Ninth grade is not always the most fun year of high school. It can be a jarring transition from the top of the middle school pecking order to a new school dominated by students three or four years older than you. Ninth graders almost everywhere experience this humbling rite of passage, at public schools and...
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Is there any good reason to wait until your son is in tenth grade to enroll him in one of the nation’s top secondary boarding schools? After all, most schools accept students starting in ninth grade, so why wait? If your son is in junior boarding school or you plan to send him to junior...
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Like most boarding schools across the country, at The Fessenden School, we require our Middle and Upper School boys to participate in sports throughout the academic year. For some families, this is not a problem. High-quality playing facilities and top-notch competition are exactly what they want for their athletically gifted sons. For a number of...
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We think there’s a good boarding school fit for every boy who wants to attend, but the fact remains, at the top junior boarding schools in the country, some applicants will not be accepted on their first try. Here at The Fessenden School, we receive a few hundred applications every year, and unfortunately, there is...
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It’s well-established that boys and girls learn differently. Cognitive differences between the sexes start showing up in our brains when we are quite young. “Brain-imaging technology shows the differences in living color,” Psychologist and brain development expert David Walsh told PBS in 2014. “A growing body of research on these differences points us to a...
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We’ve seen it happen already in our lifetimes. The world is becoming smaller and more connected. National borders and language barriers are being transcended with technology and an increased consciousness of the value of different cultures and ways of life. Imagine how much the world will change during your children’s lifetimes. Stacie Nevadomski Berdan, an...
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Secondary boarding schools traditionally start with boys entering in ninth grade (their “freshman” year). But many junior boarding schools offer the ability to continue studying in their program through ninth grade (and then start secondary school in tenth). So if you’re planning on sending your son to boarding school for high school, you face a...
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As you search for a junior boarding school for your son, one of the best ways to obtain useful information is to speak with other parents whose children attend the schools you’re considering. What should you ask them? Here are the top questions we think will help you to gain an insider’s view of any...
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Athletics participation is an integral, foundational, and, yes, usually mandatory part of the junior boarding school experience. And for some families, that’s a big reason they choose boarding school for their middle school-aged sons. Junior boarding schools tend to provide better facilities, a wider range of sports, and a higher level of competition than other...
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Diversity of the student population is an important consideration when exploring junior boarding schools, or any school for that matter. While some parents value the opportunity for their sons to live and learn with students from different backgrounds and viewpoints, others are more concerned that their boys have the company of local classmates, fearing that...
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