Eleven days after the school year ends, about 30 rising first- and second-graders from Rock Creek Forest Elementary School in Chevy Chase will head right back into a classroom for six more weeks.
And they are looking forward to it, by all accounts.
That’s because they will be doing hands-on projects designed to advance their reading and math skills and learning to swim in a summer enrichment program offered by Horizons Greater Washington at Norwood School in Bethesda, according to Horizons Executive Director Elizabeth Johnson.
“They’re not sitting down in front of work sheets,” Johnson said. They’re doing projects “to ignite a love of learning.”
The highly acclaimed Horizons program develops partnerships between independent and public schools throughout the country to provide six weeks of academic and recreational programs to low-income students. Most Horizons students stay with the program through middle school, attending the summer session every year.
Norwood, a private school serving kindergarten through eighth grade, is the first independent school in Montgomery County to affiliate with Horizons. Norwood joins Maret School and St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School, both in Washington, D.C.
Norwood inaugurated its partnership last summer by working with 15 Rock Creek Forest rising first-graders alongside experienced Horizon teachers at Maret, according to Dick Ewing, head of Norwood and a member of the Horizons Greater Washington Board of Directors.
“We felt it was a unique opportunity to join an organization that was seeking to expand this program,” Ewing said. “The more we learned about it, we saw it was a great opportunity to reach out and serve a broader community.”
The Montgomery County Public Schools’ Department of Families and Community Partnerships selected Rock Creek Forest to participate, according to Stacy Ashton, Rock Creek Forest’s assistant principal. Students were chosen based on academic need and whether they qualified for the free or reduced lunch program.
This summer, another 15 rising first-graders will join last year’s group for the summer program at Norwood’s 38-acre campus between River Road and Bradley Boulevard. The program will continue to add a new group of rising first-graders each year until the inaugural class completes eighth grade.
Each weekday, the kids will be picked up by bus from Rock Creek Forest at 8:30 a.m. and return at 3:30 p.m. In addition to the studying and swimming at Norwood, the kids will be served breakfast, lunch and a snack each day and take weekly cultural field trips.
Ashton says the program offers a good opportunity for students who need help with academics as well as providing summer camp experience for those whose families can’t afford such programs.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “The kids really enjoy it, and the parents, too.”
Keys to the program’s success include families’ commitment to participate each year and its holistic approach, which helps students “develop a strong sense of themselves,” Ewing said. The student-to-teacher ratio is five to one.
Johnson says most students come to the program reading below grade level and advance as much as three months in their skills.
“We’ve been able to see incredible growth in reading,” she said of students who attend the programs at Maret and St. Patrick’s. “We’re able to give the students one-on-one and really good attention.”
