Waterfront School

Please do not put ur kid through this school

My daughter is in her third year at Bennett Park Montessori School. Despite having shorter days it has been a great place for my daughter. I really like the peer learning/teaching environment, I believe one can learn a lot from teaching. She's now in the 5-7 age group; having just turned five I believe she will get a greater challenge being exposed to older kids in her class rather than a traditional Kindergarden. I've been active parent and have met many of the staff and other parents, as with anything in life there are good and bad, but I believe the good outweighs e bad and the non-traditional learning environment helps kids in the long run. You can definitely get back what you put I to it.

Great school, im very happy my children be here.

Applewild is not the school it was 5,10, even 20 years ago and they are trying to survive on old luster. Staff is over stretched and students are no longer getting the rigorous approach that once was. Last year in grades 4-5 there was no standard writing curriculum for students so those grade levels are behind in their schooling. There are administrators who are more interested in filling boarding student houses while forgetting the every day workings of the day school. Bullying is pushed under the rug and nothing is ever done about it. Racist comments happen and somehow those go unnoticed or fall off deaf ears. The comments seem to come from the same group yet they are still enrolled at the school. When parents bring up issues that need to be resolved they are presented with “we think your child should see a counselor because they have anxiety. When in reality it’s the Applewild environment that is creating the unneeded anxiety for the student. These family then becomes the “crazy” family because they’re trying to address their child’s needs. Administrations lie to the parents and students constantly and find they’re favorite way to bully and belittle daily. Teachers are intimidated by administration for fear of losing their job on a daily basis. There has been a huge teacher turnover from 2019 to present and only 3-4 original Applewild teachers remain. The Devens campus was substantially downsized last year leaving parents in the community only weeks to figure out what to do with their children for the following year and the option they were given was to come to the Fitchburg campus for a much higher added fee for next year. Parents had to scramble to find after school care very quickly with very little explanation or notice. Their foundations program for Language based learning programs needs an entire over site and this school needs to look outside of their walls for proper training. They don’t have properly trained teachers in the areas of struggle needed. There are no occupational therapist or speech and language pathologists. There is also no full time counselor to support children’s emotional needs with learning challenges, . There are many valuable resources in this area that could help them but the head of school said that all training can be done with the professionals they have now. Also, board has no oversight and is said to work for ahead master and not in the best interest of the institution. Major over site is needed ASAP.