Hillside School

Principal Zhan's Review: Hillside focuses on a structured yet nurturing environment. It boasts a low student-teacher ratio, offering personalized attention and a broad curriculum, including support for ESL students and those with mild learning differences.
The school emphasizes a holistic education, has an excellent track record for placement into top American high schools, and is complemented by a wide range of sports and extracurricular activities.
In terms of cultural heritage, the school consistently uses "Shades of Blue" to monitor and measure students' progress. Students who perform well and exceed the "Shades of Blue" standards can also receive the school's weekly and semesterly "Bull Awards."
Regarding academic development, the school's tutoring center provides support for students in key academic areas, with courses including mathematics, language fundamentals, and social skills. Tutoring sessions utilize an ultra-small class model of 2-4 students, enabling professional teachers to tailor teaching plans to students' unique strengths and challenges. The school offers 4 levels of ESL courses, from beginner to advanced.
In terms of community building, Hillside places great importance on children's service to society. It requires students to participate in community service activities. Children can choose their service projects or even design their own community service content, which, of course, is a significant help for their future applications to American high schools.
For emotional support, the mission of the Hillside Health Center is to provide students with professional care, counseling services, and health education, while also facilitating their access to comprehensive medical care within the broader community, safeguarding their health in all aspects.

Hillside was founded in 1901 when two sisters established a self-sufficient school for boys with a farm at its core. What was once the backbone of the school, the farm now serves as a diverse, organic working farm that is a window into our food system. Boys have the opportunity to learn a wide range of practical skills such as gardening, animal husbandry, carpentry, cooking, outdoor recreation and orienteering, business planning, and more. Students also develop interpersonal skills, compassion, and empathy in a unique, hands-on atmosphere that encourages and rewards hard work.

Hillside's mission is to maximize the potential of each student—mind, body, and spirit. Through a carefully designed curriculum, boys understand academic subjects in new contexts. With an emphasis on environmental stewardship, sustainability, and ecological awareness, students gain a broader perspective. The farm fulfills Hillside's central obligation to cultivate well-rounded young men who are empowered to make an impact on the world around them.

Hillside School was founded in 1901 as a boarding school for boys in grades 4-9. The campus spans 150 acres, and its core values are compassion, determination, honesty, respect, and brotherhood. The school is conveniently located just an hour's drive from Boston. It currently has 165 students, with a boarding rate of 60%, and most of its graduates annually matriculate into top 50 high schools.

Hillside is a small and welcoming boys' school. As an established American junior boarding school, its management in all aspects is well-organized and highly experienced. Most teachers and the principal know almost every child, and the relationships among the children are very friendly and close. The school's curriculum, activity arrangements, and school rules are developed with full consideration for the characteristics of boys in this age group, making them very humane.
After our son entered the school as an international student, he received a lot of care and help from teachers and classmates, was happy every day, quickly integrated into the community, and made local student friends. Local student families are very friendly and have a tradition of inviting boarding students home for weekends, which provided a lot of warmth to our son, who was away from home for the first time, and also gave him a deeper experience of American life and culture.
Academically, the school arranged extra English tutoring for international students, allowing our son to transition smoothly in his studies.
Outside of academics, Hillside offered a wide array of choices, including various sports activities and inter-school competitions, technology-related activities, farm work, and more. Students could choose to participate based on their interests. Additionally, the school had strict management over electronic product usage, which served as a protection for young children whose self-control was not yet fully developed.
Our son spent three years at Hillside and graduated last year. During the high school application process, Hillside had dedicated staff responsible for college counseling, and everything was well-organized. Even after successfully entering his ideal high school, our son often thought of Hillside and continued to stay in touch and meet with his middle school friends.
Our entire family is very glad we made the decision to choose Hillside.