Melrose Leadership Academy
My child will be attending TK at Melrose Leadership Academy in the fall. We were attracted to the school for its social justice based curriculum, project based learning, and dual immersion program. I'd love to hear more from parents about the school-- there are not many recent reviews on BPN. How is the school working out for your kids? What do you like/ appreciate about it? What are some areas where you hope it could improve? Thanks for sharing!
Apr 13, 2017
Parent Replies
My daughter started MLA in kindergarten and is now finishing up 1st grade. It has been a wonderful experience for us all so far. When she began, she did not speak any Spanish but has learned so much in the last 2 years. The teachers and principal have been warm and nurturing. There is a good community of parents and an overall positive vibe in the school. The emphasis on social justice is amazing and has meant even more to us in the current political environment. Like most public schools, funds are short and things are not always neat and tidy but overall the energy of this school has made it a place where our daughter loves to learn. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!
Our daughter is in kindergarten this year at Melrose Leadership Academy. We choose MLA for similar reasons to what you listed and have been very happy with the school. The curriculum is interesting and the teachers and staff are great. The project-based learning approach provides a cohesive structure to what they are learning - even in Kindergarten. The 90/10 model was hard the first few months for kids who came in with only English, but all have adjusted and most have been very quick to learn Spanish. The kids get art and music once a week (at least in K) with amazing instructors paid for by the PTSA. They also go the library once a week. There is active parent involvement at the school - volunteering in the classroom, fundraising, organizing fun events, etc. The afterschool program is great and very reasonably priced - they get art, capoeira, and ballet folklorico at least once a week in addition to general running around time (and signups for next year have started so contact them now if you need aftercare).
Many of the kids in K this year were in TK last year and those families all have glowing things to say about the TK teacher. The TK class does a fair bit of mixing with the K classes, but also seems to carve out space to meet the needs of that younger group (breakfast together in the cafeteria after everyone else is in class every morning, rest time, classroom in a portable that provides a little bit of separate space, etc.).
The main area where we see room for improvement is communication. There is a bi-weekly newsletter that gets sent out mostly be email and posted on the school website (occasionally a paper copy gets sent home but not consistently). But we don't get much more than that in the way of regular communication. That said we've been able to get answers any time we needed them.
Will include my username; happy to answer any other questions.
My daughter is in K this year. She comes home every day very happy with lots of stories about what she has learned and activities she has done. She came in bilingual so the transition was not difficult for her, but I know it was for other students. My friend has her kid in TK and she is pretty happy with it as well. One thing she said was that she actually thought the breakfast together every morning made the transition much harder for her daughter.
In terms of where to improve, my daughter's K teacher is absent a lot and the subs aren't great. Also the communication is not the greatest.
Overall, we are really happy there!