At Beacon Hill School-Hollywood, we have low student to teacher ratios. Even during Covid and many students opting to learn from home, this stays true. Public schools and large private schools have many more students per classroom and this makes it more difficult for teachers to handle social interactions, bullying, sharing, racial relations and more. At BHS, we are able to interact appropriately with students and work with them to secure a positive resolution.
The teachers and administration in our small school provide character curriculum and offer opportunities like mentoring and “share and care” to build relationships. Further, due to the low student to teacher classroom ratios Beacon Hill School teachers are able to see each student’s strengths and weaknesses and design a custom curriculum to support the student’s social and academic achievement. This relationship building teaches appropriate social interaction and how to get along with others. Bullying is not tolerated and because the teachers have small counts of students, attention is readily available which means the students tend to get along much better and are more connected than large classrooms full of students.
Smaller schools with smaller classroom sizes allow teachers to accomplish and promote the following:
- Focus on teaching emotional learning and social strategies.
- Create opportunities to practice effective social skills.
- Develop social skills in the classroom through praise, positive reinforcement, and redirection of behaviors.
- Teach students to think through situations.
- Teach students to identify the problem and brainstorm various solutions-conflict resolution.
- Provide role-play scenarios that build social skills.
- Tailor social skill interventions to individual student needs.
- Practice proper communication skills.
The staff at Beacon Hill School Hollywood is encouraged to be creative and works with students on how to listen and practice listening to others, taking turns in a conversation, suggesting an idea, providing praise to others, saying please and thank-you, and apologizing when necessary. These concepts are taught through games and daily lessons. In learning these skills students understand differences, thereby improving racial relations.
Additionally, teachers in smaller schools are better connected to parents and encourage their involvement. Teachers get parental input regarding the student’s situations and have conversations to collaborate with parents. In a smaller school such as BHS, it is the norm for teachers, administrators, and the student population to know each other well. This leads to easier acceptance of new ideas among friends, as well as, a strong sense of identification and belonging.
Contact Beacon Hill School-Hollywood to set up a tour in person or watch the online tour available on the website to learn more!