New girls school in Baltimore- Ateres

amother

Obsidian ↓

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 6:58 am

I heard about this school from the people starting it. The principal is an amazing woman who is warm with solid hashkafos, emotional intelligence, and brilliant. She’s very passionate about chinuch and will be a great leader. They are trying to be like a mainstream BY you would find in NY. It’s not like they’re trying to specifically be different than BYB or BY. They will be as big as necessary—size is not the differentiation point like Bnos has. BYB is too big and the community rabbanim and BYB staff want to split off some of their people to Ateres. It will have strict rules for internet/technology (for kids access not parents, but parents on board). The rabbanim of Baltimore are against making parents sign a paper about home use of tech, so that will not be a requirement. They will also be very careful about what technology and books they allow in school, with an emphasis on learning and excellence in academics while still being very careful about exposure to the outside world. Anti smart boards. Anti videos of current events. What they do want is a joyful and deeply engaging curriculum of Torah values and of skills in both kodesh and chol. They’re into experiential learning over frontal learning. They’re into using creativity and hands on approaches and making Torah come alive and be fun and engaging. Next year they are starting with three grades: nursery, kindergarten, first grade. They’ll have a uniform that’s different from the other schools. All the groundwork and hiring is being done now, so nothing is set in stone for location or staff.

amother

↑ Lightcyan

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 7:04 am

amother Obsidian wrote:

Wow! That's amazing! Thank you for the update!

We would like to move to Baltimore next year so we we'll be checking out the schools soon. Any way to contact these people to speak to them directly?

amother

↑ Obsidian ↓

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 7:48 am

amother Lightcyan wrote:

Wow! That's amazing! Thank you for the update!

We would like to move to Baltimore next year so we we'll be checking out the schools soon. Any way to contact these people to speak to them directly?

I’ll ask them in real life if they can be contacted by potential parents and if they say yes I’ll respond under my screen name so I can PM you the number.

But you might be better off waiting a few months when they start hiring and get a building so you have better info.

amother

↑ Amber

Sun, Nov 03 2024, 7:59 am

amother Obsidian wrote:

From how you described it, it sounds like BY. BY makes their own textbooks and gets things from Lakewood. BY has an internet policy, and are selective about what books etc are allowed to come into the school. BY has smart boards, and they’re used as regular chalkboards-like to show the paper, enlarged and for writing. Before smart boards the teachers would put the worksheet onto a plastic and then use a projector. It’s the same thing but cleaner. As a parent, it would be a very hard sell for me to switch my younger girls to a new school which sounds like their current school.