Academic Overview
Hillside School provides an education that is attuned with exceptional care to individual student needs.With our small section sizes, we work diligently to ensure that each boy is correctly placed so that he feels fully challenged and fully supported. While we have a strong idea as to correct placement from admissions materials, we continue to monitor a student’s placement throughout his years at Hillside.
Another exceptional characteristic of classroom education at Hillside is the School’s universal emphasis on the explicit teaching of learning skills. Most of us never had a Science teacher, for example, take time from class to talk about how to take notes, how to organize time, how to attack a reading assignment in a textbook.
A Focus on Learning Skills
At Hillside, we are committed to the belief that these Middle School years represent prime time for the development of learning skills. We are committed to the belief that every teacher should address these issues through their coursework. And we are committed to the belief that a consistency of approach throughout the disciplines and across the years will create graduates who are prepared to tackle the challenges of learning in the years ahead.
Technology in the Classroom
With the powerful and natural integration of iPads and laptops into the dynamics of learning, we recognize the compelling value of technological fluency for each of our students. We do not believe in using technology for technology’s sake, but to harness the power of technology to enhance learning, and in thoroughly preparing our students for a future in which technology will be a ubiquitous, second-nature part of the world they inherit and create.
