Colin Powell Level IV vs GBW Level IV

[Anonymous]

Powell is a new school, looks better than GBW.
But, GBW seems very strong at chess, math, science.

Both school has Level IV center now.
Which to choose? Kid stays in Powell for 3 yrs already, and has close friends from neighborhood.
He likes Powell, have no idea about new school. 2 weeks to make decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Powell is a new school, looks better than GBW.
But, GBW seems very strong at chess, math, science.

Both school has Level IV center now.
Which to choose? Kid stays in Powell for 3 yrs already, and has close friends from neighborhood.
He likes Powell, have no idea about new school. 2 weeks to make decision.

Attend both open houses and select the one that seems the better match. See what other kids are considering GBW and consider that peer group. If there are several best friend going to either School, that could be a major factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Powell is a new school, looks better than GBW.
But, GBW seems very strong at chess, math, science.

Both school has Level IV center now.
Which to choose? Kid stays in Powell for 3 yrs already, and has close friends from neighborhood.
He likes Powell, have no idea about new school. 2 weeks to make decision.

Attend both open houses and select the one that seems the better match. See what other kids are considering GBW and consider that peer group. If there are several best friend going to either School, that could be a major factor.

This is what we are doing as well. Our school is starting a Local Level IV - I will make the decision after both open houses.

[Anonymous]

I heard that students at Colin Powell go to a different middle school than Rocky Run. Students at GBW go to Rocky Run which is closer distance wise to some of the neighborhoods going to Colin Powell.

I think middle school affects the decision for some families but you should research this to be sure I'm right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard that students at Colin Powell go to a different middle school than Rocky Run. Students at GBW go to Rocky Run which is closer distance wise to some of the neighborhoods going to Colin Powell.

I think middle school affects the decision for some families but you should research this to be sure I'm right.

Colin Powell goes to Liberty, which is an really good middle school. Feeds from the part of Centreville next to Fairfax and from Clifton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Powell is a new school, looks better than GBW.
But, GBW seems very strong at chess, math, science.

Both school has Level IV center now.
Which to choose? Kid stays in Powell for 3 yrs already, and has close friends from neighborhood.
He likes Powell, have no idea about new school. 2 weeks to make decision.

See you at both open houses. We are in the same boat. I'm leaving the choice to my kid :o)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard that students at Colin Powell go to a different middle school than Rocky Run. Students at GBW go to Rocky Run which is closer distance wise to some of the neighborhoods going to Colin Powell.

I think middle school affects the decision for some families but you should research this to be sure I'm right.

As of right now, any student who is level IV and lives in the boundary of Rocky Run for middle school AAP may go there. It
makes no difference where you go to elementary -ie whether you choose your LLIV or Center for elementary.

So much misinformation out there!

[Anonymous]

I am not sure if I understand your post entirely, but there are some children going to Colin Powell who do NOT live in the boundary of Rocky Run for middle school AAP and would go to another middle school closer to Fairfax City. However, if they go to the AAP Center at GBW, they are allowed to go to Rocky Run.

Like I said, research for yourself, don't just take my word for it or anyone else's for that matter. Get it straight from an FCPS employee.

[Anonymous]

Now that I think about it, I think a consideration for some parents is even if you are able to send your child from Colin Powell to Rocky Run because of AAP level 4 status, their group of classmates may not be going to Rocky Run. Since not all children in local level 4 are identified as level 4.

So some parents decide to put their child at GBW so they will develop friends in elem school who will go to middle school with them.

[Anonymous]

There are a ton of kids from Colin Powell at GBW. It could be considered a top feeder school to GBW AAP.

Not sure what your child is like, but our experience with making friends in the AAP program is hit or miss. Some kids we know have formed a nice group of friends and some have not been able to connect and remain close to their base school friends. It is different each year. That should probably not be the diver of your choice.

Colin Powell kids do go to C'ville HS. If there is a large group in your grade from CP than your kid will know some people when he gets to HS. If not , then he can reconnect with the neighborhood kids.

The majority of parents we meet are pushing, pushing, pushing their child to get to TJ. They have different priorities than us and we have not really bonded well with that group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure if I understand your post entirely, but there are some children going to Colin Powell who do NOT live in the boundary of Rocky Run for middle school AAP and would go to another middle school closer to Fairfax City. However, if they go to the AAP Center at GBW, they are allowed to go to Rocky Run.

Like I said, research for yourself, don't just take my word for it or anyone else's for that matter. Get it straight from an FCPS employee.

Level IV kids from CP can choose to go to their base MS (Liiberty or Lanier) or go to the center which is Rocky Run. This is as of right now since the two base MS are not AAP. If there are any CP students who live in the boundary for any other MS CTR, I would like to know what that CTR is.

[Anonymous]

When is open house for GBW?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure if I understand your post entirely, but there are some children going to Colin Powell who do NOT live in the boundary of Rocky Run for middle school AAP and would go to another middle school closer to Fairfax City. However, if they go to the AAP Center at GBW, they are allowed to go to Rocky Run.

Like I said, research for yourself, don't just take my word for it or anyone else's for that matter. Get it straight from an FCPS employee.

Level IV kids from CP can choose to go to their base MS (Liiberty or Lanier) or go to the center which is Rocky Run. This is as of right now since the two base MS are not AAP. If there are any CP students who live in the boundary for any other MS CTR, I would like to know what that CTR is.

Do you know if Liberty has a level IV classroom?

[Anonymous]

As far as I know, neither Liberty nor Lanier have local level IV - they are definitely not AAP centers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Powell is a new school, looks better than GBW.
But, GBW seems very strong at chess, math, science.

Both school has Level IV center now.
Which to choose? Kid stays in Powell for 3 yrs already, and has close friends from neighborhood.
He likes Powell, have no idea about new school. 2 weeks to make decision.

Colin Powell is a local level IV school - it is not a center.
It has one AAP level IV class per year - they do fill this class with Principal Designees as many level IV kids choose to go to GBW. Some of these kids leave the class for math.

Having said the above, Powell has a strong AAP curriculum and good teachers. The 4th grade AAP teacher is amazing - she motivates and challenges the kids from day 1 and they all love her. She is the best teacher DC has ever had. I have heard people argue that GBW has excellent teachers as well. DC is there this year with 3 academic teachers/ and 1 foreign language teacher (FLES) - none of them compare with the 4th grade teacher I mentioned above. This teacher has also been mentoring the 5th grade teacher and they often work together on projects for both classes. (We moved DC to the Center for social reasons since ther are several AAP classes for each grade - not sure it helped.) According to DC, learning was exciting last year - not so this year at GBW.

Among certain groups, you will hear a lot of erroneous information. I have heard the things mentioned below - they are all incorrect:
- "Colin Powell does not have level IV AAP"
- "Ms. Penney is not an AAP teacher"
- "If you go to GBW, you can definitely go to Rocky Run"
- "GBW is sooo much better"

(level IV status and AAP center zoning is what determines who can go to Rocky Run - if you live in the CP area you have to be level IV to attend GBW and hence you can attend Rocky Run as things stand now, but you don't have to go to GBW to go to Rocky Run)


Over the last few years, CP has added many afterschool activities. They don't match GBW in the "academic" ones yet but CP is moving forward in this respect. If your child already has activities, you wouldn't have time for these clubs anyway. (ie Math club, Science Olympiad , Chess etc)

GBW is overcrowded - be prepared to have your child miss recess at times because it conflicts with specials or FLES. The class sizes are large as with most centers. All of the 4th grade is in trailers this year. Last year one 3rd grade class was also in a trailer. After last year's rezoning, CP is actually the smaller school by numbers even though it is much more spacious.

I feel the kids are more nurtured at CP. GBW seems to want to prepare kids for MS - I wonder what the rush is. Won't they adjust once they get there? At GBW they will have more than one teacher starting in 4th or 5th grade. You really get no feedback from the teachers who are not the homeroom teacher.

Just a few thoughts from a family that has experienced both schools....