Academic Support
At GMS, we support every student in coming to understand themselves as learners and advocating for their needs both in and outside of the classroom. Our teachers work daily with students to identify and practice strategies to improve understanding, planning and organization, collaboration, and self-advocacy. All students are offered and encouraged to explore a variety of tools and strategies to support their learning.
Beyond the regular classroom, students have access to all teachers every day during Office Hours for additional support, questions, to go deeper in a topic, and for extra challenge (or just to hang out – our teachers are awesome!). Homework Club (offered every day after school) is another space for all students to receive tutorial support and encouragement.
Working With Parents and Teachers
Our Learning Support Team partners with parents and teachers to understand and offer accommodations to students with diagnosed learning differences or those with suspected learning differences. In partnership with parents and guardians at the start of the year, our Learning Specialist develops a GMS accommodations plan. Typical accommodations in a GMS classroom include extended time, audiobooks, spell check, speech to text, flexible seating and sensory tools, and the use of a calculator. Our Learning Specialist can coordinate services from outside providers such as tutors, executive function coaches, therapists, and interventionists.
- Our smaller class sizes (typically 16 students) enable teachers to support students with some learning differences and accommodate a range of learning needs.
- GMS encourages and teaches all students to advocate for their learning styles and needs.
- GMS offers daily Office Hours, where students have the opportunity to meet with their teachers individually or in small groups, for support or “go beyond” work.
- An individualized GMS Accommodation Plan is created for students with learning differences based on the findings in educational testing (completed outside GMS), with strategies and suggestions for the teachers.
Our Learning Specialist is happy to review your child’s IEP and corresponding educational testing to determine what supports may be helpful at GMS. We do not adhere to the same benchmarking, pacing, and meeting schedule that is required in public schools. GMS does not offer push in or pull out or tutoring support that may be provided by specialists in a public school as required in an IEP. Instead, our Learning Specialist will develop a GMS Accommodation Plan to document the needs of the student. This plan may not include all of the accommodations listed in the IEP that the student would receive if in a public school setting.
We encourage you to meet with our Learning Specialist before enrolling at GMS to understand how GMS supports differ from those offered in public schools.
With the small class sizes, the teachers are able to better support a student with learning differences and accommodate their learning needs. GMS embraces learning techniques that naturally lend themselves to the needs of diverse learning styles, such as providing information through multiple modalities (written, spoken), and de-emphasizing timed tests or assignments. We make many “accommodations” available to all students with the belief that everyone should have access to the tools and strategies they need to succeed, such as fidgets, brain breaks, flexible seating, spell check, and audiobooks.
We encourage families to meet with our Learning Specialist and provide as much info as possible about their child during the admission process and before enrolling at GMS to ensure we understand and can meet the needs of each child.
GMS has a full-time Learning Specialist who is available to meet with students on an as-needed basis to answer any questions they have about accommodations and support them in advocating with their teachers. The Learning Specialist consults with teachers, reads reports, writes accommodation plans, conducts informal observations, and helps facilitate the educational testing process with the parents. At this time, we do not provide pull-out or push-in support for students; if a student needs this type of support, families provide it outside of school. GMS also has a full-time Guidance Counselor who is a resource for both students and families.
Accommodations are implemented based on the recommendations from the educational testing, IEP, or 504 plan. Some of the accommodations available include extended time for assessments, shortened assignments with prior teacher discussion, access to a calculator, text-to-speech, and other forms of assistive technology. Accommodations are in place for students with documented needs for standardized testing.
GMS does not write or maintain an IEP or formal 504 plan, though we do honor educational testing and will incorporate assignment and assessment accommodations into the GMS learning experience. The Learning Specialist will write up a GMS Accommodation Plan, which includes strategies and approaches for working with students with learning differences. The GMS Accommodation Plan includes accommodations for assignments and assessments, and learning strategies. The GMS Accommodation Plan is roughly comparable to a 504 plan in the public school.
We encourage you to reach out to our Learning Specialist and the Director of Admission to set up time to talk in person during the admission process and before enrolling at GMS. We encourage families to share as much information as possible with us so we can help determine if GMS will be a good fit for each child.
Examples of documentation include:
- results from psychoeducational or neuropsychoeducational evaluations,
- results from visual or auditory processing tests,
- if previously in public school, an IEP and/or a 504 Plan,
- if previously in independent school, documentation of accommodations received, or
- any other documentation you feel is relevant.