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Transferring to Harley

Making the Right Choice for Your Child

 Transfer pathway: Although some students begin in Nursery and remain until Grade 12, many students transfer to Harley from other schools. It is easy to transfer into our school, and we add students to every class each year. Our students welcome the opportunity to make new friends, and our teachers provide support so that “new kids” almost immediately feel a part of our community.  

There sometimes is a cost connected with transferring from another tuition paying institution.  We have transfer grants available for families that this pertains to.

Transferring in Lower School

Students start every year with a new mix of friends in their classrooms. Our kids have a good combination of familiar faces, as well as new ones from other classrooms and schools. Teachers spend the beginning of the year carefully integrating their classes and intentionally building a respectful community by weaving in students’ expectations, hopes, and dreams.

Transferring in Middle School

Whether transferring in Grades 5, 6, 7, or 8, our talented faculty and strong advisor program allow tweens and teens to quickly feel at home. We begin the year with a new student orientation the day before school starts so that new students meet each other—as well as current Harley students. They are introduced to their teachers, eat in our dining hall, and create important new connections.  

With advisory groups of 8-12 students, it is easy for everyone to get to know each other well. The Grade 7 and 8 classes also take Outdoor Education trips in the beginning of the year specifically to foster new friendships, enhance the ability to work as a group, and to create a greater understanding of themselves at these critical years.

Transferring in Upper School

While many teens transfer in Grade 9 so they can attend high school at Harley, we also have students joining each of the Upper School grades every year. Student Council puts on a new student orientation the day before school starts. They have activities and tours as well as lunch and a question and answer session. Everyone ends the day well-equipped for their first day and the rest of the year.

All Upper School students have an advisor who helps guide them through their high school years. The advisor’s job is to get to know each teen well and be a strong liaison between the students and home. Through the advisory program, small classes, and a variety of interest-based electives, students quickly feel a part of our community.  

The Harley School

1981 Clover Street
Rochester, NY 14618
(585) 442-1770

©2023 The Harley School

Students may create independent studies with supervising teachers throughout their Upper School experience or, during Grade 12, they can design Capstone projects—intensive collaborations with Harley faculty and off-campus mentors—involving rigorous academic study and culminating in public presentations. They are empowered to create their own curriculum, set goals, and work on time management skills in order to accomplish their objectives.

Independent Studies run the gamut from The Psychology of Sports to Furniture Design to The Neuroimaging of Alzheimer’s Disease. Capstones, meanwhile, are as diverse as the students who pursue them: Fictional Rochester, Autobiographical Art, Biomimicry Education, Organic Fuel, and Rochester Refugees. 

Indicative of Upper School curiosity and creativity, pursuits such as these distinguish our graduates in college. Through deep dives of this sort, Harley students master more than speaking, writing, and computing: they learn to communicate, advocate, collaborate, organize, listen, and empathize. 

About

Academics

Key Programming

Enrollment

Letter from the Head of School

Letter from the Editor

Features

Central Work that Matters: DEI

Harley Black Alumni Network

Climate Crisis Curriculum

Citizen Scientists

Joy Moss: Storytelling Roots

In Every Issue

Class Notes

Diane Donniger Award

By the Numbers

From the Archives

What’s (Who’s) New at Harley

Divisional Highlights

Alumni Profile: Vandebroek

Alumni Profiles: Keller

HAC Athletics

2021 Lives of Great Purpose Awards

1000 Words

Commencement 2022

Reunion 2022

In Memoriam

Retirements and Fond Farewells

Letter from the Head of School

Letter from the Editor

Features

Central Work that Matters

Affinity Group Forms

Climate Crisis Curriculum

Citizen Scientists

Joy Moss: Storytelling Roots

In Every Issue

Class Notes

Diane Donniger Award

By the Numbers

From the Archives

What’s (Who’s) New at Harley

Divisional Highlights

Alumni Profile: Vandebroek

Alumni Profiles: Keller

HAC Athletics

2021 Lives of Great Purpose Awards

1000 Words

Commencement 2022

Reunion 2022

In Memoriam

Retirements and Fond Farewells