Ateres seminary | Imamother

rosegold446

Mon, Mar 25 2024, 1:50 pm

amother OP wrote:

Can anyone give me up to date information on this seminary, anyone have a daughter there now that can tell me what type of girls, hashkafa, academic level, do the girls like it?

I know how Ateres was when Mrs.Tamar Sokol was the principal. It might be the same with the new principal, it might not. But as I know of it:

Hashkafah: not particularly Yeshivish. All Bais Yaakov type of girls but not super Yeshivish. Chilled

Academics: has multiple different tracks for girls of different academic levels. Girls who struggle academically are in the lower tracks and girls who excel academically are in the higher tracks. So it's a mix.

The people I know who went LOVED it.

amother

Honey

Mon, Mar 25 2024, 5:21 pm

rosegold446 wrote:

Agree.

Seminary is currently run by Mrs. Maryles, who has been there since its start and is Mrs. Sokol's sister/Rabbi Belsky's daughter so I do believe she will be continuing it in the same way. If anything there's probably more stability there now that the person running it is not also putting their energy into starting a new school (though it didn't seem like there was any lack of stability last year either. I'm just saying that's what I would think.)

Regarding the academic tracking, the more text based classes are tracked like that while other classes are more mixed, I think it's a beautiful and highly effective formula that results in everyone getting what they need while also having a high level of achdus.

I went there eons ago and had nieces there more recently including last year and we all had the same type of experience and glowing review despite the various changes.

amother

Banana

Mon, Mar 25 2024, 5:29 pm

I hosted a few girls that are there this year and they are not happy. There seems to be a disconnect between the staff and the student body and it effects the classes and the way the school runs in general.
I have hosted girls from there in the past and they seemed happier. Try getting hold of girls that are currently there.

amother

Dustypink

Wed, Mar 27 2024, 12:58 am

rosegold446 wrote:

It was very different this year. OP, you need to speak to girls who're there this year, not who went before.

amother

Honey

Wed, Mar 27 2024, 7:15 am

amother Holly wrote:

I know local students who were there this year but came back because they were do unhappy. I would proceed with caution.

Wow that's pretty extreme. How many kids are you talking about and what were they that unhappy about?

I had a couple of girls leave in middle of the year and that was in the heyday. One was serious homesickness which could happen to anyone. The other I'm not sure. Definitely wasn't kicked out, she was a great girl. We're still in touch sporadically but it seems like her reason(s) for leaving were highly personal and private, so nobody at home would know if the seminary did something wrong.

Definitely caution and multiple first-hand references are important. I'm just saying that people coming back doesn't automatically write off the school.