Hamlin Robinson School

1701 20th Avenue South

Seattle, WA 98144

16 Reviews

School District
Grade

1-8
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by parent on August 27, 2022

My daughter has gone to HRS for six school years and has had a very positive experience overall. She was struggling in public school and falling behind. HRS helped her so much to catch up in reading and gain confidence about her abilities academically. She learned that she is not alone with having dyslexia and that she learns in different ways. Every school has its positives and negatives, but would definitely recommend this school if your child needs a supportive environment and teachers who work with your child at the level he/she is currently at academically.
Submitted by parent on August 20, 2022

Hamlin Robinson School has been for our family the “beacon of hope” and inspiration for a better future for our daughter, and many more kids. Proof is that our daughter today reads and writes at a higher level than she was capable four years ago. Thanks to Hamlin Robinson School teaching approach, such as the “Slingerland Method “, and all her wonderful teachers who patiently taught her and guide her throughout these years our daughter is a more confident and happy child. Thanks FOREVER HRS!
Submitted by parent on August 08, 2022

I came to HRS in the middle of the school year in the 4th grade. At my previous school, I felt astray, anxious, and felt so much more behind than all of my classmates. When my parents and I eventually decided it was a necessity to switch schools, I was nervous, scared, and felt different than all my friends. Then, I walked into HRS. I instantly felt like I found home. I finally felt like my teachers understood me. I was treated with extreme kindness from the entire HRS community. My family and I only wish I had started at HRS sooner, allowing me to gain these fundamentals and tools to help me be successful with my learning differences. HRS empowered me to gain back my confidence and joy in reading, writing, spelling, and math. Many years later, I found myself back in their community interning in a classroom, pressuring my dream of becoming a teacher! If it wasn’t for HRS…I truly don’t know what we would have done.
Submitted by parent on August 06, 2022

Our family is having a great experience at Hamlin Robinson School. From the first visit, their skilled admissions team understood the challenges we were facing and helped us through each step in determining if their school could serve our family. Our daughter struggled with traditional learning structures and the pace of learning. This led to tremendous anxiety, lack of self-confidence, low self-esteme and social challenges. HRS understands the complexity and impact that language-based learning differences has on students and their programs, academics and environment reflect their expertise. As with any school, there is a range of learners, our daughter happens to be on the low end of the curve. The teachers are fantastic. They adapt to our daughters' scaffolding needs, understand one size doesn't fit all and always encourage her. The teachers are great about meeting with me and talking through the learning plan and strategies. The head of school really listens to parents and follows through on his commitments. He's active and engaged with the students. The community is super supportive and fun! Most importantly, our daughter is thriving. Today, she's confident, advocating for herself, loves learning and has strong friendships. We are grateful for Hamlin Robinson School.
Submitted by parent on July 20, 2022

Our child (ADHD) (7) attended the summer school program for dyslexia and carried some shame/negative self talk around not being able to read. One week in, the school kicked him out for becoming overwhelmed/tearing up his assignment. “He requires more individual attention than we are interested/able to provide” was the explanation. They have unfortunately set us back on his literacy journey, and also refused a full refund. If you think your child may require individual attention or is described as above, sounds like they want to make sure you don’t select this program.
Submitted by parent on January 07, 2022

We had the opportunity to join the Hamlin Robinson Community in our daughter’s 7th grade year. During our daughter’s elementary school years Hamlin Robinson was recommended to us by friends in our Seattle Public School parent community and eventually also by an educational psychologist. We saw signs that our daughter was struggling in math and writing but, didn’t know what to do and questioned if she was an appropriate candidate for Hamlin Robinson. From the moment our daughter had her first meeting with Jessica Ruger (Head of Lower School), Josh Phillips (Head of Middle School) and Stacey Turner (Head of School) at Hamlin Robinson we knew our daughter had found her place and her people. Jessica and Josh provided our daughter with a virtual tour of Hamlin Robinson School (at height of pandemic). They asked for our daughter’s input regarding teaching environment/physical classrooms and how classroom setup might be helpful for our daughter. Our daughter chose Hamlin Robinson because it provided a learning community and environment that she felt strongly about. Our time at Hamlin Robinson this past year and a half has been a whirlwind and yet, it has also been a period of Great Growth for my husband and I and our daughter. As with any partnership, we have come to know that our daughter’s success in school requires just as much support from my husband and I as support from educational institution, no matter the institution. Hamlin Robinson School’s talented and dedicated teaching staff have consistently modeled and encouraged our daughter to advocate for herself, to know her strengths and areas of challenge, and to know the accommodations that she will need to request as she moves ahead in her educational career. I cannot overstate the difference Hamlin Robinson has made in our daughter’s life both academically and socially and in our family’s life. Much Love and Many Thanks to the Teachers, Staff, Families and Community that make up Hamlin Robinson School.
Submitted by parent on January 06, 2022

Our son was diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia in 2nd grade so we enrolled him at Hamlin Robinson School (HRS) mid-way through the school year and it was the best parenting decision we ever made.Within months we noticed a major change in our son’s abilities and every year since he has met or exceeded traditional academic milestones.The leadership at Hamlin is highly focused on meeting the kids where they are and making sure they gain the reading and writing skills they need for higher education. I’ve never met a more approachable, kind hearted head of school who so confidently leads his team and continually seeks improvements in education, processes and programs.Is the school perfect in every way? No, all schools have areas for improvement. Will your child’s needs be met by attending HRS? Without a doubt. And if issues arise, your concerns will be heard.Without HRS my child would have suffered through elementary feeling defeated and needed multiple tutors and hand writing specialists. But he didn’t, he learned to read and write and now is a huge reader and writes beautiful essays. I highly recommend Hamlin Robinson School.
Submitted by parent on January 05, 2022

The path to academic success for our family has not quite been what we expected when we had our kids. I was diagnosed with Dyslexia at age 7 and I knew there was a good chance my kids could be dyslexic too. I had assumed, 30 years later and now living in Seattle, the public school system would know what to do if one of our kids had the same struggles. Unfortunately, I was wrong. There were years of struggle, but we were lucky and we were able to enroll our daughter at Hamlin Robinson School in 4th grade.Because of the opportunity to attend a school that really understood her, my daughter's trajectory in this world was altered. Her belief in herself was changed at its core. Her knowledge of her own capabilities is known when it was not before. My son now has the opportunity to attend and we are seeing the same growth in his confidence.Hamlin Robinson School is more than just a school. It is a huge part of our Dyslexia Community here in Washington State. The HamlinRobinson School Learning Center offers educational workshops, summer programs, and events that benefit the wider community, including specialized training to teachers who will positively impact students at schools throughout the region and nation. Students receive the support they need at the School AND from the Learning Center with in-person and remote tutoring.I am thrilled for our community Hamlin Robinson is growing and increasing capacity at HRS, more families will attend and find the support they need for their students so they can soar.If you have a student who has dyslexia or a related learning disability, it is a disservice to your family to not look at Hamiln Robinson for support.
Submitted by parent on January 04, 2022

Hamlin is a game changer school. It gave my daughter a chance to thrive and be excited about learning in an environment where for the first time she felt like she fit in. She entered in third grade not being able to read. Six months in, she came home and told me she wanted to be a librarian. Game changer!
Submitted by parent on November 07, 2021

We sent our daughter to Hamlin in 5th grade. She is severely dyslexic, and Hamlin worked very well for her. I truly wish you could be sending your child to the Hamlin of five years ago.Since then, they got a new headmaster and everything has changed. Lots of “experts” came in and rearranged everything. Us lowly parents found that it became a shadow of what it was.Before, the math courses were tracked, which is very important in a student body where some students have enormous difficulties with numbers and some are advanced. Instead, all students were put in generic classes, which only led to great frustration for everyone. Algebra as a regular class was eliminated entirely, even though some students were entirely ready for it.The english classes became very political. Any book that encouraged joy in reading was efficiently replaced with books about the teachers’ political beliefs. Extra credit projects were going to online political events. The classes also began studying TV shows in addition to books, which is very frustration when the kids need a lot of help with reading.The parents complained, of course. And they were ignored, as is the current standard. It’s a sad situation, because Hamlin is a school that can do great good for the community and dyslexia as a whole. I hope they return to their focus. For now, it is very important that prospective parents be warned what they are getting into.
Submitted by parent on September 22, 2021

When your child is struggling you are willing to do anything to help them succeed and we were thrilled when our child was accepted into Hamlin given all the great feedback we had heard. The hope for academic success quickly dwindled after the first month in school and it only got worse from there. The horrible lack of communication, lack of consistent teaching staff (week to week, month to month) and lack of attention or resolution to valid concerns and questions (from many parents) was staggering. We were confused what we were paying all this tuition for?! They didn’t fully communicate what the kids were studying on a regular basis so we couldn’t fully support this at home; and our child is watching calming videos for 2 hours a day IN SCHOOL. So disappointed and feel like we lost time with our child in their academic growth. However, when it comes to fundraising and asking for money, the communications are great and too frequent. Please get your priorities straight. For those considering, beware. It is NOT worth the tuition.
Submitted by parent on August 12, 2021

My child started Hamlin in 3rd grade. We were hopeful that we would see transformational change and we felt deeply supported and relieved as a new incoming family. But 3rd grade was interrupted by Covid lockdowns and a school that was deeply unprepared to offer anything resembling an engaging experience in a remote model. We only received instruction for the first two thirds of the 3rd grade, and the rest of the year we considered a write-off in spite of paying full annual tuition. 4th grade continued similarly, with the school scrambling to engage students who were sitting unseen and on mute on a computer at home. It was a disaster for a child already coming from behind because of learning challenges. Students were expected to be starting the school year at the same level of preparedness and maturity as they would if they had received a full year of 3rd grade instruction -- which obviously hadn't happened -- and there was a lot of blaming parents and the kids for not focusing and attending to remote work with the same dedication they would expect in a classroom. The school administration was very prickly and distanced themselves from having honest, open discussions about what wasn't working and being willing to talk about strategies to improve the experience for the kids. They didn't even want to acknowledge any shortcomings of their remote solution and kept parents at a strong arms distance. Yet fundraising efforts continued in earnest. The school administration's biggest outreach to families during this time was through public facing marketing materials that were clearly framed to entice new enrollments. We know families that made the decision to take their students out of Hamlin as a result of the experience during the pandemic. The school made it clear that they cared more about appealing to new enrollees during the difficult year than they did about really connecting with current families and making sure their students were being served. It was a huge disappointment.
Submitted by parent on April 25, 2021

This school was amazing for our daughter when she entered in Grade 3. Starting in grade 6 we noticed a significant change. Multiple teachers were leaving mid-year and others not returning. The result was that teachers were brand new to teaching and to the Slingerland method. The past 2 years things have gone from bad to worse with the focus of this decline being on the administration. Conclusion: the cost of tuition comes no where near the value provided. You would be much better off hiring a tutor and having your child attend a school close to your home.
Submitted by parent on March 09, 2017

Our son is finishing his second year at Hamlin Robinson and we forever thankful for finding such a fantastic school who exceeds our expectations at every turn. He went from feeling he was "the dumbest kids in the class, crying, and hating school.." to smiling, skipping each day when I pick him up after school telling me "he loves his school!" What more can I say? Amazing.
Submitted by parent on September 08, 2015

My son is starting his second year at HRS this year. His first year astounded my husband and I . His reading is already at grade level and he LOVES to read! His math has also improved immensely in just one year and he loves to do it because of the cool ways it's taught. He has also made wonderful friends that are highly intelligent kids who simply needed to be taught differently. My son is not ashamed of his dyslexia but feels empowerd by it because he knows he's a smart kid who thinks differently...and that's not a bad thing! Thank you HRS for the fantastic job bringing in the right teachers and programs. We count our blessings HRS is possible for Noah to attend. There is nothing like it in all of Washington state!
Submitted by parent on January 05, 2015

Fantastic school! We are very lucky to have it in Seattle. They truly cater to each student's individual learning style and encourage a respectful, creative and dynamic learning environment. The teachers are talented and passionate about their job, and curricula are rich and very rounded. Our son has been thriving and I couldn't be happier!