We give bright and gifted teens the toolbox they’ll need to chart their own course, through pioneering programs that unlock and develop their gifts

Cajal Academy is one of a very few schools in the country for exceptionally bright and/or gifted kids in grades K-12 that have learning, social-emotional, ADHD/executive function, sensory or chronic medical differences (including the complex connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, for which we are the first specialized school in the world). We have made a break-through for the field of education that allows us to do something that no other school can do: reduce or remove many of the “disabilities” that hold these children back, opening the way for a future that is defined by their strengths, not by the challenges that they didn’t ask for.

We set these ground-breaking interventions within a full-service school with academic programs tailored to the strengths that our cohort has in common: very high analytical reasoning and/or creative thinking skills. That means standards-driven, deep dive project-based learning delivered in small, discussion-based classes with teachers who are intellectually-gifted themselves.

At the same time, we provide an intentioned focus on the social-emotional skills that are essential to college success, with a unique toolbox students can use to optimize their emotional and cognitive readiness through strategies leveraging the connections between the body and the brain: tools that our first graduate reports have been a game-changer for him at the top college in his field. Our students have the opportunity to examine their own journeys, heal from past challenges and build confidence and leadership skills through mentoring opportunities within our tight-knit, mixed age cohort.

Cajal has a limited number open enrollment for its high school program; contact us today to find out if our program might be a good fit for your teen or scroll down to learn more about our program and how we empower high school students to thrive in college and beyond.

We prepare bright and gifted thinkers with the super-sized executive function, social and self-care skills they need to turn their unique ways of seeing things into thought leadership

Cajal Academy’s high school program prepares teens who have high intellectual abilities to be not just college-ready but life-ready for the adults that they will become. For many gifted teens, that means reaching beyond ‘age-appropriate expectations’ in the very areas where they tend to struggle, including executive function, social collaboration and the self-care skills required to resist perfectionism and be ready for the physical and mental demands of the knowledge demands.

Our unique, Vision to Voice Curriculum further develops our students’ strengths in analytical reasoning and creative thinking, while giving them the tools they’ll need to turn their unique ways of seeing things into reality as the adults they’ll become. We implement this framework through small class sizes, challenging, inter-disciplinary project-based learning through which our students at all ages engage deeply with real world problems, learn how to integrate differing perspectives and views from across academic disciplines and not only imagine novel solutions but actually create them, and by developing not just peer collaboration but leadership skills, even for students who may have struggled with social learning in other settings.

Academic growth through deep dive problem-solving

Our students engage deeply with curriculum aligned to CT state standards and Next Generation Science Standards by working together to solve real world problems. Each project follows a standardized process that students can use in college and the professional world beyond to tackle the kinds of complex problems that bright and gifted kids find interesting, while integrating curriculum from across science, math, engineering, language arts and creative endeavors. Along the way, students discover what they can actually do, in ways that can be transformative for students who naturally get big ideas but may struggle to bring them to fruition. Learn more about how we develop the super-sized executive function and peer collaboration skills that innovative thinkers need for a future defined by their strengths through our data-driven academic programs.

We unlock student gifts through first-of-their-kind interventions reducing or even removing disabilities

Many intellectually-gifted students find that challenges they had been able to circumvent in younger years start to catch up to them in the high school years — just when they need to be preparing to “launch.” For some these challenges are experienced academically, while others may continue to get good grades but must contend with increasing anxieties, perfectionism and challenges connecting socially with their peers.

These shifts may seem unavoidable or unexplainable in the moment, but in fact they are natural consequences of our students’ asynchronous profiles. Our ground-breaking Student Growth Catalysts analyze and address these challenges through a ground-breaking, neurodevelopmental approach that reduces or even removes these challenges by rewiring the neural infrastructure that the child uses to perform the skills that are holding them back. Find out more about this exciting process and how it reduces the costs of special education while transforming student profiles.

We fuel social-emotional development through self-regulation, a growth mindset and a scientific understanding of their own experiences

A holistic and highly-individualized approach to social-emotional development is at the center of our program. Each child’s program starts with a deep analysis of how the many pieces in their neuropsychological and neurophysiological profiles fit together to influence their life-lived experiences. Our unique, Neuro- and Trauma-Informed Approach gets behind diagnostic labels to develop actionable insights for how to move a child forward, and help them understand their learning, psycho-social and neurophysiological ‘triggers,’ along with personalized strategies that they can use to interrupt those processes and optimize their own learning, social and emotional experiences. We share the science behind all of this with the children themselves, giving them the rational basis for a true growth mindset.

We prepare our students to be college-ready and life-ready through social-emotional understanding and growth

At Cajal, it is literally not possible to fall through the cracks. All students form close collaboration and partnerships with our tight-knit team of educators, therapists and thought leaders who can help you discover what makes you you, and the future path you’d like to pursue—and how to communicate and convey that to a college admissions team. This comes together through a Senior Capstone Projects: a graduation requirement and rite of passage through which Cajal seniors transfer their knowledge and executive function skills to design, execute and present their own multi-disciplinary project, building the skills they will need in college and beyond to pursue their own unique interests at a college level.

A diverse community of exceptionally bright students and educators who have deep subject matter expertise and a passion for empowering gifted thinkers

Cajal Academy is a mixed age cohort by design, because we know that many twice exceptional students build rich friendships with kids who share their intellectual interests, regardless of their ages, and may even struggle to do so with same-age peers. Unlike other special education schools, we define our cohort by the superpowers in analytical and creative thinking that hold them together—not the diversity of differences that set them apart. The opportunity to learn with other exceptionally bright teens through ability-based academic classes enriches our collaborative learning and helps students who may feel socially-isolated in mainstream environments find kinship and develop connection. Being a small school can itself be a catalyst for teens working through social and/or academic anxieties to work through their fears. Meanwhile, our community-wide projects and mixed age cohort helps students who naturally connect with students older or younger than themselves more easily than with same age peers to form natural kinships, with opportunities to mentor and lead.

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