The best preparation for high school

Town ends in the Eighth grade, and our primary job is to prepare our students for entry into the best high schools in the city and region. Everything that we do builds to this outcome, and we believe that the middle school years, where core skills are developed and expanded, where academic habits and attitudes toward school are cemented, are critical. Our middle school is not “lost in the middle,” as is sometimes the case in large K-12 schools. Our students leave Town incredibly well prepared for the academic and personal challenges of high school, where they distinguish themselves as students and people of character.

Secondary School Placement

We take pride in our process of placement and in the results. Beginning in the spring of Seventh grade, parents receive ongoing guidance from the Head of the Upper School, who knows both the students and the high schools extremely well. Eighth graders take a specially designed Decisions course, in which they learn to analyze their own academic and personal styles and those of the schools they will visit. By the time they attend interviews, write essays and make choices, they are able to do so in a mature and thoughtful way.

Our graduates are sought by the finest academic high schools

Most important, at the end of this process, Eighth graders leave Town with a strong sense of themselves – who they are and what they can accomplish – and with excitement and well-founded confidence about the future. Because of the quality of Town’s program, our graduates are sought by the finest academic high schools, where they go on to excel. As the senior class in the school, our Eighth graders bring with them many experiences of leadership and often are the leaders in their high schools as well. In the past few years, Town School graduates have attended independent high schools in New York City including Trinity, Riverdale, Dalton, Fieldston, Columbia Prep, Horace Mann, Spence, Nightingale, and Loyola. Other students have chosen competitive New York City public high schools such as Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and LaGuardia, or boarding schools such as Andover, Exeter, Taft, Kent, and Choate Rosemary Hall.