Welcome to Parkmont!
We’re glad you’re here. Every year we help 65 young people in grades 6-12 develop more confidence in their gifts, interests, and emerging skills. Through individualized instruction, immersive learning, and a dynamic approach to teaching, we prepare students for higher education and the world of work.
What we provide:
- An empathetic and adventurous staff. Faculty get to know each student and provide the support they need academically, socially, and emotionally.
- Small classes and a unique academic structure. The curriculum engages students and gives them agency in shaping their academic journey.
- A half-century of experience utilizing Parkmont Classrooms. Internships, field trips, and travel throughout the city and across the country deepen learning while building confidence and skills.
- The area’s most diverse range of learners. Parkmont teachers tailor instruction and expectations to each student’s abilities. The multidimensional diversity of our student body contributes to our warm, inclusive culture.
- A collaborative approach. Our partnership with parents is often a critical factor in helping their children navigate adolescence successfully.
Our Mission
Parkmont School is a non-profit, independent school governed by a Board of Trustees that supports and furthers the school’s mission.
At Parkmont we build a community where students ally themselves with creative adults whose driving concern is their success and well-being. We challenge them with an academic program that fuses adolescent interests with traditional disciplines and respects the variety of their talents and motivations. We provide them with substantial experience in the world beyond school that invites them to see more clearly the possibilities ahead.
They get ready to chart their own course, and we make sure they’re prepared for the journey.
Why Families Choose Parkmont
Dear Prospective Parents,
More than 50 years ago, Parkmont’s founding parents envisioned a program that fostered relationships between adolescents and energetic adults and made dynamic use of the school day to connect learning with the world beyond. We’ve continually evaluated and updated that program to meet the needs of students who often need exceptional help. Our mission is to prepare those students for success in college or a smooth transition back into public schools or more traditional independent high schools. Why do families choose Parkmont to help their children become more skilled, confident, and ambitious young adults? Because we have shown we can improve their child’s future.
We do so using these ideas and initiatives:
- Making sure that the challenges each student encounters in every class and activity are compelling and realistic. We constantly recalibrate their schooling because we know their strengths and capacities.
- Respecting students’ learning differences and energizing their quest to develop abilities and interests. We offer an engaging hands-on curriculum.
- Involving each student in a set of constructive ongoing conversations that include families and teachers. We help them take responsibility for their next steps.
- Energetically expanding Parkmont’s classrooms and opportunities for study, work, and adventure. This occurs on our campus, throughout our city and the Mid-Atlantic region, and further afield.
- Embracing the uncertainties of human development. We dedicate our program to encouraging and engaging students whose timing or course is different from “the norm.”
Does this work? Each June we graduate a group of students. Many of them were already skeptical about their own fitness for the world when they started here at age 11 or 12. We give them targets they can hit, send them exploring, and watch them return amazed and energized by what they see. We help them understand that we are all gifted and all challenged in our own ways. What a difference it makes to each of them to have Parkmont’s help along the way.
Sincerely,
Ron McClain
Head of School
Ron McClain
Head of School
Head of School
Start a Conversation
The most important part of Parkmont School is our relationships. This starts with your first meeting. Our Head of School looks forward to meeting you one-on-one to learn more about you and see how your needs fit what we have to offer.
No school has more experienced leadership in the local school world. Everyone who visits leaves with more information about Parkmont’s unique approach and more perspective on the choices and challenges in the local school market. And for some, this will be the first of dozens of conversations, the beginning of an alliance between our staff and your family that may change your experiences with school for your Parkmont child.
Even if you’re just starting to think about a new school adventure, come see us first. We’ll help you through the options and set you up for success.