Brightwood Schools

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much for the helpful response!

[Anonymous]

Bumping this.

Husband and I are looking at new parts of the city to live (we have a young one and outgrowing our condo)

Brightwood is an area our realtor mentioned. Brightwood, Takoma, and Manor Park.

Reading this was great help. DCUM is awesome. A topic for everyone!

Any more insight on parents who sent their kids to Whittier or Takoma this year? Or the other ward 4 schools (charter included).

[Anonymous]

What are you looking to know? I and a number of other local families are happy at Takoma. Warm welcoming environment and strong teachers so far (I have a 1st grader). Test scores won’t look amazing but I encourage you to look beyond that. One advantage is we are an early action school which means that if you are in boundary you are guaranteed preK3 and PreK4 spots even if you get the worst lottery number available.

I also know families very happy at Whittier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this.

Husband and I are looking at new parts of the city to live (we have a young one and outgrowing our condo)

Brightwood is an area our realtor mentioned. Brightwood, Takoma, and Manor Park.

Reading this was great help. DCUM is awesome. A topic for everyone!

Any more insight on parents who sent their kids to Whittier or Takoma this year? Or the other ward 4 schools (charter included).

We live in the area and love it. It feels very residential but is close enough to Petworth and Takoma Park that there are plenty of restaurants and stores in easy reach.

Our child is at Breakthrough Montessori and we have had an amazing experience. We have seen her grow a lot both academically and socially. We know families who are happy at Whittier and Takoma too! I don’t have a lot of insight into the upper grades at any of the area schools, but for PK-K it seems like there are a lot of very good options nearby that people are happy with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this.

Husband and I are looking at new parts of the city to live (we have a young one and outgrowing our condo)

Brightwood is an area our realtor mentioned. Brightwood, Takoma, and Manor Park.

Reading this was great help. DCUM is awesome. A topic for everyone!

Any more insight on parents who sent their kids to Whittier or Takoma this year? Or the other ward 4 schools (charter included).

Take everything that you read on DCUM with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

Whittier is great and so is Takoma. Lots of young families in the neighborhood and it’s very walkable. Great playgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whittier is great and so is Takoma. Lots of young families in the neighborhood and it’s very walkable. Great playgrounds.

Those TES playgrounds look awesome. Took a tour there a few years back. Each PK room has their own dedicated playground as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whittier is great and so is Takoma. Lots of young families in the neighborhood and it’s very walkable. Great playgrounds.

Those TES playgrounds look awesome. Took a tour there a few years back. Each PK room has their own dedicated playground as well.

No, this is not right. There is a small, dedicated PK playground on the north side that 2 of the PK classrooms empty out into, but there are 3-4 other PK classrooms on the south side of the school. Each PK room has its own dedicated entrance to the outside of the school, not its own playground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whittier is great and so is Takoma. Lots of young families in the neighborhood and it’s very walkable. Great playgrounds.

Those TES playgrounds look awesome. Took a tour there a few years back. Each PK room has their own dedicated playground as well.

No, this is not right. There is a small, dedicated PK playground on the north side that 2 of the PK classrooms empty out into, but there are 3-4 other PK classrooms on the south side of the school. Each PK room has its own dedicated entrance to the outside of the school, not its own playground.

Ack. Apologies I misremembered. But the classroom they showed us having an exit to a playground was pretty exciting to see compared to other schools we toured.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whittier is great and so is Takoma. Lots of young families in the neighborhood and it’s very walkable. Great playgrounds.

Those TES playgrounds look awesome. Took a tour there a few years back. Each PK room has their own dedicated playground as well.

No, this is not right. There is a small, dedicated PK playground on the north side that 2 of the PK classrooms empty out into, but there are 3-4 other PK classrooms on the south side of the school. Each PK room has its own dedicated entrance to the outside of the school, not its own playground.

Ack. Apologies I misremembered. But the classroom they showed us having an exit to a playground was pretty exciting to see compared to other schools we toured.

Takoma’s outdoor space is great (field, blacktop, garden and playgrounds) though I wish they leveraged it more. They just got a new outdoor classroom/rain garden space (planted this fall and opened just a few days ago) that students have been having a blast running around (at least afterschool).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this.

Husband and I are looking at new parts of the city to live (we have a young one and outgrowing our condo)

Brightwood is an area our realtor mentioned. Brightwood, Takoma, and Manor Park.

Reading this was great help. DCUM is awesome. A topic for everyone!

Any more insight on parents who sent their kids to Whittier or Takoma this year? Or the other ward 4 schools (charter included).

Take everything that you read on DCUM with a grain of salt.

+1. People accept low standards in the city. If you are looking that far north, look a few minutes more north in MD for better schools and a guaranteed path thru high school.

[Anonymous]

We live in Manor Park (east of Georgia, north of Military) and love it here. Our kids go to Whittier and we’re really happy with the school, the quality of teachers, and the responsiveness of the admin. Feels like a true community school, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to send our kids to Wells for MS too. The building itself is the worst part of the school, but it’s slated for renovation in SY 2025-2026!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in Manor Park (east of Georgia, north of Military) and love it here. Our kids go to Whittier and we’re really happy with the school, the quality of teachers, and the responsiveness of the admin. Feels like a true community school, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to send our kids to Wells for MS too. The building itself is the worst part of the school, but it’s slated for renovation in SY 2025-2026!

+1

NP who would have written the exact same post- I wonder if I know you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whittier is great and so is Takoma. Lots of young families in the neighborhood and it’s very walkable. Great playgrounds.

Those TES playgrounds look awesome. Took a tour there a few years back. Each PK room has their own dedicated playground as well.

No, this is not right. There is a small, dedicated PK playground on the north side that 2 of the PK classrooms empty out into, but there are 3-4 other PK classrooms on the south side of the school. Each PK room has its own dedicated entrance to the outside of the school, not its own playground.

My kid went to takoma and if I remember correctly, there are two PK playgrounds, each of which have two classrooms which exit onto those playgrounds, so 4 of the PKs have doors onto the dedicated playgrounds. They used to have one day a week where dropoff was on the playground and kids/parents/teachers could chat. It was really nice. I hope they kept that tradition up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this.

Husband and I are looking at new parts of the city to live (we have a young one and outgrowing our condo)

Brightwood is an area our realtor mentioned. Brightwood, Takoma, and Manor Park.

Reading this was great help. DCUM is awesome. A topic for everyone!

Any more insight on parents who sent their kids to Whittier or Takoma this year? Or the other ward 4 schools (charter included).

Take everything that you read on DCUM with a grain of salt.

+1. People accept low standards in the city. If you are looking that far north, look a few minutes more north in MD for better schools and a guaranteed path thru high school.

People live places for reasons other than schools, you know. And there is more to school than test scores and academic achievement.