Current prep-school parents and students: How well has your school handled the pandemic?

I’m assuming you want actual names of schools and not just “our school” did well. Are you looking to compare for making a choice for next year?

Groton did very well in my estimation. Last spring was hard. I assume it was hard for everyone. My one quibble was that there was zero relaxing of academic pressure even though zoom learning cannot compare with in person learning. So kids had to scramble sometimes to learn things because tests were just as hard, etc.

For fall Groton prioritized bringing ALL kids back to campus and did so with rigorous safety measure and testing. Better than most peer schools - kids did not have to quarantine in their rooms at school for two weeks. There were no student cases in the fall. Everyone on campus was tested weekly and waste was also tested weekly for early warning.

For thanksgiving and Christmas we were virtual again, returning to school around January 18 with similar strict testing. Several more kids have tested positive but generally testing and masking seems to be working again.

Communication is fine. Groton does not value parental input in the slightest but seems to be mostly making choices that I like so :woman_shrugging:. My son feels ok going to drop in on a Dean if there’s a problem that needs attention due to pandemic protocols. This is a small school value. Pretty much all the teachers are teaching in person which I consider a positive compared to Andover or Milton.

All in all, I don’t know of another BS that has handled this as well from my priority list point of view. There has been no student to teacher spread at school and masks are mandated at all time.

(Edited to take out what was kindly pointed out to me was insensitive).

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