5613 Stage
Barnard, VT 05031

With two young kids in the school, I am very excited by the new administration and several new teachers at BA, bringing forward-thinking changes and new energy to a school that has always had a strong community connection and compassion for every student. With the new Outdoor Learning and inquiry oriented curriculum, I look forward to the opportunities my kids will engage in. The principal is first rate and knows what she's doing.

It's a really good school. I went here for 7th grade (I'm moving to Florida now). There was this 9th grader who I went to elementary school with, and all through elementary school, he terrorized me when I literally did nothing to him (you know who you are). After he recognized me when I got into this school, he started being a jerk again and would say something mean and/or stupid every time he walked by me. I went and told my counselor (the counselors there are amazing) and she made it very clear that they don't tolerate bullying and that he wasn't going to bother me. After that he bothered me one more time, but when he got told he was on serious warning of suspension, he stopped. That's the main reason for me [kind of] liking this school. They stay on top of bullying issues. Also, the staff are amazing, you don't get loaded with stress and homework. It's easy to get around and navigate, and the classes are a lot of fun. I really like how they have basically no rules at that school but you don't see kids smoking or doing graffiti or things like that. Something that wasn't so good about my time there (and know that this is really my problem, not the school's, that's why the rating is 5 stars) is the other kids. As if the [I'm not saying what he is since kids read this stuff] wasn't bad enough, most of the kids in my grade were just kind of rude. I've always been kind of socially awkward and never really had a lot of friends, and I sometimes get the feeling that other kids will have more fun if I'm not there, so I don't really talk to them unless I have to (like if we get paired together for an assignment). And obviously they don't have any reason to be rude (since I don't talk to them), but when we have to do classwork together, they're really picky about everything (if we make a poster everything HAS to be perfect) and they get all snappy if I do one thing they don't like. I did have a couple friends that were amazing, though. Sorry if this felt more like a rant about my social life; I know I didn't give a lot of helpful information, but that's just what I typed I guess. In short it's an amazing school. For the actual school, 5 stars. For my social experience, 1.5 stars.