We understand and value the importance of and desire for a rigorous education within the context of supporting our students’ emotional and learning needs. Our scaffolded system helps students to transition more smoothly through each day and each academic session.
Our Approach
A new view on middle school
Each student is challenged and supported. We educate the whole child in an environment that fosters students’ growth. We help students achieve their academic and social-emotional goals by supporting their needs with our evidence-based therapeutic approach and our tailored curriculum designed to challenge students while meeting them where they are.
Our 4 Pillars
Our in-school therapy will provide students with the tools and support they need to be successful in and out of school.
Therapeutic approach delivered in school
Therapeutic approach delivered in school
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is offered to ensure academic and emotional success.
Rigorous academics
with support
Rigorous academics
with support
We provide a rigorous yet properly scaffolded curriculum tailored to our students’ individual needs. Our small teacher to student ratio allows for a tailored approach.
Socioemotional Growth
Socioemotional Growth
Students will engage in social support groups with their peers once a week. They will also meet three times a day with their advisor and advising group which will be led by a faculty member. The goal of the advising groups is to provide a check-in time for our students and provide any support that they may need.
Mastery Through Community Engagement
Mastery Through Community Engagement
Students will have opportunities to engage in community-based activities within the school and neighborhood community. At the end of each week, students will come together for a Community Meeting to reflect on the week’s events.
*Additional therapies may be provided by our trained social workers to complement DBT based on our students’ needs.
Who We Serve
Our students are middle schoolers (5th-8th grade) who identify with emotional challenges. Our students respond positively to a therapeutic environment where their socioemotional needs are met without neglecting their academics.
In our opening academic year (2025-26), we will begin with a 5th grade cohort.
What Makes Us Different
Our unique, dual social-emotional curriculum and academic curriculum anticipates our students’ complex needs to facilitate learning and emotional growth.
We celebrate the whole child. We never negate our students’ social-emotional challenges. Identifying individual challenges is as critical as recognizing strengths to be developed.
We normalize problem-solving at all times in order to curtail crisis development. We do not believe in the “wait-to-fail” approach, which involves waiting for a student to fail or exhibit strong behaviors before mobilizing resources. Rather, we have critical-thinking resources available and functioning at all times.
Our approach to cater to the whole child allows us to pay attention to every necessary aspect of a successful middle school education. Research-driven social-emotional school curriculums that coexist in schools with academic requirements have been shown to improve academic success.
With our system, our students and their families are supported on a daily basis through the dual challenges of academic education and social development. All students will receive:
- Individual sessions with our DBT social worker
- Skill-based groups with our DBT social worker and peers
- Intersession coaching
All families will attend monthly DBT skill-based sessions led by a DBT trained social worker as part of our therapeutic program.
Our Curriculum
At the Gamut School, students are challenged academically and supported to ensure their success. Our curriculum based on the common core standards is carefully selected to provide rigor for all of our students while simultaneously matching their learning style.
Language Arts
We are hands-on with English Language Arts to encourage active learning. In addition to English, each student is required to take a foreign language course twice a week to enrich their academic experience during their educational career.
Social Studies
Our students will use the Houghton Mifflin Social Studies curriculum which aligns with the common core standards and focuses on developing critical thinking skills for students to become active citizens.
Mathematics
Our students will learn Singapore Math which allows them to think mathematically and fully understand what they are learning rather than focusing on memorization.
Science
Our students will follow the Amplify Science curriculum, which requires consistent critical thinking and active participation while learning.
Electives
In between their common core courses, students take two electives each day. Our electives are oriented towards trade-based activities to allow our students to engage in their passions while also developing a strong work ethic.
Community Engagement
All of this is paired with our monthly Community Day where students actively volunteer in the community based on their interests amongst their peers. Community Day provides our students with numerous skills that can be used both in and outside of school. It also gives them the chance to use their DBT skills in the outside world with a DBT-trained staff member nearby.
Executive Functioning
Executive functioning (EF) will be explicitly taught to all students. EF instruction will also be seamlessly integrated throughout all academics to consistently reinforce the use of skills. All learners will benefit from executive functioning skill practice.
Pre-Adolescent Intervention
The adolescent stage of development (typically thought of as starting with age 13) is often a time when emotional challenges become more apparent. But many need intervention to begin earlier, at the very beginning of this period of major social growth. As early as the 5th grade (typically age 11), our students can catapult from 0 to 100 in emotional reactivity with a slow return to baseline due to their genetic makeup.
Meeting the Challenge
New social hierarchies and environmental influences create a strong need to feel validated by peers and adults. It is also a time when mindfulness is needed but is most lacking. All students can benefit from skills that help them regulate their emotions, cope with stress, and maintain and improve upon their relationships with family, peers, school, and intimate partners. Through the development of these skills, our students can go from struggling in school to thriving in life.