Sligo Creek Elementary -- French immersion program

[Anonymous]

Looks like my daughter has a very good chance of getting in off the wait list --- but I keep hearing mixed things about the program. I would love to hear some thoughts from those of you who have kids in the program. Some of my questions:

Is class size an issue?
Does the kids use their French outside of school?
How is their English reading?
What about fact that kids come from all over the county? Does that make friendship difficult?
What about split with the academy? Tension? Elitism?
Are the teachers good at teaching or only good at teaching French?
Do you like the principal?
Is it a nurturing environment?
Was your child frustrated at first?
Is there anything you DON'T love about the school?

Or any other thoughts! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like my daughter has a very good chance of getting in off the wait list ---

I am curious to know why you think this. Have you heard anything? Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like my daughter has a very good chance of getting in off the wait list --- but I keep hearing mixed things about the program. I would love to hear some thoughts from those of you who have kids in the program. Some of my questions:

Is class size an issue? The kindergarten class generally has 25 students. There are two K classes, and they share a French-speaking paraeducator.
Does the kids use their French outside of school? Yes, occasionally, but this depends entirely on you. If you seek out opportunities for them to do so (travel, events at the Consulate, Alliance Francais, etc.) then they can use it outside of school. It is an amazing and magical thing to hear your child speaking absolute, fluent French. Breathtaking.
How is their English reading? My child, who is in third grade, reads at a higher grade level in English than in French. DC reads above grade level in both languages.
What about fact that kids come from all over the county? Does that make friendship difficult? Not in our experience.
What about split with the academy? Tension? Elitism? There is some (understandable) tension but not terrible. The French Immersion parents as a whole tend to be more active/involved than Academy parents.
Are the teachers good at teaching or only good at teaching French? It depends on the teacher - some are better than others. We have loved a couple, have been ~meh~ on a few, and really disliked one. (That last one is leaving, thank goodness.) RE teachers - this is so in any school I suppose, but the FI program is somewhat fragile because it depends so heavily on the teachers. If one has a long-term illness, or maternity leave, or something, it can be a mess.
Do you like the principal? I dislike the principal with an intensity you can barely imagine.
Is it a nurturing environment? About as "nurturing" as any public school.
Was your child frustrated at first? Not at all. It's all DC knew and DC fell right into the routine and language.
Is there anything you DON'T love about the school? I dislike the principal. I think the FI program is good, but it has its issues. Some of the teachers are so-so, but many are great. On the whole, the down sides are compensated for 100% by the kids achieving fluency in a second language.

Or any other thoughts! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I'm an Academy parents, so I won't have a lot of answers.

There are tensions between the French families and the Academy parents. I'm not sure French families feel it as much as Academy ones, b/c the Academy parents who are involved tend to feel like underdogs. Many Academy parents that I know are very involved with their kids and their kids' education, but feel such vitriol towards the principal and the dual programs that it has soured our mouths to being involved with the school.

And yes, there is an elitism. As a neighborhood parent, I often feel that SOME (definitely not all) of the French parents act as though their kids are in a private school, not a public one. There are few minorities in the French program. There are also many more SAH parents, which means, of course, that some of these moms have far more time to spend at the school.

The school itself does NOT do a good job at mixing the French and Academy students, so the kids don't interact nearly enough for the school to feel like one school. That doesn't help, in my opinion.

The one place that we agree on (Academy and French alike) is the principal. I, too, dislike the principal with an intensity you can barely imagine. And EVERY parent I know feels the same.

It's just amazing that the county doesn't step up and hear us in any forum and do something about her. This principal pretends to listen but doesn't really. She's all show and no substance.

The principal doesn't deal with necessary punishment of bullies or any other incident that would require her to write something up for the county and tarnish the school's record. I've heard real horror stories. She's also said some things to me about one of my children that were outright lies and contradicted by his teachers as a way to sidestep actually dealing with my child's academic needs.

[Anonymous]

Interesting information on the principal. I entered my DC in the lottery for first grade and got a low wait list #. But I guess there aren't usually any openings for first grade? Does anybody know?

[Anonymous]

Do some of these
Elitism and tension problems exsist at RCF with their Spanish program?

[Anonymous]

RE: RCF Spanish Immersion -- yes, I think so. I think a lot of the neighborhood parents have a chip on their shoulder about it, and the current PTA leadership has exacerbated this.

With that said, my DC has friends in both immersion and the English program (which all the kids call "the English immersion program" -- LOL!).

[Anonymous]

OP: Thanks all, most helpful.

In answer to one poster's question, we are very low (or is it high?) on the wait list (just heard end of last week) and figure we will get in.

Another question I forgot to ask: how do people feel about Silver Spring International Middle School which SC feeds into?

And given the intense hatred of the principal that seems pretty universal, how can that NOT adversely affect the quality of both the academy and the french schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: Thanks all, most helpful.

In answer to one poster's question, we are very low (or is it high?) on the wait list (just heard end of last week) and figure we will get in.

Another question I forgot to ask: how do people feel about Silver Spring International Middle School which SC feeds into?

And given the intense hatred of the principal that seems pretty universal, how can that NOT adversely affect the quality of both the academy and the french schools?

FI parent here. I commented to DH last night on how everyone hates this principal, and he named a couple of people he knows who seem to like her. So, I suppose it is not universal.

For the FI program, her impact is reduced, because there is a FI coordinator who in some respects serves as principal for the FI program. So, there is a bit of a buffer there. In my experience, the principal doesn't negatively effect the FI program. (Then again, I have little to compare my experience with, YK?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:RE: RCF Spanish Immersion -- yes, I think so. I think a lot of the neighborhood parents have a chip on their shoulder about it, and the current PTA leadership has exacerbated this.

With that said, my DC has friends in both immersion and the English program (which all the kids call "the English immersion program" -- LOL!).

Wow, talk about divisive. My impression of the PTA is that they focus a lot of Spanish immersion and spent a lot of time lobbying to make sure transportation to magnet programs was in next year's school budget. What do you mean chip on their shoulder with regard to neighborhood parents? Sounds like you've got the chip.

[Anonymous]

I'm Academy parent. I agree with the FI parents on the principal. The French coordinator buffer definitely helps limit the principal's negative impact on that program.

Unfortunately, we Academy parents don't have the same buffer. So, we see higher teacher turnover and she has a greater impact on us.

[Anonymous]

@11:17

No, no chip here. I just gave my opinion and what I've observed. This is our fifth year at RCF so I have a number of years to draw on.

And it's not just me -- there have been many "why can't we just get along" speeches at PTA meetings, none of which have been given by me. As I said, my DC has friends in both programs and I like their parents very much.

Current PTA president has the best of intentions, I'm sure, but she spends a lot of time on the "can't we just get along" theme in a way that, I think, emphasizes the tensions between the two groups.

How to explain it ... I guess it's kind of like this. The SP parents weren't really aware of any feelings of separation or tensions until the English parents (and PTA leadership) started bringing it up all the time. So that leads me to believe that they feel slighted or upset or something.

In reality they have smaller classes and more teacher continuity, so ...

[Anonymous]

Just curious, question to parents at Sligo- Do you know what percentage of immersion students ride the bus to school from out of boundary? Thanks

[Anonymous]

In regards to RCF:

As an educator who used to work at the school and had contact with both immersion classes and english academy it is not necessarily an advantage to be in an small english academy class. Some of these classes have student with significant behavioral issues that demand a lot of attention by the teacher to the detriment of the other children. In contrast, the Spanish Immersion classses for the most part do not have these students with behavioral issues and the larger class size does not interfere with teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In regards to RCF:

As an educator who used to work at the school and had contact with both immersion classes and english academy it is not necessarily an advantage to be in an small english academy class. Some of these classes have student with significant behavioral issues that demand a lot of attention by the teacher to the detriment of the other children. In contrast, the Spanish Immersion classses for the most part do not have these students with behavioral issues and the larger class size does not interfere with teaching.

Yes, thank you for saying this. I'm the poster who objected to the characterization of neighborhood parents having a "chip on their shoulders". A good number of kids with a lot of home support get into Spanish immersion, leaving a smaller peer group of kids on the English side who have the need for acceleration. I've observed both English and Spanish classes. The Spanish classes seemed to have few if any disruptive kids. The English classes, on the other hand, certainly had kids who were disruptive. As a neighborhood parent, I think my child has as much right as any other child to an appropriate education, which to my mind involves having the right peer group.