their way in this more independent framework.
Does The Community School have report cards? How will I know if my child is succeeding?
Every few months you will receive a written report about your child’s progress. This evaluation will include detailed narratives from teachers highlighting the excellent work done and making suggestions for improvement. Our pass/fail system is designed to take the emphasis off grades and to focus it on specific skill and information growth. We recommend that you read these evaluations with your child, making note of patterns you might see. These narrative evals are sent to colleges as part of your child’s transcript. Parent/teacher conferences are scheduled each fall. You may also request a parent/student/teacher conference at any time.
Where do Community School students go to college?
Most of our graduates do attend college. Some of their choices include UNH, Marlboro, UVM, Bowdoin, Bennington, Clarkson, Emerson, Ithaca, Maine Maritime Academy, Plymouth State, Paul Smith’s, Santa Fe, Unity, University of Pennsylvania, Sterling, Kenyon, Goucher, and New England College. We work extensively with seniors to identify, plan for, and apply to colleges which will support their learning style and interests. Contact us for a complete listing or for names of alumni who would be willing to talk with you about their TCS and college experiences.
How will you support my child’s efforts to get into college?
We work very closely with students through the entire college preparation and application processes. We offer SAT prep classes, have individual discussions about interests to determine appropriate college choices, take seniors (and sometimes some juniors) on college visitation tours, work with seniors in their English class to secure and complete college and financial aid applications, and reassure them during those long months of waiting for their acceptance letters! We offer students a lot of one-on-one counseling and support; it’s up to them to enter enthusiastically into the process and up to you to maintain these efforts at home. An enormous part of our students’ senior year revolves around senior project, an intensive autonomous project which prepares students for the challenges of self-directed learning which are intrinsic to college environment.
Do you have to be from Tamworth to come to The Community School?
No! Our students come from many towns in Maine and New Hampshire. We have buses traveling each day to Maine, North Conway, and Wolfeboro—with many stops along the way to pick up students in Freedom, Ossipee, Moultonborough, and other towns.
My child is a real athlete. Does a school as small as The Community School offer opportunities for team sports?
The athletic options directly available to us have typically been those which focus on the individual, like skiing and cross-country running. At times, however, we have worked with students to maintain their positions on their local public school athletic teams. This requires determination on the part of the student to arrange his or her schedule in such a way that academic studies don’t suffer when he or she leaves TCS early for games or practice. It also requires a commitment on the part of the family to support this schedule. We are very encouraging of such participation. We are in the process of creating a five-year strategic plan; initial research for this is guiding us in the direction of the development of an afternoon sports program.
Other questions?
Feel free to contact Jenny Rowe, Director, with any questions you might still have about life at The Community School. We are eager to hear from you!
