An advisor helps oversee and guide your child’s overall experience at Milton. He or she is a faculty member, and the main communication link between you and the School, on matters that relate to your child. Each faculty member typically advises six to eight students. Boarding students’ advisors usually live in, or are closely associated with, a student’s house. Students often have the same advisor throughout their Upper School experience.
What should I expect of my child’s relationship with his or her advisor?
Advisors come in all styles, just as students and parents do. All Milton advisors want to help students maximize their opportunities for academic and personal growth at Milton. You can expect that your child’s advisor will know your child well—his or her academic, extracurricular and personal situation. Your child should feel comfortable reaching out to his or her advisor, for information, support or ideas. Advisors typically meet and talk with their advisees frequently—in a group or individually, once a week at a minimum. Advisors will either be able to answer your child’s questions (or your own) about School policies, academic and otherwise, or find the correct answers and get back to the student. If a student is involved in any academic or disciplinary difficulty, the advisor is his or her adult guide. Some—not all—students develop close relationships with their advisors; other students develop those same close relationships with other faculty members. In any case, an advisor is a responsive person always willing to listen, support and help direct an advisee.
What should I expect from my child’s advisor?
You can expect to be able to turn to the advisor for a sense of your child’s life at Milton, to get an adult perspective of how he or she is doing relative to the challenges of growing up and taking responsibility for his learning and his experience at Milton. You can expect that the advisor will know about regulations, policies and typical patterns of teenagers responding to the particular demands of each year in high school. The advisor will write summary reports about your child’s progress in November, February and June. You can expect that an advisor will reach out to you during the first weeks that your student is new to Milton, and thereafter, as well, when the need to let you know about something affecting your child arises. Conversely, if you reach out to the advisor, by phone or email, the advisor will get back to you. The advisor can tell you who to talk to at Milton about any issues that arise. The advisor’s central relationship is with the student—but the advisor works in partnership with parents as well, to assure the best possible experience at Milton.
What is my responsibility to the advisor?
Relevant information about a student always helps an advisor relate better or help a child more. If family or developmental issues could affect a child’s experience at School, then be sure to tell the advisor. If you observe patterns that trouble you, whether your child lives at Milton or at home, speak to the advisor about them. If your family is facing a challenge, let the student’s advisor know. If you have a question, and do not know where to direct your question, start with your child’s advisor.
What is a class dean?
The class deans assume overall responsibility for members of each class. The class deans supplement, but do not replace, a student’s individual advisor. Class deans coordinate the work of all the advisors guiding students in a given class. They are responsible for supervising class activities. Class deans also work with student leaders to plan class events and to establish positive and respectful relationships within the class. Parents should feel free to call the class deans at any time.
