Key Immersion or Cardinal?

[Anonymous]

We are very high on the waitlist of Key, so pretty much guaranteed to get in. We like the idea of immersion, but we don't want to sacrifice the academic quality for it.

I should note that no one in our family speaks Spanish. However, I am a foreigner myself and neither of my parents speaks English, and I learned English quite well from school (not immersion or bilingual; it's just the rest of the world cares a lot about English education). So I'm not quite deterred by the fact that neither my spouse or I speak Spanish.

I watched the virtual info sessions of both Key and Cardinal. My impression was Cardinal's info session seemed more organized than Key's session. Not sure if this is a reflection of the two schools in general.

[Anonymous]

Read the Oakridge/Claremont thread.

If you don’t value the Immersion aspect first and foremost, it may not be the school for you. My kid is in 2nd grade in Immersion, and it’s getting “real” and people who sent their kids for reasons that did NOT include really desiring Spanish learning are bailing next year.

So my advice would be to do it bc you are committed. Otherwise give your spot to a family who is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read the Oakridge/Claremont thread.

If you don’t value the Immersion aspect first and foremost, it may not be the school for you. My kid is in 2nd grade in Immersion, and it’s getting “real” and people who sent their kids for reasons that did NOT include really desiring Spanish learning are bailing next year.

So my advice would be to do it bc you are committed. Otherwise give your spot to a family who is.

OP here. Thank you for your reply. I've been following the Oakridge vs. Claremont thread. But there are school-specific factors (e.g. the Oakridge thread mentioned issues with principal and homework, which may not apply to other neighborhood schools), so I thought it was better to start a separate thread.

When you said "do it bc you are committed", what kind of commitment are you talking about? For example, we are happy to pay for Spanish tutors from time to time, like during summer breaks. But we won't be able to host a Spanish speaking au pair. It also seems impossible for us, both working parents, to learn Spanish ourselves to completely understand our kid's schoolwork.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the Oakridge/Claremont thread.

If you don’t value the Immersion aspect first and foremost, it may not be the school for you. My kid is in 2nd grade in Immersion, and it’s getting “real” and people who sent their kids for reasons that did NOT include really desiring Spanish learning are bailing next year.

So my advice would be to do it bc you are committed. Otherwise give your spot to a family who is.

OP here. Thank you for your reply. I've been following the Oakridge vs. Claremont thread. But there are school-specific factors (e.g. the Oakridge thread mentioned issues with principal and homework, which may not apply to other neighborhood schools), so I thought it was better to start a separate thread.

When you said "do it bc you are committed", what kind of commitment are you talking about? For example, we are happy to pay for Spanish tutors from time to time, like during summer breaks. But we won't be able to host a Spanish speaking au pair. It also seems impossible for us, both working parents, to learn Spanish ourselves to completely understand our kid's schoolwork.

We had 2 kids go through Key and Gunston in immersion, and neither of us speaks much Spanish ("Dos cervezas por favor" is about as far as I can go before breaking into Spanglish). The only commitment needed is to make sure your kids stick with it, even if they are temporarily unhappy. They will learn Spanish, especially if they stick with the program through middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the Oakridge/Claremont thread.

If you don’t value the Immersion aspect first and foremost, it may not be the school for you. My kid is in 2nd grade in Immersion, and it’s getting “real” and people who sent their kids for reasons that did NOT include really desiring Spanish learning are bailing next year.

So my advice would be to do it bc you are committed. Otherwise give your spot to a family who is.

OP here. Thank you for your reply. I've been following the Oakridge vs. Claremont thread. But there are school-specific factors (e.g. the Oakridge thread mentioned issues with principal and homework, which may not apply to other neighborhood schools), so I thought it was better to start a separate thread.

When you said "do it bc you are committed", what kind of commitment are you talking about? For example, we are happy to pay for Spanish tutors from time to time, like during summer breaks. But we won't be able to host a Spanish speaking au pair. It also seems impossible for us, both working parents, to learn Spanish ourselves to completely understand our kid's schoolwork.

We had 2 kids go through Key and Gunston in immersion, and neither of us speaks much Spanish ("Dos cervezas por favor" is about as far as I can go before breaking into Spanglish). The only commitment needed is to make sure your kids stick with it, even if they are temporarily unhappy. They will learn Spanish, especially if they stick with the program through middle school.

Yes, this. I also have one at Gunston who went through Key & one still at Key. We (parents) don’t know much Spanish. It’s worth it. They get an extra skill for “free.”

[Anonymous]

One thing to be aware of is that Arlington used to run a great, cheap Spanish summer camp at Key. That no longer happens so part of the commitment to Spanish is about supporting your kid over the summer, especially in the early years. That may mean finding a different Spanish camp or getting a regular tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the Oakridge/Claremont thread.

If you don’t value the Immersion aspect first and foremost, it may not be the school for you. My kid is in 2nd grade in Immersion, and it’s getting “real” and people who sent their kids for reasons that did NOT include really desiring Spanish learning are bailing next year.

So my advice would be to do it bc you are committed. Otherwise give your spot to a family who is.

OP here. Thank you for your reply. I've been following the Oakridge vs. Claremont thread. But there are school-specific factors (e.g. the Oakridge thread mentioned issues with principal and homework, which may not apply to other neighborhood schools), so I thought it was better to start a separate thread.

When you said "do it bc you are committed", what kind of commitment are you talking about? For example, we are happy to pay for Spanish tutors from time to time, like during summer breaks. But we won't be able to host a Spanish speaking au pair. It also seems impossible for us, both working parents, to learn Spanish ourselves to completely understand our kid's schoolwork.

We had 2 kids go through Key and Gunston in immersion, and neither of us speaks much Spanish ("Dos cervezas por favor" is about as far as I can go before breaking into Spanglish). The only commitment needed is to make sure your kids stick with it, even if they are temporarily unhappy. They will learn Spanish, especially if they stick with the program through middle school.

This. I know several families bolting out of Immersion because they are surprised that the Spanish part is hard and they have provided no support to their kids outside of school. By support I basically mean YOU as the parent, are interested in seeing them through the harder times and will find them help if they need it. So maybe it's a tutor, maybe it's spanish language camp, maybe it's checking out books at the library in spanish or buying spanish speaking materials for home. That type of thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read the Oakridge/Claremont thread.

If you don’t value the Immersion aspect first and foremost, it may not be the school for you. My kid is in 2nd grade in Immersion, and it’s getting “real” and people who sent their kids for reasons that did NOT include really desiring Spanish learning are bailing next year.

So my advice would be to do it bc you are committed. Otherwise give your spot to a family who is.

Can you speak more to this please? Just provide a little more detail? I’m curious

[Anonymous]

Can someone speak to the experience of families who went to immersion through 5th grade only? We are very interested in immersion but the middle school info for APS I’m hearing is not great so we would
Likely pull them out of
Immersion at 5th

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the Oakridge/Claremont thread.

If you don’t value the Immersion aspect first and foremost, it may not be the school for you. My kid is in 2nd grade in Immersion, and it’s getting “real” and people who sent their kids for reasons that did NOT include really desiring Spanish learning are bailing next year.

So my advice would be to do it bc you are committed. Otherwise give your spot to a family who is.

Can you speak more to this please? Just provide a little more detail? I’m curious

Do you value your child learning another language? Because obviously, that's a huge part of the curriculum. So if you think it's just a fun elective, the Immersion program may not be right for you. It's half the school day (and will be more starting Fall 2023 for the younger kids). My husband grew up in a Spanish speaking country, so it's very important to us.

By support I just mean, will you provide Spanish language materials at home? If you are able, of course. Books, shows, whatever. If your child needs some help mastering vocabulary, are you willing to help? There will be times it's harder than your neighborhood school. They do math and science in spanish, so that can require a bit of extra learning on your part to be able to support as kids get older. In K and 1st, it's not too complicated, but we are in 2nd and I can feel the shift to it becoming more challenging. Because they need to have kept up their language skills.

And now that other families who really would like the opportunity for Immersion will be turned away (since this year there are less K classes) I'd just advise you take the spot because you want it. Not just because you "won" the lottery or something.

We are at Claremont (not Key) but it's a wonderful community. I love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone speak to the experience of families who went to immersion through 5th grade only? We are very interested in immersion but the middle school info for APS I’m hearing is not great so we would
Likely pull them out of
Immersion at 5th

We continued in to middle school (so far— not sure yet about HS), but think of it this way: your kid will know way more Spanish than if you did no immersion.

As for “commitment,” my oldest is in 7th grade immersion, & we’ve never used a Spanish tutor or camp. We do provide Spanish books & games at home & change the tv language to Spanish sometimes. I am trying to learn some Spanish on a very causal basis. That’s it. People shouldn’t be scared away by the idea it’s some huge commitment beyond just sticking with it & encouraging your kids to read in Spanish once they know how.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone speak to the experience of families who went to immersion through 5th grade only? We are very interested in immersion but the middle school info for APS I’m hearing is not great so we would
Likely pull them out of
Immersion at 5th

We're still in early elementary in immersion, but a lot of the parents I've spoken to who have had kids go into spanish immersion in middle school say that it is HUGELY beneficial from an APS middle school experience -- kids move into a smaller cohort so there is much more community and support built into their middle school experience, but they still have flexibility to branch out a bit (so they are also meeting new kids). I just wouldn't count it out as a possible.

[Anonymous]

Do you think the math, science, social studies is as good in the immersion programs as in the neighborhood schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think the math, science, social studies is as good in the immersion programs as in the neighborhood schools?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone speak to the experience of families who went to immersion through 5th grade only? We are very interested in immersion but the middle school info for APS I’m hearing is not great so we would
Likely pull them out of
Immersion at 5th

We're still in early elementary in immersion, but a lot of the parents I've spoken to who have had kids go into spanish immersion in middle school say that it is HUGELY beneficial from an APS middle school experience -- kids move into a smaller cohort so there is much more community and support built into their middle school experience, but they still have flexibility to branch out a bit (so they are also meeting new kids). I just wouldn't count it out as a possible.

I would add that parents I’ve spoken to whose kids are applying or have gone to college mention it made a HUGE difference in their kids’ options. Apparently universities look favorably at students from immersion schools.