Summer Overview & FAQs

Summer@Carroll’s Beginning Readers (entering Grades 1-2) and Grades 3-4 programs are on the Carroll School Lower School campus: 1841 Trapelo Road, Waltham, MA. The programs for Grades 5-9 take place on the Carroll Middle School campus: 25 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln, MA.

Most of the students enrolled in Summer@Carroll are not enrolled in the academic-year program at Carroll School. Many students return for more than one summer of academic strengthening.

The academic staff of Summer@Carroll is made up of experienced teachers from Carroll School and other local schools. All language tutors are Orton-Gillingham trained. The teaching staff are all trained and experienced in their educational fields. The majority of the academic staff are veterans of previous Summer@Carroll programs.

Summer@Carroll has a full-time nurse on duty all day who acts as the Health Care Supervisor for the program. In addition, supervisors and counselors are certified in first aid. Summer@Carroll has a doctor who acts as Health Care Consultant for the summer. Emerson Hospital in Concord is used in case of emergencies.

Mornings are devoted to academic intervention using Carroll School’s direct, multisensory and systematic approaches to helping students with learning disabilities. Every student has four class blocks each morning. Afternoons are filled with variety of fun summer activities here at Carroll School. Each student is assigned by age to an afternoon group, consisting of 6-10 children assigned to one counselor. A junior counselor provides additional support to each grade. Carroll counselors are current college students or recent college graduates with experience working with children. Junior counselors are rising high school seniors or college freshmen. The majority of the staff have prior experience at Summer@Carroll.

All Summer@Carroll students entering Grades 1-7 receive language instruction using the Orton-Gillingham approach each day of the program.

Beginning Readers students (entering grades 1-2) take a multisensory, highly interactive Orton-Gillingham class each day. 2+ Orton-Gillingham tutors work with each class, creating carefully curated groups of 2-3 students to deliver each Summer@Carroll child what they most need.

Elementary and Middle School students (entering grades 3-7) receive daily 1:1 Orton-Gillingham language tutoring. For students entering grades 3-5, tutoring will take place in person, following social distancing guidelines. For students entering grades 6-7, students will meet with their tutors virtually using school-issued Chromebooks.

High School Readiness students (entering Grades 8-9) do not typically have language tutorials, but accommodations can sometimes be made for tutoring if it's critical to the student’s academic success. HSR students focus on writing, research and study skills during their morning academic blocks.

There is no homework assigned during the five-week Summer@Carroll program. We feel the students work hard enough each morning during their academic blocks.

There are three activity periods each afternoon for Elementary/Middle School students. Beginning Readers who have a shorter day have two activity periods. During these blocks, activity directors plan the activities for their groups. Each student is exposed to many different games, crafts, and activities in the course of the week.

High School Readiness students have a more flexible afternoon schedule with many activities offered on campus.

For the health and safety of our community, all activities will take place on Carroll School campuses for Summer 2021. While we will not take field trips to go swimming this year, we will find plenty of ways to cool off on hot days!

Summer@Carroll serves students entering Grades 1-7 who have a primary diagnosis of a language-based learning difficulty, such as dyslexia. The High School Readiness program addresses the academic needs of students entering Grades 8-9, including organizational and study skills. Get more information about Summer Admissions here.

Summer@Carroll is a full-day program. We feel that the combination of the academics and fun afternoon activities along with a conscious effort to develop social skills and self-confidence creates unique programs that are both academically and socially beneficial. During the afternoon activities, children form friendships with other students that contribute to a positive social environment.

When Summer@Carroll has filled all spots within a program, we start a waitlist. Preference is given to present Carroll School academic-year students, students accepted for fall admissions to Carroll School, and returning Summer@Carroll students.

In the summer, we want the children to be comfortable. T-shirts and shorts are the usual attire during the summer. For safety reasons, students should wear sneakers every day rather than flip flops or crocs.

For summer 2021, your child’s most important attire is their face mask! For the health and safety of our community, all students and employees will wear face masks while on campus at all times besides designated mask breaks.

Samples collected from individual members of the same pod are combined into a “pool”. The pool is tested for the virus, not individual samples. This is an effective means of surveilling the population for the purpose of early indication of a positive case.

Pooled COVID testing may be completed using nasal swabs or saliva samples. We will determine the best option for testing between now and the start of the program. Our final testing plan will be shared with families later this spring, at which time families will sign testing consent forms.

Not necessarily. Yes, participants could have been negative for the virus. It is also possible that at the time pool members collected their samples, they did not have a sufficient viral load to be detectable. Any of the participants may have been exposed to and infected by Covid-19 prior to providing their sample, yet were too early in the incubation period for the virus to be detected during the pooled testing. In addition, a person could be exposed and infected at any point between providing a sample and receiving the test results or afterwards. Pooled testing is an additional method of mitigation but must always be combined with hand and surface hygiene, physical distancing, mask wearing, limiting social circles and remaining home when sick, to be most effective.

Please send your questions to Kristin Curry and Donna Brown at summer@carrollschool.org.

You will hear from the School directly via email in the event that your child’s pool tests positive. This will happen as quickly as possible. We receive results at all different times of the day and night. If you don’t hear from us, please assume the pool has no detected virus unless we tell you otherwise.

If a pod needs to quarantine, the teachers and tutors in that pod will provide remote academic instruction to their students for each of the four morning class periods for the duration of the quarantine. Afternoon programming will resume when the pod returns to campus.

While we hope to have healthy pods all summer long, we ask that families have a readiness plan in place. Families should identify in advance a device that their child could use to access remote instruction from home if needed.

If a pooled sample tests positive, then someone in the pool very likely has Covid-19. Just as is the case when we find out by any other means that someone in a pod has Covid-19, the entire pod will quarantine from in-person learning for 10 days. The length of quarantine that will be required outside of school will be determined by your child's PCP or your local Board of Health, following MDPH Quarantine guidance. We recommend that everyone in the pod should consult with their physician and seek additional PCR testing.

Yes, absolutely. Implementation of pooled testing is meant to supplement and not supplant other health measures.

For the testing to be effective, the entire population must participate. Participation is a mandatory requirement for all staff and students who enroll in Summer@Carroll. A signed consent form will be required before starting the program.

Testing is included in the cost of summer tuition and subsidized by Carroll School.