Brook Road Academy offers a strong college-prep academic program, but it is so much more than just a school. One important component of a Brook Road education is its “conversational approach,” which helps students learn important interpersonal and decision-making skills as they learn.

The conversational approach helps children as they transition from the house to the school to the world at large. Children leave the comfort of their home environments and begin to find their place in the world.

The change from elementary school to middle school is especially dramatic, as the school size increases and your child transitions from being an elementary school “senior” (fifth grade) to being a middle school “freshman” (6th grade). On top of that, puberty hits, and suddenly everything is awkward.

The typical reaction is for your child to “clam up” and to seem uncommunicative. Many children learn that it’s safer to keep quiet and avoid making a mistake than it is to take a chance and say something that might appear “stupid.”

Unfortunately, sometimes that strategy goes too far and children don’t learn how to voice their opinions, they don’t learn how to engage people with their ideas, they retreat into themselves. And for them, school can be hell.

Note: for children with any type of characteristic or disability that sets them apart as “different,” this can be even more pronounced. Even if they are not terrorized by “bullies,” children can become terribly self-conscious and even more withdrawn.

Since its beginnings, faculty at Brook Road Academy have used strategies designed specifically to draw students out, to make them feel safer about voicing their opinions and developing the skills they need to communicate confidently and to feel better about themselves. This “conversational approach” can literally change a child’s life.

How does the “conversational approach” work?

First, Brook Road’s faculty are constantly modeling effective, appropriate communication. They make eye contact, they speak with authority, they voice opinions, and they also indicate they know others may have different opinions, and that that’s okay. Faculty will describe their thought processes in detail, to show how they arrive at a conclusion and anticipate consequences from their actions. By demonstrating what’s appropriate and “normal,” our faculty help our students develop their own communication skills.

And Brook Road keeps the class sizes small, so everyone has to join the discussion. Drop in on a typical class and you will see how our teachers make a special point of welcoming a wide range of opinions. (“Sometimes there is more than one right answer!”) Students learn that it’s okay to take a chance.

Finally, classes at Brook Road are more interesting, because unlike other classes, students are just as important as teachers in the learning process. Faculty and teachers discover the class material together, and everyone bonds over the process of learning. Brook Road teachers don’t lecture, they lead “a discussion among equals” that invites participation. And that participation helps to build our students’ confidence in their abilities and in themselves.

All students benefit from Brook Road Academy’s conversational approach, and students with diagnoses including ADHD, depression, school phobia and Asperger’s Syndrome realize even more benefit, as the school provides opportunities for positive social interactions that they just won’t find in most other schools.

So, if you’re looking at a new school, consider Brook Road Academy and its conversational approach. Come for a visit and we’ll talk.