Move to MA most likely happening...ANY INFO ON SCHOOLS WOULD BE SOOO APPRECIATED!!! Acton, Littleton, Grafton... (Boston: school district)

[nene70]

If anyone can provide any information on schools in towns surrounding Natick, it would be so helpful! I am looking for things such as afterschool care on site, gifted/advanced programs, band, languages, good student/teacher ratios...anything that will tell me more about the schools (elementary and middle schools in particular). Great schools.com is good for school ratings, but parents' input is so much better!! We have been looking mainly at towns northwest/ west of Natick. Advice on any other towns would be great

[Irena.M]

Acton has been said to have a great school district. There are 5 elementary schools and generally you can pick one. Mc Carthy and Meriam are in one building and these two are somewhat different from the others. Mc Carthy is more project based. For instance last year the first grade studied tide pools and japan. This year, second grade, they started with turtles,....almost no homewrok and there are no grades given in either school. Other schools like Douglas, Conant and Gates do give grades. Here is the website that elaborates on this Acton Public Schools | Acton-Boxborough Regional School District each school has its own philosphy.
The elementary schools are alternating the schedule each year. One year it is the early one year late schedule. Early starts at 8:30 to 2:45, early dismissal Thursday at 12:15. Late schedule is from 9:15 to 3:30, early dismissal Thursday at 1pm.
Each school has before and after school options from 7AM till 6 PM, also there is community ed. that provides before and after school as well.
Hope this helps a bit.

[scarletfire]

Around Natick there are plenty of well regarded school systems, including Sherborn (one of the best), Wellesley, Southboro, among quite a few others. Massachusetts public schools are very strong but are not known for gifted programs. I just read an interesting article about this recently. It was either in Boston Magazine or in the Globe. You might be able to Google and find it.

[professorsenator]

You won't find a lot of "gifted and talented" programs in Mass. I think people often reject them as a form of educational apartheid.

[nene70]

Thanks so much for the information. Irena, that is really interesting re. the schools that do not give grades. I will have to look up the website and read more about that.

[PatriciaH]

My daughter went through the Acton school system, and we were very pleased. Her elementary school experience was very good (McCarthy-Towne) and the high school well-prepared her for college, from which she graduated last year.