Thomas MacLaren School

Do lots of research and think long and hard before sending your child here. If you have a have a child that fits in a mold they will do well here. If your child spills outside of the mold in any way this school is probably not for you.
Oct 28th, 2019

Oct 3rd, 2019

Our experience here thus far has been exceptional and positive. They do not teach to the test. The teachers are passionate about life long learning and providing a learning environment that encourages a passion for knowledge and to think critically and interact with the content being taught. The cultures at MacLaren is truly community minded.
May 26th, 2019

A $10,000 per year education for free! MacLaren is a state charter school that any student can attend no matter where they live- because it is not tied to a district. You apply and get in by lottery. The curriculum is rigorous, and teachers encourage students to think for themselves, not just memorize things for a test. The teachers are caring, intelligent, and really know their subject. Every student studies a string instrument and plays in the orchestra every year. My student would never have chosen to study music, yet after 1 year of violin he asked for a guitar and plays it happily. Every student gets to physics, calculus and even a basic computer programming class in their junior year. This really makes their college applications stand out. They take 4 years of Latin in grades 6-9, plus another language of choice in high school. In high school they have a unique 2 hour seminar-style class called Humane Letters class that goes through a certain time (American History in 9th grade, European history in 10th, etc) and combines literature, philosophy and history. Students read original texts, discuss them in class, and write papers. Instead of focusing on letter grades or memorizing what they are told to memorize, teachers encourage students to think and write in a way that is unusual before college. Every child gets 7 years of a string instrument, with the discipline and brain development that goes along with it. I since learned that even the odd things like same-gender classes results in better focus in class, and girls doing better in high school math. The Clans are cool! All 6-12 students are assigned to a Clan that participates in school events like Field Day together. Clans plus daily Morning Assembly, help students feel unified across grades. Older students have opportunities to develop leadership in Clubs and Clans, and they learn to be kind to the younger students. The education MacLaren provides freely actually costs $10,000 per student annually at the private schools on which MacLaren is based. They do not even charge for instrument rental! Although they do not have PE during the day for the Upper School, students can choose from a variety of after school sport teams (Track, Soccer, Cross Country, Basketball, etc) so kids who enjoy sports will still be challenged. Your student will have to be willing to do one hour of homework every night (this increases in high school). They can get a head start on it during 7th period tutorial time). And, when students need help in a certain subject, teachers can tutor them right away during that same 7th period tutorial time without getting that child labeled. Before applying for MacLaren, students do a shadow day, and I highly recommend it. If your student does not want to come here, however, do not make them, because they will chafe at the homework, no cell phones allowed during the school day, uniforms, and the set curriculum. But if your student is able and wants to work at learning, they will thrive here. I am so grateful for how the administrators, caring teachers and interesting classes have given my students an excellent education.
Aug 10th, 2019

How your child is treated will be based on if their teacher likes them or not, or how much money you've poured back into this mediocre school. Also, their teacher will not like them if they don't fit into their idealistic mold. There is racism, bullying and prejudices all over there. It is handled based of how much you donate to the school, not by who is wrong or right. I've experienced this first hand. Instead of them finding a proper solution, they pathetically asked me to help them come up with a racism protocol as they stupidly couldn't come up with one themselves. This is a great school for a very specific type of student, it is certainly not for everyone. I'd like to give more than 1 star because there are some great aspects about the school, but the negativity unfortunately has encompassed any possibility of positive words. That's ok, I know several students personally who graduated for this school and are NOT doing anything extraordinary than that of a kid in regular public school. In fact some didn't even pursue college, or work in fast food. They needed a break after the unnecessary difficulty of the curriculum. I'm happy I've decided to remove my son from this school. He now has the opportunity to surprise me with so many unique options his new school offers that Thomas Maclaren can never offer. Latin is not used unless you want to use it's roots to learn more used languages such as Spanish, but WHY waste time on latin when you can jump right into one of it's root languages? They added that to seem unique (and attractive to SPECIFIC people) but whats more unique is school aged students being fluent in a second language they learned from typical public school teachers. And they put in orchestra also to seem attractive, but again it's only attractive if you want to pursue it otherwise it's a waste of time. In normal public school you get dozens of different electives to choose from that will help you become what you want to be in life, not what Thomas Maclaren thinks you should be. Think very deeply before throwing your kid in this boring school that is just so repetitive and uninteresting.
Jul 14th, 2019