Feedback on Norwood School?

[Anonymous]

Anyone? How does it compare to Sidwell/Beauvoir/Maret/GDS/Potomac?

[Anonymous]

my husband's supervisor sent his child there & loved the school. if you want to give your e-mail address, i can see if he will contact you. sorry this is all lower caps, i am holding a baby right now.

[Anonymous]

On par with the schools mentioned. Beautiful facility. Great families and terrific placement for highschool.

[Anonymous]

If you're looking at Sidwell/Beauvoir/Maret/GDS/Potomac, you should absolutely give Norwood a long look. I just posted a reply to the question asking how Norwood compares to Episcopal but I think this is really the more appropriate comparison (at least this was the pool of schools we looked at when we started out and are thinking about again for high school). My other post talks about whether Norwood is internally competitve so I won't repeat that here. In any event, Norwood was the only k-8 school we considered back in our preschool days. Beauvoir was the only k-3 (we weren't at all sure we wanted to go the single sex route so didn't think of Beauvoir as a k-12 school). We loved the feel at Norwood (the children seemed so happy!) and the director of our preschool in DC thought it would be a great academic fit for our child (great balance between academically rigorous and nurturing). So notwithstanding a pretty long commute (from Silver Spring) and the fact that we felt we'd have to go through the whole process again in 8th grade, we took a leap of faith and started at Norwood. We've loved Norwood since kindergarten (extremely loving and creative kindergarten) and now have all three of our children there. It took us a couple of years though to stop worrying about high school. Part of the reassurance was that the really great high schools in the area seem to love Norwood students and Norwood's high school placement record is really impressive. More than that though, we became convinced of the value of a k-8 education where all the school's resources are focussed on early and middle childhood education and the entire culture of the place is geared towards and appropriate for that age span. As I said in the other post, we'd do it the same way all over again. By the way, we commuted for a long time between Norwood and a DC preschool and it was truly fine. If you want to explore this a bit more, try posting your email address and I'd be happy to contact you directly.

[Anonymous]

How big a role does religion play? Would my son feel out of place because he is Jewish or pressured to "believe" to belong?

[Anonymous]

Our kids are Jewish and are extremely happy at Norwood. Morning chapel is very much a moment to be reflective together as a community and to start each day on a gentle and positive note. The faculty work really hard to provide information on different religious and ethnic traditions from around the world. We've found (to our positive surprise because this was a question we had before starting as well) that talking about different religions in school has given our family a convenient and important framework to talk about difference at home. This, it turns out, has been a really good exercise for us. I'd encourage you to talk to Norwood's admissions folks about this and ask if you can sit through a chapel to see how you feel about it. I'd also ask if you can talk to some current Jewish parents to get their sense of it.

[Anonymous]

To answer your question more directly, Norwood is a non-denominational school and does not teach religion at all. It does teach about a variety of religions. I think the admissions folks would welcome questions on this and be able to give you a clear answer about what traditions the school continues.

[Anonymous]

Could one of you comment on the Christmas pageant that Norwood just had and its place in the curriculum and school life? I gather that it was a traditional Nativity pageant. How did the school accommodate non-Christian families? Are there any other ways in which religion crops up, other than morning chapel?

[Anonymous]

The school is Christian. That is according to the admissions office. It has a non-discrimination policy with regards to religion.

[Anonymous]

Norwood is not a Christian school. From the admission materials and on their website, the mission clearly states: "...we believe that education is fundamentally a moral endeavor and that a school should stand for and teach a set of core values: the pursuit of knowledge, integrity, respect, responsibility, diligence, kindness, cooperation, and service. We are a nonsectarian school. We continue to honor our Episcopal heritage with a daily chapel service designed to attend to the spiritual and ethical development of all of our students. We look to our faculty and staff to incorporate character education and service to the community in their work with students."

[Anonymous]

Norwood is definitely NOT a Christian school and I don't believe the admission office would ever tell anyone it is. This from a Jewish mom at the school. It began as a church school but separated from the church and established itself as a non-sectarian independent school over 50 years ago. It still respects its past and has kept two main traditions, saying The Lord's Prayer in chapel and holding a Christmas pageant. Many songs and prayers from other faiths are also introduced over the course of the year (all in chapel -- Norwood emphatically does NOT teach religion as any part of its curriculum). The pageant, which takes place in a morning chapel in December and includes 1st through third graders, is a re-enactment of the Christmas story, including the nativity scene. Also in December, there's a special Hanukkah chapel that includes a funny and elaborate skit involving a lot of the lower school children, a lot of whom aren't Jewish. There's a chapel on Diwali and at least one on Ramadan, among many other things. Throughout the year, songs are sung and taught in Hebrew, Japanese, French, etc. This year, I believe the fourth through sixth graders will present a performance on holidays of freedom around Passover.

I agree that you should all keep an open mind and go see the school and see how you feel. It's beautiful. The teachers are amazing. The people who will deal with your kids every day are thoughtful and senstive. Again, this from a very happy Jewish mom. My kids are thriving at Norwood in every way and are very secure in their Jewish identity.

[Anonymous]

OP here: thank you so much for your detailed and informative responses.

[Anonymous]

Woops, I think I was the OP on an older Norwood thread--didn't mean to claim credit for someone else's question. But thanks, anyway!

[Anonymous]

I have a child at Sidwell who was also offered a spot at Norwood. We found Norwood (headmaster, especially) to be an exceedingly nice place, really genuinely nice people (and I'm no pollyanna-type, believe me.)

[Anonymous]

to PP, are you happy about your decision? what do you like sidwell most? thanks.