Gordon School has a thorough secondary school placement process that formally begins when the students are at the end of their seventh grade year. There are three people on staff who handle the process: the Head of School, the Middle School Director and the Secondary School Placement Counselor.
Parents of the seventh graders are encouraged to make an appointment with their counselor prior to the beginning of the eighth grade year. At that meeting, the counselor will go over test scores and reports, plan out any strategy for the student’s eighth grade year and what he or she may need to focus on in order to make the best placement. This meeting allows the counselor and the parents to begin discussing which schools might be the best match. The counselor answers any questions the parents might have.
Once the new school year begins, the eighth graders are scheduled to meet one-on-one with their counselor to engage them in thinking about what they are looking for in a high school. They are all asked to write out their answers to a series of questions about themselves. This information is very helpful when recommendations are written by the counselor and when speaking with admission directors of high schools.
In September, students and parents are also given several packets of information that specifically address the whole secondary school placement process. Early in October, Gordon hosts a secondary school placement night where admission officers come from schools all over New England to talk to parents and students, answer questions and give out information about their school. Students also receive helpful preparation for the Secondary School Achievement Test, which they take at Gordon in December.
There is a calendar that both parents and students are given that specifies all of the important dates to note. The Assistant to the Middle School Director is responsible for coordinating all of the above and ensuring that parents and students are kept abreast of any changes.
In addition to the meetings that eighth graders have with their counselor, they also go through mock interviews with an admission director or their counselor before they go for their school visits or interviews. The students are given sample questions ahead of time that may be asked of them as well as suggestions for questions they might want to ask when they are at a school. After a student has been on a high school visit, the counselor and the admission directors follow up with them.
Also in addition to their meetings with the students and families, Gordon’s Head of School, Middle School Director and Secondary School Placement Coordinator visit each of the schools that Gordon’s students are applying to – both day and boarding – to speak directly with the admission directors and, on occasion, the heads. These meetings are a critical step in the process and one that the counselors take very seriously. Being able to talk in person to admission directors about Gordon’s eighth graders is time consuming work that is extremely rewarding.
Secondary schools have many of their enrollment decisions made by early March. Because many of our eighth graders apply and are accepted to several schools, it is then up to the parents and children to make the final decision. This can mean a few more meetings of parents or students, more calls to admission offices, or additional school visits for the students. In spite of the enormous importance that the secondary school placement process carries for both the students and Gordon, everyone involved does his or her best to make the process exciting and fun, without allowing it to be the primary focus of an eighth grader’s final year at Gordon.