Origins High School

A small school with a focus on writing, research and learning to speak to an audience, Origins High School serves a multi-racial student body, including many new immigrants. Students speak 24 languages at home and may study Russian, Mandarin or Italian at school.

Opened in 2013 in the former Sheepshead Bay High School (renamed the Frank Macchiarola Educational Complex), Origins High School has quickly established a climate of trust and respect among the faculty, according to school surveys. Teachers give the founding principal, John Banks, high marks and say they would recommend the school to prospective parents.

Banks, who taught middle school English at the Academy of Arts & Letters in Fort Greene, has replicated some of that popular school’s teaching techniques. For example, students present their academic work, called “portfolios,” twice a year at roundtables attended by teachers and community members.

The school had a high suspension rate in its first years, and teachers were working on establishing “restorative practices,” that is, a system of resolving disputes and reducing behavior problems with alternatives to suspension, according to the school’s Comprehensive Educational Plan.  

The building has an outdoor field and track. Students take part in sports teams with other schools in the building, including a transfer high school, Professional Pathways High School, and two charter schools: New Visions Charter High School for the Humanities III and New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science III.

Admission: The school gives priority to students who live nearby, but in recent years it has had room for everyone who wants to apply. (Clara Hemphill, web reports, December 2018)