FCPS Elementary Language Immersion Schools?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any experience with the partial language immersion programs in FCPS? I put my DD's name in for one (begins in 1st grade) at a nearby FCPS elementary school. We recently received a letter that she is off the wait list and a spot is available for her. I would love any experiences, insights, advice anyone could offer. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

is it Kent Gardens? I have heard good things about that from friends an neighbors.

[Anonymous]

my kid is in KG's program. he LOVES it. we don't speak the language at home but we use the teacher provided translations (posted online) to help with homework. so far it is going just fine.

[Anonymous]

Our DS is in one and we know several kids in the upper grades as well. The first few years, you may not think your DC is learning a whole lotin the language but by third grade they really start to get it. My experience with the teachers is mixed, some of them are really good but some are just so-so. We've worked with an educational consultant because one of our kids has a learning disability. She feels the quality of education in the immersion programs is poor. We keep DS in the program because we feel he can fill in whatever gaps he may later and we'd really like foreign language fluency. I can tell you he gets a better education than I did 40 years ago in the midwest.

[Anonymous]

OP here. It's not Kent Gardens, it's a Japanese Immersion program. 21:28, what you said about the quality of education being poor is what I am concerned about.

[Anonymous]

I know a family in the Japanese immersion program in Great Falls and they are very happy with it.

[Anonymous]

21:28, what you said about the quality of education being poor is what I am concerned about.

This is what led us to decline a spot in the immersion program a few years ago. I very much wanted my DD to learn a 2nd language, but ultimately I decided the overall quality of her education was more important. Our base school happens to be Louise Archer, which would have been pretty hard to turn down in favor of the immersion school (Lake Anne in Reston, Spanish). I think it depends on your options - which base school are you leaving and which immersion school are you attending, and how do the two compare?

I don't think the quality of education in the immersion programs is bad, per se, but you have to weigh what you are forgoing in your local school to attend the immersion school. If the schools are generally comparable, I think I would choose immersion. But I would have been pulling my DD from one of the best elementary schools in the County in order to do immersion. And the language was Spanish - there are other opportunities to learn Spanish and my child knows some already. If it were Japanese, maybe I'd have come out differently b/c it's a more difficult language to learn as you get older, and there are fewer opportunities for kids to learn it.

I learned Spanish starting in high school and developed fluency, so it is possible at a later age. I decided I did not want to compromise on the curriculum/quality of the academic program for the sake of DD learning another language.

Also consider whether you think your child may qualify for and/or need to be in the GT/AAP Center beginning in 3rd grade. If you commit to the immersion program, you really ought to stick it out through elementary school If you wanted to go to the AAP Center, you'd have to pull out of immersion in 3rd grade, which sort of defeats the purpose. This was also a factor with my DD as she is now attending the AAP Center at Louise Archer, and again, to us that was more important than foreign language. It's really unfortunate that all of our schools don't offer some kind of foreign language instruction as part of the curriculum, during the school day. I know immersion's not possible everywhere, but I do think foreign language should be part of the general curriculum.