The Chicken Coop School
at the Farm School
The Farm School’s own middle school for local children

chicken coop

  • The Chicken Coop at the Farm School is a full-time Middle School for local children. It offers local middle-school students the opportunity for an excellent education in North Orange, MA. Graduates of the Chicken Coop have excelled at Athol and Mahar, Monty Tech, Franklin County Tech, Northfield Mt. Hermon, Cushing Academy, Winchendon Academy, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts, and Four Winds Charter School. The total class has 10-14 students. There are often two teachers in the room, so children have some classes in groups of 6. Teachers are able to meet students where they are as learners and then challenge and extend their thinking by engaging them in year-long projects that lead to a deep understanding of the topics. Most importantly, the teachers know their students and have the time to be joyful with them. The students leave the Chicken Coop more than prepared for any high school. Students can study math through quadratic equations, develop their thinking in the weekly 5 paragraph essay, and get plenty of experience reading critically and thinking carefully.

    Curriculum
    The Chicken Coop curriculum covers a full range of subjects including Social Studies, Literature Studies and Writing, Math, Science, Physical Education and Art and is organized around a number of core principles. For a list of the skills we attempt to teach, click here.  These principles include:

    • Interacting with the world from a place of kindness and generosity
    • Practicing joy
    • Considering any idea or situation from multiple perspectives
    • Being able to function in a democracy, and having the necessary reading and writing skills to do so well

    Evaluation
    Children get an extensive written evaluation of their academic progress twice each year. The students are not graded against each other, but are instead evaluated as to their own personal learning.  For a sample evaluation, click here.

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  • Wendy Davenport and Miranda Fisher are the principal teachers at the Chicken Coop. Both have many years experience educating young people. They love their jobs, and enjoy watching children learn and grow.

    Wendy Davenport, Co-Teacher  

    Wendy2 Wendy has been teaching since 1981. She earned her BA from the University of California Berkeley and her MA in Education from Tufts University. She attended the Teacher Training Course at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, MA, where she also taught fifth grade and then sixth grade for 14 years. She has taught English and Writing at the Chicken Coop School since its start in 2002 and believes that teaching middle school is one of the best and most interesting jobs there is.

    Miranda Fisher, Co-Teacher

    Miranda

    Miranda brings her love of working with students, contemplating interesting questions, and engaging with nature to the Chicken Coop. She earned her BA from Oberlin College before moving to New England to teach middle school students across classrooms, forests, and farms. She recently completed her MS in Environmental Studies with a focus on teaching at Antioch University of New England and is excited to continue to support and challenge students in their learning.

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  • Time Subject Sample Content
    8:30-8:50 Morning Meeting The students check in with each other and the teacher, play a singing game, and learn what the day’s adventures will be.
    9:00-10:00 Literature or Social Studies The children study literature with Wendy or Social Studies with Miranda. In literature, they might be carefully considering a book such as Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry or a more contemporary novel. In Social Studies, they might be making a board game that depicts the path a bill takes in becoming a law, or analyzing the role of Gandhi in the thinking of Martin Luther King.
    10:00-10:10 Snack and Break In most all weather, the students have their breaks outside. They might climb trees, visit the chickens, or chase each other through the snow.
    10:15-11:45 Writing and Math half groups Our small group size allows the teachers to effectively meet individual learning needs. Children are enabled to advance, but they are also encouraged to take their time and really learn the material well.
    11:45-12:30 Lunch and Recess The kids eat lunch together in the farm house. They might chat with a farmer at lunch, to see what they are up to on the farm. Lunch is always lively. After they finish eating, the kids play outside.
    12:30-1:15 Essay Students might read and discuss an article that they will write about in their weekly essay. They often get the essay started at school, and then finish it for homework.
    1:15-2:00 Science, Art, Construction, Gardening, or Chores Every afternoon is a little bit different. Some days they do a science experiment in the garden. Recently they did an investigation of the simple machine while disassembling a tractor engine.
    2:00-2:15 Tidy The students maintain their own office spaces and the shared spaces on the farm and in the classroom.
    2:15-2:45 Quiet Reading The children read any book that is interesting to them. The teacher confers with them about their reading and their selection of books.
    2:45-3:00 Read Aloud
    3:00-3:15 Meeting and Homework
    3:15-3:45 Dismissal

    Children get about an hour of homework each day.

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  • Logistics
    We convene during typical school hours with activities based at the Chicken Coop at Maggie’s Farm (thus the name), which is a part of The Farm School. We are organized in the form of a home school cooperative: we provide parents with our curriculum, which fits within the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, and the parents then submit the curriculum to their school district for approval for their child.

    Costs
    The Farm School will not turn away any family from joining The Chicken Coop School for financial reasons. Tuition for the 2022- 2023 school year is $8,400, which includes all books, tools and extracurricular fees. Tuition is offered on a sliding scale with a base rate of $1,000. We ask families that can, to pay the full amount of $8,400 and those that can’t to contribute what they can starting at the base rate.  Typically, tuition payments are made on a monthly basis during the school year, but we are happy to explore alternative payment plans that best meet your needs. We do our best to keep tuition as low as possible through our fundraising efforts that offset the actual cost of running the program, which is closer to $13,000/student a year. For families who can afford it, we would be very grateful if you would consider a donation to the school in addition to your tuition payments in order to help us narrow the gap between tuition revenue and our expenses. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions

    Application
    If you are interested in exploring the Chicken Coop for your child, please get in touch with Wendy Davenport at wendy@farmschool.org , or call 978-249-2656 to arrange a visit. If you’d like to apply after seeing it in action, we have a simple application process, the core of which is a conversation with the parents. Let’s work together to figure out if this is a good match and that, indeed, we can serve you and your child well!

    Applications for the 2022-23 school year will be reviewed on a rolling basis until all spots are filled.  Download the Chicken Coop Admissions Application to be returned to The Chicken Coop and the Parental Permission for Release of Information to be submitted to your child’s current school.

    Important Dates
    April 15: Contract deadline for returning students
    July 1: $350 supplies fee due
    September 1: first monthly tuition payment due

    The Farm School does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, family structure, or national or ethnic origin in any of its school administered policies or programs.

    Wendy Davenport
    wendy@farmschool.org
    Chicken Coop at The Farm School
    488 Moore Hill Road
    Athol, MA 01331
    978.249.2656