Friends and private school

[Anonymous]

Our daughter is applying to a number of private schools to start in sixth grade. They all draw pretty widely from across the greater DC area. For those who have kids around that age in private school, how difficult is it for your kid to have school friends who live 30-60 min. away? One of the few positives of our neighborhood elementary school is that our daughter has made so many friends who live within a few blocks of us. In private schools, do your kids see their school friends on the weekend, or is it too much of a hassle?

[Anonymous]

It's not too much hassle but they just don't have as much free time at this age so the drive time is a barrier. I went to a school 30 minutes from my house as a kid, and 30 was manageable but other kids lived 30 minutes the other way, so a 60-minute drive really cut into our time and spontaneity.

I would find out to what extent school activities take place on the weekend. They might just hang out there.

[Anonymous]

Just because some friedns live 30 mins away, doesn't mean all of them do. There sholud be plenty that live nearby too.

[Anonymous]

Presumably there would be after school activities and other outside structured activities that friends can sign up for together

[Anonymous]

My DS moved from neighborhood public to a private in 6th grade. He saw friends from the new school on weekends for sure - but basically never during the week (until he was old enough to drive himself).

In the public, kids hang out a lot after school together because they could do so for a brief time and were all walking distance. But that part was not at all practical and basically didn't happen once he got to private school. Which is fine - that's also when workload increased, but it was definitely a change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter is applying to a number of private schools to start in sixth grade. They all draw pretty widely from across the greater DC area. For those who have kids around that age in private school, how difficult is it for your kid to have school friends who live 30-60 min. away? One of the few positives of our neighborhood elementary school is that our daughter has made so many friends who live within a few blocks of us. In private schools, do your kids see their school friends on the weekend, or is it too much of a hassle?

Your child can have both - neighborhood friends and school friends.

[Anonymous]

In addition to what PP at 3:20 says, you might consider signing up for activities that draw from the community you live in (e.g., scouts or rec league sports). My child sees few children from school in our community but they see many children from their other activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just because some friedns live 30 mins away, doesn't mean all of them do. There sholud be plenty that live nearby too.

+1 Plenty of kids in the neighborhood form our school, even though it is really tiny.

[Anonymous]

Why not just keep her there?