Pyle—Honest Feedback from Actual Pyle Parents

[Anonymous]

My DS has been at a private for 1-7. He just has a crappy class and crappy friends. They are not real friends. We are thinking of just pulling him from his PreK-8 school and sending him to Pyle for 8th.

In your opinion, is it really hard to make friends in grade 8 at Pyle? Are the kids nice? How is the soccer team? Super hard to make for a pretty decent player?

The school looks like a prison on the inside—cell blocks, no lighting, nothing on the walls, nothing in trophy cases. The only reason we would send him is if the kids are nice and he could start over with a better population. He’s definitely going to Whitman, and we love Whitman 100%. So maybe he could make some friends in 8th and start not so new in 9th?

[Anonymous]

Transferring in 8th is very hard.

[Anonymous]

To puke specifically or just 8th in general?

[Anonymous]

Great school. Not as pretty but awesome kids. We left our k-8 private with the quirkiest class of kids you can imagine and my kid met many friends in 7th at Pyle. Of course, the first months are an adjustment. Great move. And free!

[Anonymous]

OP transferring in 8th is going to be harder than transferring to HS in 9th with a cohort MS grads from different schools including privates + overseas kids arriving.

My kid attended Pyle and frankly when the pandemic hit in the middle of 7th grade it was a huge relief. It is a very over-crowded school. I had dismissed what I'd read here and laughed it off, but it was literally at double capacity when my kid attended. That means you are fighting your way through a crowd between classes, in the cafeteria and while entering and leaving. Apparently all you hear in the corridors is the kids yelling the F word and similar.

We had wonderful experiences with some teachers and terrible experiences with others - so the Social Science department is populated by ineffective teachers and the French Dept by highly effective, delightful teachers who do their absolute best to engage the kids. The science teachers are 50/50 with one absolute horror who will remain un-named.

We had an excellent guidance counselor who really looked out for my kid and was both supportive in times of need and helpful overall. Not all of them are that good.

And the AP was a disaster who just spouted standard MCPS crap whenever there was a question (not a complaint - an actual question) and that I think was the fault of the Principal, who did the same and led the way.

[Anonymous]

^^ friendship I forgot to address - if your kid is in the soccer team they have a fighting chance. That will definitely help. Also if your kid is a boy. The girls are at their prime mean girl / ousting phase.

[Anonymous]

We have an 8th grader at Pyle, and he has had a great experience there. He has actually enjoyed middle school, which I find remarkable. The kids we know are all very friendly and kind. DS’s teachers have generally been good to great, but with one teacher each year who is underwhelming.

Being an athlete definitely helps any kind of school transition at this age. Does your kid currently play soccer with any Pyle kids? It is definitely not easy to make the team. I think there were 80+ kids trying out each of the last couple years. This year’s coach was really great and picked good soccer players regardless of size, a bit of a rarity for middle school coaches in my experience. In the event you do decide to send him to Pyle next year, I recommend looking into having him do cross country in the fall. It’s a nice program with lots of great kids and good for soccer conditioning.

[Anonymous]

Switch to public in 9th, not 8th - will be too hard otherwise

[Anonymous]

It is not overcrowded anymore.

[Anonymous]

That would be a hard pass for me. Start at Whitman. Pyle is poorly run and they won't have any transition help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That would be a hard pass for me. Start at Whitman. Pyle is poorly run and they won't have any transition help.

Curious. What are you basing this on? I'm a parent there and have the sense that the administration works pretty hard and is organized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not overcrowded anymore.

Numbers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not overcrowded anymore.

Numbers?

1241 enrolled, with a capacity of 1523

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP24_Chapter4Whitman.pdf

[Anonymous]

^^ because MCPS is effed up and builds crazy large schools because they think MoCo is an urban area, not suburban. The state of MD says that the sweet spot for a MS size is 900.

And, it's not all on MCPS: local parents didn't want to split the school, in fear that another school would not be as "good" as Pyle.

[Anonymous]

My introverted son transferred to Pyle in 8th a few years ago from private. He was overwhelmed - the school is huge and as others mentioned, the crowds walking between classes are just bananas. He already knew some kids from our neighborhood but rarely saw them and didn't know anyone in his classes. He made a couple friends over the year but it was very hard. The admin did put him in a couple classes with other new boys, and luckily they hit it off.

Teachers were a mix - he had a few great ones and a few bad ones. Soccer was very competitive - at that time, only kids playing for a top level travel team made it. Ours was in a lower travel team and didn't.

Moving to Whitman *might be easier. Whitman has a lot of clubs so in addition to sports there are a few avenues to make friends in the fall. BUT WWHS also moves kids to different teachers (for most classes) at the semester, so after 5 months they have to start again with a new group of kids in their classes. My extroverted DD manages ok, but DS really disliked it. A friend who transferred her DD to 9th ended up moving her back to private in 10th. Hopefully other parents might chime in about the move to Whitman option.