Student Support

The advisory program is designed to support students personally and academically throughout their Upper School experience. The program fosters growth of core values, such as honesty, responsibility and respect for oneself and the community through building open and honest relationships between student and teacher. It serves as a safe place for students to seek assistance or advice in all facets of their school life.

Advisory focuses on both the academic and character development of the individual as well as the important role one assumes as part of a group. The advisory program offers meaningful opportunities for active citizenship, leadership and cooperative group experience, serving as a forum for the sharing of ideas relevant to school life, team building and service to school.

Student/Advisor Relationship

Beginning in 10th grade, you will have a chance to select your advisor and are able to remain with this person for your entire career in Upper School. Your advisor is a teacher with whom you have a close trusting relationship—your formal or informal advisor. This person is the equivalent to a faculty coach who is here to help you navigate your daily life at THS. He/She/They can advise you academically and personally.

Your advisor will also have other advisees, which makes up your advisory. Advisories are mixed-grade level, so you may be in an advisory group with freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Advisories meet once every several days in groups (usually of eight students to one faculty member), but you should consult your advisor whenever you have a question or encounter a rough spot in the road.

Peer Mentors

In conjunction with Department Chairs, SFC runs a mentoring program that gives all students who are struggling in an academic class the opportunity to work with another student. The mentors are 11th or 12th grade students who show strong interest and strength in a field or subject. Mentors are selected by department chairs and by their strengths in the subject compared to the weaknesses of the mentee: the personalities of both the mentor and mentee (whether they clash or enhance each other): the comfortability of the mentee with a similar or opposite-gendered mentor. Having a mentor who is also a student creates an aura of comfort for students, who may have trouble with asking a teacher or adult constantly for extra help. The Vice President of SFC oversees this program.

Senior Mentors

Senior Mentors are a select group of students who are chosen by the Dean of Students and/or Head Class Advisors to assist new students entering Tower Hill. The group is led by a senior who will coordinate activities throughout the year for Senior Mentors and their buddy groups. Buddy groups will consist of three to four new students per group.

The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC)

Growth is the central tenet of the mission of the Teaching and Learning Center at Tower Hill School. Established in 2016, the Center is a resource for students and teachers who wish to maximize learning processes, address specific academic challenges, engage in best practices, seek support for documented learning differences, or challenge themselves to achieve new levels of excellence. The Center is a process-oriented nucleus of the school that fosters dialogue, innovation, flexibility and excellence in individualized teaching and learning in the 21st century. Existing to uphold the mission and philosophy of the school in all circumstances, the Center is in a position to recommend reasonable accommodations for students with documented needs but cannot support requests to modify curricula. Our Learning Specialists endeavor to equip students and teachers with tools, strategies, and opportunities to learn about learning so that they may build repertoires, excel, and nurture the mindsets needed for continuing education. Advisors will serve as the preliminary contact in the student referral process to the TLC. The TLC is located in THE Hub.