AEF Westham Academy

Westham Academy is a specialized small group educational program catering to students in grades 4 to 12, offering highly individualized instruction in various essential domains. With class sizes ranging from 1 to 15 students and a maximum enrollment of 55 students, Westham Academy is dedicated to providing focused and tailored support to students who require specialized attention to develop classroom, self-regulatory, and life skills.

Sliding Scale - Dependent on Family Income

Available

Mathematics: Westham Academy offers comprehensive mathematics instruction tailored to each student’s level and needs. The curriculum is designed to remediate math skills and promote mathematical literacy.
Reading Comprehension: Our program emphasizes reading comprehension, targeting strategies to improve understanding, fluency, and critical thinking in reading.
Life Skills: Westham Academy recognizes the importance of practical life skills. Students receive training in essential life skills such as time management, organization, budgeting, and personal responsibility.
Social Skills: The program places a strong emphasis on social skills development. Students learn effective communication, conflict resolution, empathy, and appropriate social interaction through structured lessons and real-life scenarios.
Cognitive Skills: Cognitive skills development is integral to our program. Students engage in activities that enhance memory, problem-solving, attention, and executive functioning skills.
Independent Living Skills: Westham Academy prepares students for independent living by teaching skills such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, and basic home maintenance.

Academic Tutoring
Independent Living Skills
Job Training Skills
Life Skills

Desktop, Laptop, and Tablets

Tour
Interview
Shadow Day
Background Information

AEF Schools prepare students for life by developing in them the academic, social, physical, and problem-solving skills necessary to live constructively in a rapidly changing society.

To create an environment where the child enjoys coming to school.
To establish appropriate peer relations, social skills, and civic mindedness in our students.
To identify the family dynamics, crises, and needs.
To identify the student’s academic and social-emotional deficits and strengths.
To develop individually-prescribed programs that will remediate the student’s deficits, reinforce the student’s strengths, and, if necessary, teach the student compensatory skills.
To work with the student and family to ensure a happy, well-adjusted and functioning family unit.
To assist students in fulfilling their potential and to assume their rightful place in society as well-adjusted, happy, and productive individuals.

AEF was founded in 2003 by a group of parents who wanted a better education for their children. These parents had tried a variety of public and private schools, but could not find a school that catered to their child’s specific needs; academics, social skills, cognitive skills and life skills. The one-size-fits-all approach of traditional schools was not working and their children, despite their intelligence, were not experiencing success. They did not want to place their children in special programs that serviced more severe social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Their solution was to start a non-profit foundation, whose primary goal was to fund school programs catering to average to above-average intelligence children and adolescents who were not excelling academically, socially, and/or at home. These students do NOT require a restrictive environment but rather a structured, nurturing environment focusing on academic, social, and cognitive skills.

The population we serve

AEF is NOT a special needs program. Instead, we cater to students who have specific needs. These needs fall into the category of remediation and strengthening in cognitive and executive functioning skills including focus, attention, time management, independent work, decision-making, conflict resolution, making/keeping friends, coping with change, dealing with anxiety, compromising, following multi-step instructions, auditory processing, visual memory, sequencing, part-whole relationships, study skills, test taking skills, and more.

Many of our students do NOT have a diagnosis or IEP. They simply function better in a smaller, more nurturing, and structured environment which provides a quiet and safe classroom experience.

What makes AEF Schools Different? We are NOT a behavioral program and do NOT work with students who are aggressive, a danger to themselves or others, emotionally disturbed, mentally handicapped, or who have a history of drug or alcohol abuse. AEF sends a request for background information to every applicant's prior school. This combined with an in-person interview assures we are selecting the appropriate candidates for our programs.

AEF is a smaller, more structured school environment.

• Lower Campus (Grades K-7) Max Enrollment 100 students
• Upper Campus (Grades 8-12) Max Enrollment 85 students
• Academy Campus (Grades 5-12) Max Enrollment 40 students
• AEF Summer Program (Ages 5 - 18) Max Enrollment 60 Campers
• Student to staff ration is 8:1
• Average Class size is 15