COVID couldn’t change the mission at Winston Preparatory School NJ.

Not when it’s the education and remediation of students with learning differences.

“It’s very important that we stick to our mission,” Head of School Greg Koehlert says. “Our mission is to have a deep, clinical, diagnostic understanding of our students’ learning challenges. And to develop individualized programs for them that, based on our understanding of their needs, meet them where they are as we understand them and develop their skills. That’s unchanging with our kids and with our programs.”

Last year, Winston Prep lost just three days of live instruction.

It’s the kind of focus the school has had since opening in 2014 to offer individualized education for students in grades 3-12 with differences such as dyslexia, nonverbal learning disabilities, expressive and receptive language disorders, and ADHD. Winston uses the Neuropsychological Paradigm to understand learning disorders, and individualizes by using the Continuous Feedback Process to design curriculum, adding 45-minutes of one-to-one Focus Program instruction each day. The program started in New York City in 1983 and now has six campuses and the Winston Online program.

Koehlert says the school took all necessary safety steps, including some teachers working remotely as students needed to see their full faces for instruction. It also invested in high-quality, cross-talk microphones and cameras.

This year, Koehlert expects even more success. “Our plans are to do what we always do, which is help kids develop their independence through the development of their skills,” he says. “The path forward is to forge ahead, stick to the mission.”