Hunter Woods AAP vs. Waples Mill

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for feedback on the Hunter Woods AAP program. My DC was accepted to Hunter Woods. Any feedback on their program will be helpful. Any feedback on Waples Mill AAP (level III) - as they don't offer Level IV. The Principal also recently left, so there are some changes happening.
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[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

My kid just finished his 3rd grade year in AAP at HWES. He had a great year. I found the work his class was doing was challenging enough for him (particularly the math) and kept his interest. The upside to HWES is that you get the benefit of it being a magnet school as well. The kids get additional specials including "Thinkers toolkit" (aka drama), "Movement" (aka dance), violin in 3rd grade, and additional science with a specialized science teacher in addition to in-class science units. I can't speak to anything at Waples Mill as we are in the district for HWES but one of the other mom's whose daughter was from Waples Mill said that the distance wasn't ideal but felt it was worth it. Hope this helps a little!

[Anonymous]

I have a child at HWES via Waples Mill AAP. I don't value music, drama, and especially not dance. I realize others might. DC1 only been there two years so far and had the same teacher for both (she switched grades). She is awesome so we really feel we lucked out there.
I have some complaints about a few of the teachers we experienced at Waples Mill, especially both second grade teachers. I don't feel like getting into particulars though. I especially feel that HWES handled covid and virtual learning much better than WMES, as well as actually planning for the return to school. For one they put all the kids that were planning to go back in person in the same class so that kids didn't have to switch teachers once it acually happened. My DC2 had her whole class roster switched around in the middle of the year at Waples when the kids went back.
One drawback I can give you is the amount of time your child spends on the bus. My HWES student catches the bus an hour before DC2 in the morning and gets home around the same time in the afternoon. The other drawback is that your child's school friends will be spread over a larger geographic area. They won't be able to ride their bikes to each other's house so play dates are parent-planned and less frequent. Then half the kids will go to a different high school and maybe a different middle as well. The split feeder problem is the worst one in the county with Waples AAP having to send their kids all the way to Hunters Woods while passing by Navy and Crossfield, whose kids don't have to deal with that issue, on the way there.

[Anonymous]

We decided to stay at Waples and are doing the advanced math at the base school. The long commute and social aspect of things weren’t worth it for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We decided to stay at Waples and are doing the advanced math at the base school. The long commute and social aspect of things weren’t worth it for us.

NP here. How have you found the advanced math at WMES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We decided to stay at Waples and are doing the advanced math at the base school. The long commute and social aspect of things weren’t worth it for us.

NP here. How have you found the advanced math at WMES?

Ms. B has been fabulous. DC is very happy at Waples.

[Anonymous]

My kiddo wants to apply to TJ. We will have a much better outcome if we keep DC in Franklin MS vs sending her to Carson.

[Anonymous]

DS went to HWES and he loved it there. He met his BFF there too. For the most part he has enjoyed his experience at HWES. His major concern was that the computers were not the latest and the greatest and the AC was having some issues. My guess is these incidents might have coincided with his time at HWES.

From a parent viewpoint, I absolutely love the principal at HWES (and the teachers too). She is AMAZING. While there is an emphasis on music as one of the PP alluded too, I find the lack of teaching languages to kids a tad concerning. Kids are like sponges at that age, and I would let them absorb as much as possible. While some friendship might be lost during the switch from WMES to HWES, it helps kids to make new friends; the social aspect that kids needs the most esp after Covid.

The bus issue, as one the PP mentioned, is so true. Esp at 3rd grade the commute time is crazy. It gets more manageable when the get to 6th but from a parents view, you have to think its hard for a 3rd grader to endure such long commutes.

Overall, I think DS enjoyed HWES !!

[Anonymous]

I had one child who attended HWES from 4-6 and another who stayed at WMES (twins). I can say that I did not find the curriculum to be very challenging at HWES. It was the exact same topics at WMES. Maybe the in-class instruction dove deeper but I couldn’t see it from study guides. The specials were different and adv math didn’t start until 5th grade at WMES.

Both students went to Franklin for middle. Franklin offers AAP now. All told I would have kept both in WMES if I had it to do again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had one child who attended HWES from 4-6 and another who stayed at WMES (twins). I can say that I did not find the curriculum to be very challenging at HWES. It was the exact same topics at WMES. Maybe the in-class instruction dove deeper but I couldn’t see it from study guides. The specials were different and adv math didn’t start until 5th grade at WMES.

Both students went to Franklin for middle. Franklin offers AAP now. All told I would have kept both in WMES if I had it to do again.

This is very helpful to hear, especially because you have twins, so you were looking at experiences the same year.

Were you happy with Franklin's AAP program?

[Anonymous]

I have one kid in general ed WMES and one in Hunters AAP.

HWES is hands down better the option, though I can't speak for WMES AAP. We've had a terrible experience with teachers at WMES as well as administration.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

We were very happy with Franklin AAP. We also had amazing teachers at WMES and were very happy with the admin. Some of it definitely could be the luck of the draw.

We did not have the same pandemic experience as a previous poster. The kids were placed into classes based on the family’s choice for in-person learning. One kid had one student that switched to all virtual and two who were bussed in for in-person. My other kid had no changes to his class, though the school staggered in-person by last name and he never went with many of his friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were very happy with Franklin AAP. We also had amazing teachers at WMES and were very happy with the admin. Some of it definitely could be the luck of the draw.

We did not have the same pandemic experience as a previous poster. The kids were placed into classes based on the family’s choice for in-person learning. One kid had one student that switched to all virtual and two who were bussed in for in-person. My other kid had no changes to his class, though the school staggered in-person by last name and he never went with many of his friends.

Thank you! I'm glad to hear this about Franklin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We decided to stay at Waples and are doing the advanced math at the base school. The long commute and social aspect of things weren’t worth it for us.

What do you mean by "social aspect?" Is this code for race/income groups or do you mean something else?