Programs and Culture

Each student is assigned to a staff member at Carlton from the time they start at the school. They remain with that same staff member for the entire time they are at Carlton. These small, multi-age groups of 7-10 students become their own communities, who  meet once a month! Community Circles provides all students with the opportunity to learn and grow as individuals and group members. Many important topics are discussed within these small groups.

Students move through cohorts in multi-age classrooms built around the common core standards. Students are able to move to the next cohort when they are both academically and socially/emotionally ready.

Students in E2 who will be moving onto middle school the following year are able to attend a 3 day 2 night field trip to Athol, MA where they work on a working farm. Students learn the importance of a hard day’s work along with working a farm.

The school has both a greenhouse and an outside garden. Our P2 students use the greenhouse to grow some vegetables and plants. They watch, water and learn all about the cycles of plants. Our E2 students then help with the outside garden. They usually plant in the spring and then harvest in the fall. This is a great way to help show students the importance of home grown food. We are lucky to have wonderful parents and students from Salem Prep to help our garden grow during the hot summer months. With their help, our garden is ready for our students in the fall.

Our school tries to tie in our learning through the lens of a unified theme every year. At the end of the year, we bring together lots of activities our students have done throughout the year and celebrate with an end of year celebration. Many times, we will have a small singing/dancing routine along with reading, writing, math, science, history, art, music, and PE. We take pride in the work our students complete.

It is really important to Carlton that student’s take ownership of their own learning. Students are responsible for having a meeting with their families and teachers when they are ready to move to a new cohort. These meetings provide a student the platform to tell everyone what they have accomplished and also to establish new goals for their next cohort. It is a phenomenal experience to watch all students talk about how much they have learned and how much growth they made.

Win Wednesdays provide students with time to gain extra time in many areas. We provide different opportunities that students may not experience outside of school. We have offered Yoga, latin dance, Ukulele, and many other fun activities. In addition, it is a time for students to receive more help in an unmastered skill or enrichment work for those that have mastered their grade level content.

Our wonderful families donate their time and energy to help run an after-school play. We usually start working on the play at the beginning of the school year so that the students can perform before the winter holiday break. Our E2 students get the major roles with all other grade levels being able to participate if they want too. The success of the plays has been incredible and it is because of the fabulous school community we have at Carlton.

We have been lucky to receive a grant to put an outdoor structure in our garden area. Students in all grades will be able to utilize this area to learn outdoors.