Atrium School

My daughter is THRILLED to be at Atrium. It is a loving school filled with music and art. She runs in the door each day. She raves about it. This is a place where kids make friends for life. Learning is deep, conceptual and creative. Her teachers are warm and encouraging.

We are thrilled to have our child at Atrium. Now a 3^rd-​grade student, our son entered Atrium school in first grade. In two years, he learned to set goals and take pride in his accomplishments while being realistic about skills that still need to be developed. He learned the value of hard work in overcoming difficulties. He learned to work independently and as part of a group. He is learning how to be a good friend and a contributing member of a community, how to be respectful, caring, open-​minded and sensitive to the needs of others, and how to resolve conflicts in a constructive and positive way.
Most importantly, our son absolutely loves going to school. Every morning, when I drop him off, I feel elated because I see him and other kids rush off into the building with joyful faces. Whenever you visit, you see and feel that students own the school. It is their place, their second home, their world where days are filled with exciting and meaningful projects and collaborative learning — the kind of learning that stays with the child because it is the learning the child is deeply invested in and can be proud of.
We also love Atrium because it is about empowering children and building their sense of confidence and leadership skills. It is about helping each student discover and develop her or his unique strengths and abilities. It is about encouraging students to be creative problem solvers and life-​long lovers of learning. It is about respect for each and every individual, it is about fostering long-​lasting friendships and community. As a family, we feel fortunate to be part of the Atrium community.

Atrium encourages curiosity and teaches kindness. When we first visited the school, we a couldn’t help but notice how engaged and happy the children were. The teachers are skillful, the administration and staff are wonderful, and the parent community is involved. Our children are challenged academically and are thriving. We feel fortunate to have found this gem of a school that offers incredible art and music programs (including violin instruction) and opportunities for public speaking, community engagement, and mentoring. The building itself has won awards for «green» architecture and is filled with sustainable materials and natural light.

Atrium is an absolutely wonderful school. Our son has been attending for four years, and we are grateful for all of his teachers, fellow students, and the head of the school. Our son was bullied in the public schools, and it made his early education a misery. Now he loves school. The teachers present work that is challenging, meaningful, and interesting. The kids are bright, respectful, and happy. We think Linda Echt, the head of school, sets the stage for an open and nurturing environment where real, hands-​on learning takes place every day.
Atrium is a place where children thrive academically and emotionally.

Our experience at Atrium School has been a phenomenal one. The school will tell you that they equally value the academic, social and emotion growth for every child– and we can attest to the fact that this goal is one that is actively realized. Not only has our child spent 4 years being academically challenged in traditional and non traditional ways, she has been nurtured, cared for and KNOWN. The result is that we have a child who has grown in all aspects of herself. She is excited about learning, she is collaborative, she wants to change the world! As a 3^rd grader, she also has a sense of how she learns best, which will serve her across her lifetime. We attribute all of this to the incredible faculty at Atrium who go above and beyond as a matter of course each day.
The school is a small (approximately 120 kids) progressive PK-​8^th grade program. Each classroom has 2 full time teachers. Curriculum for all subject areas is thematic and experiential. There is a constant balance of group and individual work. My child discovers things every day and her teachers help her connect discoveries to previous learning which propels a desire to learn more and more. But, honestly, it is the way in which my daughter is listened to, respected, understood, and known that has helped her grow into an amazing bright and blossoming little girl. All of this comes from the community and faculty at Atrium. She RUNS into the building every day excited to see what the school day will bring her.
As a teacher and administrator myself– and perhaps more importantly, as a parent, I couldn’t recommend Atrium more. Carrie-​Ann K.

We’ve just returned from Open House at Atrium, and these guys made me laugh sooo much! I just never saw such a school with such an attitude. Now, in details… During Open House we visited few classrooms where teachers made some presentations about their approaches. In one of the classroom, 1^st grade teacher summarized thoughts from attendees and wrote them on a white board. The thing here is that the person who is supposed to teach kids writing doesn’t know how to spell words and looked like she forgot how to write in general. She hardly wrote the word «diagonal» correctly and wrote «asymeTTry» instead of «asyMMetry». Can you imagine what your kids will learn from such a teacher?! Perhaps, just typing in Word with spelling auto-​correction…
But that’s not the end of the story. At the end of Open House I approached Linda Echt, the Head of the School, and raised my concern about that. Her answer was absolutely amazing! She just said that the teacher who doesn’t know how to write has a Master’s Degree and that Linda has never had any problems with her. And then added that may be her school just doesn’t work for me. I’ve never expected to hear such an explanation of the lack of knowledge of Atrium teachers, to be honest, but that clearly explains the attitude of Atrium people to your kids. Of course, it doesn’t work for me — i want my kids to spell words correctly rather than be «progressively educated».
To conclude, Atrium and Linda may talk about their «progressive» methods and their approaches to educate kids however it looks like they made one more mistake — there should be «regressive» instead of «progressive». Essentially, when the teacher doesn’t know how to write and Head of School claims that it is totally fine but that may just don’t work for me — that is totally out of this world! Look at Belmont Day school, for example, and what they offer at comparable tuition fee! You’ll never hear anything similar from them! And don’t be confused by several positive reviews — they are clearly made by Atrium persons. Indeed, one review is dated by March, 2013 and reviewer registered precisely on March, 2013. Another review is dated by Dec, 2014 and reviewer is registered on Dec, 2014. All the authors have just one review each — looks like just to post one review of Atrium :-) Clearly, all of them are fake! Please, be aware of further fakes with positive reviews — again, all of them just try to mask the possible incompetence of Atrium teachers and, more important, of the Head of Atrium school! All what was described above is a real case I faced with Atrium! I guess no one want to deal with that and take a chance with Atrium, especially taking into account the range of other alternatives nearby, with comparable tuition fee!
PS: The organization of Open House was also absolutely ridiculous but that’s another topic and I don’t want to educate Atrium in this direction.

Atrium is a warm, nurturing, progressive school where both our children have been thriving for four years. We are so grateful to have found this treasure. The teachers are committed and creative, with a deep understanding of their students. Our children are being appropriately challenged academically, and they love going to school every day, because Atrium fosters joy in learning. Most importantly for our family, Atrium respects and celebrates our children for who they are.