High School Transition

Beyond Ancona

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Ancona Grads in High School

Ancona graduates leave us as resilient, deep thinkers. They are socially conscious, emotionally intelligent, and academically prepared for the next steps in their development.

The rigor of our curriculum builds critical thinking skills essential for success in high school. Our curriculum focuses on both content and process so students know how to tackle intellectual challenges. They rely on the executive function skills they developed here at Ancona. We know our students will have more homework in high school, but we also know the best way to prepare them is to help them know themselves as learners.

Our students are known for leading class discussions. They make connections across subject areas and leverage their problem solving skills to create top notch projects and essays. The annotation, note taking, number sense, and estimation skills that are taught explicitly here become the foundation for their independent work. Our graduates go on to the top high schools in Chicago, and they do that with a toolkit full of thinking and learning strategies.

True to our mission, Ancona graduates are creative problem solvers, confident risk takers, and independent, lifelong learners.

Transition to High School

We have robust High School Programming at Ancona. Our High School Transition Coordinator, Rachel Bomher, provides education and support to all middle school families.

For parents:

Choices, Process, and Timeline info session and documents; High School Kickoff; to review checklists and timelines for the year; High School Bound;Google group to share information; alum panel to hear from students and parents who have been through the process; email reminders about open houses, testing, test prep, and deadlines; updates to the 7-8 Community Page on My Ancona about high school events.

For students:

High School Week - where our partner schools present to our 7/8th grade students and answer their questions; interview skills workshops in Advisory; stress management work with the school counselor; portfolio creation and presentation practice.

Admissions Director at Wolcott

"We love Ancona graduates! They bring a strong sense of self to the community. And, they celebrate diversity, be it religious, ethnic, socio/economic, or various learning needs. They appreciate that every person has something fantastic to contribute to the world. They are kind and good-hearted. And they are bright, motivated, and confident learners."