Hancock Central School is a rural public school for grades Pre-K-6 surrounded by natural beauty. The school is central to the community, and parents are actively involved in many aspects of the school. The community is also involved in much that we do, including bottle drives to fund special school programs and the Thanksgiving meal the school prepares and serves to the elderly population of Hancock. The student body is made up of approximately 45 students. All classrooms except for the Kindergarten classroom contain two grade levels, and each room is given the name of a precious stone (e.g. the Ruby Room). Hancock school also has a Pre-K classroom called “Cricket Cove.”
At the school:
We offer a curriculum that is aligned with the Massachusetts State Frameworks. We use the Houghton Mifflin math program and Project Read, a phonetically based language arts program.
After-school care is available until 5:00 every day.
There is an annual art show and an all-school musical every spring.
We have laptop computers and wireless Internet.
Every Wednesday afternoon, our 4th-6th graders participate on “MCAS class” to practice for these important assessments.
Williams College student support our students with academic tutoring and music mentoring.
We have a Student Advisory, which is composed of two elected students from each classroom. The student government forum allows students to come up with ideas to foster community, enrichment, and fun.
The entire staff discusses every student during professional development on Wednesday afternoons. During this “child study,” we decide on goals for each student and work together to help facilitate learning for all our students.
Our staff participates in tri-district curriculum development. This Regional Curriculum Council initially focused on math and created a booklet outlining grade-level expectations in mathematics. This year the group will focus on science curriculum.
During the year we offer after-school chess club and floor hockey. In the winter, our whole school can go to Jiminy Peak for skiing on Monday afternoons during January and February.
NewHope (our parent group) is very active at the school. They support and/or organize the Halloween Harvest celebration, the Thanksgiving dinner, community holiday gift baskets, school calendars, field trips, cultural enrichment opportunities, unplugged week activities, and our graduation celebration. They are an important group at our school, and anyone is welcome to join in and participate. Meetings are generally the second Tuesday of every month at 6:30. The group’s major fundraisers are our bottle drives. Thanks to all who participate and help with these Saturday morning events.
We offer a week of summer activities that includes crafts, educational projects, and trips to a local swimming venue. “Castle Fun,” scheduled in July, welcomes all our students back to the school for summer fun at school.