| The comments about iPad use in the bvr v nps thread have made me wonder: which lower school has the least amount of iPad, laptop and smart board use? I know no one has experience with all schools but any anecdotes or comparisons are very appreciated! |
| Washington Waldorf |
| Should have clarified—not Montessori or Waldorf. Thinking of the “typical” K-3/6/8/12 options |
| The Heights. |
| Not sure who is lowest tech but we did choose NPS over Beauvoir (accepted to both) partially because we wanted as close to tech free as possible for the youngest years and did not like the Beauvoir uses iPads starting in pre K. |
| Any experiences with tech at WIS or Sheridan? |
| When we toured Waldorf we were told that you sign a contract where you pledge no ipad, no computer, no phone, no tv at least until 5th grade. This was 8 years ago more or less. |
| There has been very little tech at the River School in the Elementary program. |
Not true at our local Waldorf school. We really appreciate the low-tech school pedagogy for our child, but we embrace technology at home. |
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WIS had 1-2 a handful of iPads per class in PreK that kids could use for small assignments like taking photographs. They started giving children access to a math program in kinder and then requesting children use said math game at home for some very small time period, like 20 minutes a week in 1st grade. This caused a problem for some children because their parents refused.
In school they used technology in order to look up information for reports. |
| Primary Day School has been awesome all the way around, and very little screen time if any. |
| When we looked into Grace in Kensington, it stuck out how little tech there was - this is a few years old so it may have changed. |
My kid started Sheridan K is now in middle school there. There were no iPads in the classroom in the lower school. Students get a chrome book in 3rd grade for limited use: they teach them to type, and at some point in the year they “get” to type up a final draft of a written work. (Perhaps a short written piece that was drafted and re-drafted by hand.). They also teach them cursive in 3rd grade. Once the pandemic hit, the school purchased iPads for lower school students to use to access virtual class from home. I have not heard of any iPad use in the lower school since we returned to full-time in person learning, but a parent with a current lower school student may be able to comment on that further. |
| Before the pandemic SSFS did not use tech in lower elementary grades. I don't know if they will be heading back in that direction since the pandemic meant issuing iPads to all students. |
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Does anyone have a short-list for just west of Fairfax City area that we can start looking at?
We're new to this; I presume "big 3" refers to a couple DC schools, and these are all DC schools? |