Tremont School

575 Virginia Road

Concord, MA 01742

38 Reviews

School District
Grade

5-12
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by parent on June 06, 2024

My son is an upcoming senior. He joined Tremont during his Freshman year in January. He had been in our local school system and was so miserable and anxious that he was in complete school refusal. The day he started at Tremont he was back to his old self, happy, engaged and back to loving learning. The public schools could not teach the way my son needed to learn. He does best when learning is hands on, small class sizes and teachers that really care about you and know you and have the flexibility to teach your child in the way that they learn best. I understand some of the negative reviews. Prior to the 2023-24 school year, Tremont was an amazing school, but was experiencing growing pains. Building up a strong teacher team post-covid and moving towards an academically rigorous curriculum created changes and challenges. But this year has proved to be fantastic. The solid teacher team has some of the best teachers you will ever meet and the curriculum is robust, yet able to meet the needs of all students. Tremont has come into its own and I am so excited for the new Headmaster who will start this summer.I highly recommend the Tremont School! It is a school that fosters true learning. It teaches the students to be critical thinkers, to have ownership for their learning and to grow into mature thoughtful young adults. Again highly recommend!!!
Submitted by other on May 24, 2024

The idea behind the school is great, the execution is poor. A few truly great teachers but it stops there. If you are considering this school for your child, please take a close and critical look.
Submitted by parent on November 22, 2023

My daughter was in a crisis. She was on an IEP in public elementary school with high-functioning Autism, Narcolepsy, and PANDAS. The public school could not support her properly. We transferred to a private elementary school for one year which was better but still not a great fit. We transferred to a 766 therapeutic school next. And, while the support structure was very good, the academic learning was anemic. Then we found Tremont School as she started 9th grade. I am thrilled to say that after 5-years at Tremont School, she graduated HS took a gap year and is now a freshman at Hampshire College!Tremont School was a warm and welcoming environment. It was a safe place. They allowed her to heal socially and emotionally first. And, then the learning started. She loved being able to co-create the curriculum with the faculty. She loved the project based work. She loved the contract time to give flexibility to how she completed the work. And, simply, she loved the faculty and staff - especially Tore. It was amazing to see that she did not need the IEP supports as traditionally defined (pull-outs, social skills, exec functioning skills, etc.) at Tremont because the natural structure of the curriculum and the built in Collaborative Problem Solving culture provided all the support required.I am not sure we would have a college freshman today if it wasn't for Tremont School.
Submitted by parent on November 20, 2023

My son had an excellent experience attending a post-grad year at Tremont School. He experienced a just right challenge academically, had a lot of autonomy and agency in his learning, and had flexibility in his schedule allowing him to also take some college courses simultaneously at a community college. He has since moved on to matriculate in a college in Burlington Vermont and is soon to graduate. His experience was so positive that it motivated me to join the Tremont School Board of Trustees! Great people, a research-based approach to teaching and learning where every single student feels known and a part of a strong community. Well done Tremont School.
Submitted by parent on November 17, 2023

I am the father of a 10th grader at Tremont School. My son started at Tremont in the beginning of 9th grade. We came to Tremont from the Metro West public schools and were not getting the support we needed for our neurodiverse child. We hired educational consultants to help find us a learning environment that works for him and we happened upon Tremont School in Concord, MA amongst others.After multiple discussions with the school and a visit or two, our son chose Tremont over another finalist. He has not looked back since and has really enjoyed the experience. He has made friends, enjoys the learning approach where he can push his interests into his studies (he's currently studying Activision vs. Microsoft legal decision), and the support he receives from empathetic staff.Pros:- Small school with individual learning approaches for each child- Social, emotional, and academic learning- Some incredible new staff who joined in the last year that have pushed the curriculum and approach to new levels- The school "cares" about each child. Regular check-ins and communication.Cons:- Lack of official transportation to/from school- A few years of teacher turnover which seems to have settled (so far this year - none)- No official sport teams (yet)We are excited we have found Tremont and have seen a material change for our child. We would recommend Tremont.
Submitted by parent on November 16, 2023

My daughter was there from grade 5-12. We were told in public school to give up on the idea that she would ever have any true friends. She has made wonderful friendships that persisted into college at Tremont School. She was well prepared for college at University of Vermont. She is using many of the self advocay skills and social emotional skills to be successful. She also took community college courses while in high school. She was supported by the flexible curriculum at Tremont and was able to start college with over 20 credits.
Submitted by other on April 14, 2023

As a former student, this place was a nightmare. All the administration cares about was whether they'd look good to new people on the outside, rather than fix the multitude of problems on the inside. The students are allowed to goof off on computers or Nintendo Switches, often throwing tantrums like toddlers when they are told that they can't. While I was in class last year, a kid threatened to stab another student with scissors in class, pointing the scissors at the kid like he was holding a knife. There is no discipline here, kids can swear, threaten, and even injure students AND TEACHERS, and more often than not they'll get away with it. The teachers also lose homework constantly, and make you do it again due to their organization deficiency. This place often feels like a daycare or therapy school rather than a functioning college preparatory school. As the reviewer from June of '22 said, the curriculum is non-existent. The PE teacher did language class for like 3 weeks, and when I say language class, it was more like watching movies in said language while she sat on her phone. Please don't make the same mistake my parents did and don't send your kid here. Trust me, they'll be better set somewhere else.
Submitted by parent on June 27, 2022

As the reviewer from 5/24/22 noted, I wish I had paid attention to the negative reviews as well. Instead, my wife and I believed their website/marketing and visit to the school where the admissions director goes overboard welcoming you so you really get sucked into the hype around their learning philosophy, etc. From our experience I am baffled how they’ve received and maintained an NEASC accreditation. If you have a child on an IEP/504 be very wary of sending your child here. There is extremely limited support for anyone with special needs. There is no structure, rules or consequences for bad behavior (by the way, they say they don’t accept kids with bad behavior - a complete falsity). It is a revolving door for staff and students both in the past year. You will be asked for donations constantly to the point it is embarrassing. They invest more in fundraising gala events than their students. Their teachers make far less than public school teachers in the area so why would a good teacher be attracted to teaching here? Their curriculum consists of 3 main subjects (humanities, math, science) and for extracurricular its art and music. If your child wants to do anything other than that - they’re out of luck. There is also no foreign language offering. Half of their day will be spent playing video games, surfing the web or goofing off. Their staff is completely unsupported and overworked which is why they have recently unionized. Maybe this will change things for the better? Time will tell but do not let yourselves waste almost $50k a year in tuition while they figure this out. Exhaust your options in public school or search for a better funded and better run private school. Tremont’s concept is great but their execution is failing the staff and students.
Submitted by parent on June 22, 2022

The high school math teacher (Ian Murphy) who'd been there for eight years just recently resigned. Surprisingly, the administration hasn't said anything about it yet.He was a major part of the glue that kept the school together. Everything's slowly beginning to fall apart now.
Submitted by other on May 24, 2022

Do NOT make the same mistake I did and dismiss the negative reviews.All of the those reviews sum up the school pretty well. The issues they mentioned have been amplified in the past few years. More recently, the school has been losing money due to its exorbitant rent, and to compensate for that, they've been bringing in more and more children on a frequent basis. Even with a supposed capacity of fifty children, the building (which they moved to during the 2019-2020 school year) is packed.Unfortunately, teachers and administrators are not able to provide what each individual student desperately needs, even after their parents have continuously raised concerns about the lack of resources provided by the school (e.g., special education, general guidance, help with schoolwork, etc). Such issues have been especially apparent with the high school. It's not rare for them to ignore your emails and let your complaints fall on deaf ears.On their Indeed page, the school is currently hiring plenty of teachers for the middle school, but nothing for the high school. While the middle school definitely has its fair share of issues, the high school is noticeably struggling right now. There's no reason why they shouldn't be hiring experts in special education that are dedicated to the high school when they've already provided the middle school with somebody like that.Some children here also suffer from various behavioral issues. We were told the complete opposite, but that clearly isn't true!Speaking of the teachers, they aren't given a good salary here. For all of the work that they have to put up with, they're only paid $30,000. That's in stark comparison to the salary that other schools in the area offer. To make matters worse, fundraisers are offered a salary that's more than twice the amount that teachers are offered. To the administrators, it's about raising as much money as possible nowadays. None of that seems to be invested in the right places though.All of that has finally culminated in the teachers attempting to form a union. A labor complaint was filed last month...The experience we were sold was so misleading. Whatever you do, don't buy into their marketing. Unless your child is artsy-fartsy (the school only provides music and art as extracurricular programs), the education they will receive is only worth half of the huge tuition that the school actually wants....and that's just a TINY snippet of the bad stuff. I ran out of room for this review.
Submitted by parent on March 31, 2021

As a former teacher, I fell in love with the Tremont school, the professionals leave their skin on each student and embark on their own path of personal maturation to be able to give the best of themselves. I believe that Tremont school is a necessary school that wants to give an opportunity to those who have grown up in fear. Tremont confronts you with your fears and teaches you how to deal with them. The process is long and difficult, requires trust in others, but fixes a lifetime
Submitted by parent on August 10, 2020

We've had an excellent middle school experience. It literally saved our family and our child from the all too frequent challenges of a public middle school. Our child needed the kindness and academic challenge that Tremont provides.
Submitted by parent on January 16, 2020

Excellent experience. My child has been at Tremont for 6 year. She is thriving socially, emotionally, and academically. We have seen so much growth in our child at Tremont. We could not be more thankful to this wonderful school .
Submitted by student on March 15, 2019

They Staff are nice but their methods of teaching are just sad
Submitted by parent on February 18, 2019

Although it may seem good, once you join you realize the lack of competence and integrity in the teachers. It takes them months to get a schedule right and most of the time students just play games.
Submitted by parent on January 23, 2019

My son is in his second year at Tremont. It's been wonderful to see him grow as a person and as a learner at the school.
Submitted by parent on November 04, 2018

Tremont has made an incredible difference for my son. At his old school he had trouble accessing the curriculum due to his anxiety, but they were unable to recognize this or support him. Tremont helped him love school again. The teachers are talented and caring. My son has become a self-aware learner who knows how he learns best and can advocate for himself.
Submitted by parent on October 25, 2018

It's been a godsend for our family.
Submitted by parent on October 17, 2018

Outstanding. My son is in his 3rd year at Tremont. At public school he was bullied and was in "survival mode" to make it through the day. Now he's engaged in learning.
Submitted by parent on October 08, 2018

This is our son's 5th year at Tremont. He has never once refused to go to school, as he had often in the past. At Tremont, no one falls through the cracks. Individualized attention keeps them engaged and learning, and flexible teachers adjust to help find just the right approach for each child. Kids who don't do well with lecture style teaching thrive here. There is structure, but with lots of student choice about how to achieve goals. There are several breaks and recess time, because kids need that, and I am happy to say that our son now is enjoying his first year of high school at Tremont.