Do you recommend Friends Community School-College Park?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
We are waiting for Friends Community School-College Park Admissions decisions for our child who will be starting Kindergarten this September. We are exceptionally interested in its anti-bullying/violence philosophies and their focus of a well-rounded education. Are there parents of kids currently enrolled at FCS that can comment about their experience with the schools, what they liked and didn't like, and any general advice or thoughts? The only main concern I have is whether we'd qualify for financial aid, and whether the kids had trouble adapting to public high school (whether academics, socially, etc.).

Thanks in advance!!

[Anonymous]

We have friends who send their kids there and they speak very highly of the school! We live in VA but I’d definitely consider it if we were in MD. It seems like a very welcoming and inclusive community.

[Anonymous]

Any updates from anyone? We're adding FCS to our short list for 4th grade. I'm also planning to attend some of the upcoming admissions events, but would love to hear recent thoughts from anyone familiar.

[Anonymous]

It's a very informal, crunchy environment and the academics are fairly light. Bullying still happens, of course, but the kids are far more likely to complain to a teacher about it than at other schools. The kids do spend a fair amount of time on "conflict resolution" skills, but we had a hard time getting our kid to actually explain to us what that means. If conflict resolution, free play outside and time spent silently waiting for God to speak to your kid is more important to you than hard math skills and learning to write properly, its a great choice. We were not impressed and left. Families either really love it and have drank the FCS juice or really don't and move on to better options. Personally, I think if you need financial aid to go there it's not worth the expense unless a bad PG public is your only other choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a very informal, crunchy environment and the academics are fairly light. Bullying still happens, of course, but the kids are far more likely to complain to a teacher about it than at other schools. The kids do spend a fair amount of time on "conflict resolution" skills, but we had a hard time getting our kid to actually explain to us what that means. If conflict resolution, free play outside and time spent silently waiting for God to speak to your kid is more important to you than hard math skills and learning to write properly, its a great choice. We were not impressed and left. Families either really love it and have drank the FCS juice or really don't and move on to better options. Personally, I think if you need financial aid to go there it's not worth the expense unless a bad PG public is your only other choice.

That brings a lot into perspective. Thank you for sharing. We're currently in a NW DC private and want to shorten our commute. We decided we'd either find a relatively comparable school closer to home (1st preference) or move closer to current school.

[Anonymous]

A lot of kids in our neighborhood go there and really like it. Our kids went to public and really liked our local public, so perhaps we live in a low standards area. I can't speak to the academics, but plenty of kids from FCS get into ERHS, which is really the only PG metric that you can use since FCS doesn't do standardized tests.

The class sizes are small, and the kids are nice. People who can afford it, pay for it to avoid the large class sizes in elementary school and/or to avoid their PG county middle school.

[Anonymous]

Any recent experiences this year? Also can anyone shed light on the lawsuit that came up on google?

[Anonymous]

You said you want to hear from current parents yet also want to know how students did with high school.

We are no longer a current family but can say child was well prepared for high school, especially in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any updates from anyone? We're adding FCS to our short list for 4th grade. I'm also planning to attend some of the upcoming admissions events, but would love to hear recent thoughts from anyone familiar.

If you start later than kindergarten, the school will put the “lifers” ahead of your child who did not start in kindergarten. Some of us tried to gently change this but the idea seemed engrained…

Example: On a school trip, “lifers” were asked to pose for a group photo. Kids who were not lifers were not asked for a photo. When I pointed this out, I was told, “it’s going to rain. So we can do it later.” In a nice way, I said we would do it now.

At some point, several of us pointed out they were being exclusionary which goes against the “I” in SPICES.

[Anonymous]

My child graduated from FCS and was admitted to their first choice high school. Elementary school at FCS was fantastic. 5th/6th very bumpy both socially, how the school handled social issues, and a few teachers who have since left the school. 7th/8th was very good again so I’ve often wondered if that 5th/6th part was just a general low that happens in most middle schools.

My child was well prepared for high school, especially in reading, annotating, and working in peer feedback. All in all I was happy we chose FCS.

[Anonymous]

Current FCS parent here. I’ve loved the school. It has been wonderful for my child. Everything they say about kids being excited to go to school every day is true. My child loves the school. But we are planning to leave. Tuition has gone up 36% over the last four years. We planned for tuition hikes on par with other nearby independents but this is no longer sustainable. Every year, the tuition increase is announced as a one-time hike for that year, and then it goes up 9% again the next year.

The school lost a lot of students last year and the administration blamed it on the federal government cuts, without realizing how many families actually left because of the increased tuition.

The teachers are incredible and there’s a great community. I’m going to be really sad to leave. We had every intention of staying through 8th but at this rate, the school will cost almost double what it was when we started. I wish they’d find ways to stabilize the tuition, but they’ve already said it’s going up next year. They think their tuition should be on par with other independents and frequently cite other schools as “peer schools” that they are not in the same level as.

One other thing to note, there are only 11 students in the 7th grade class this year. They can’t seem to keep the middle school fully enrolled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current FCS parent here. I’ve loved the school. It has been wonderful for my child. Everything they say about kids being excited to go to school every day is true. My child loves the school. But we are planning to leave. Tuition has gone up 36% over the last four years. We planned for tuition hikes on par with other nearby independents but this is no longer sustainable. Every year, the tuition increase is announced as a one-time hike for that year, and then it goes up 9% again the next year.

The school lost a lot of students last year and the administration blamed it on the federal government cuts, without realizing how many families actually left because of the increased tuition.

The teachers are incredible and there’s a great community. I’m going to be really sad to leave. We had every intention of staying through 8th but at this rate, the school will cost almost double what it was when we started. I wish they’d find ways to stabilize the tuition, but they’ve already said it’s going up next year. They think their tuition should be on par with other independents and frequently cite other schools as “peer schools” that they are not in the same level as.

One other thing to note, there are only 11 students in the 7th grade class this year. They can’t seem to keep the middle school fully enrolled.

We actually have a good number of past FCS families at our Catholic school, also in College Park, Holy Redeemer. Mostly middle school transfers and late elementary. From talking to them over the past couple of years they are happier at Holy Redeemer and the kids too. Kind of a 180 considering Holy redeemer is Catholic and Friends is... Friends. But I think the warmth of the enviromnment and the teachers as well as the small community are similar features with the added bonus that tuition is way cheaper. We looked at Friends but weren't super thrilled about paying so much for what they offered. Holy Redeemer has been a really great fit and I'm glad that kids from Friends also seem to do great there. It's a very inclusive place .

[Anonymous]

Interesting. We left Holy Redeemer for FCS. Inclusive is not a word I would use to describe HRS. I didn’t appreciate comments from the priest about our interfaith family (I am Catholic) being “confusing” for our children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current FCS parent here. I’ve loved the school. It has been wonderful for my child. Everything they say about kids being excited to go to school every day is true. My child loves the school. But we are planning to leave. Tuition has gone up 36% over the last four years. We planned for tuition hikes on par with other nearby independents but this is no longer sustainable. Every year, the tuition increase is announced as a one-time hike for that year, and then it goes up 9% again the next year.

The school lost a lot of students last year and the administration blamed it on the federal government cuts, without realizing how many families actually left because of the increased tuition.

The teachers are incredible and there’s a great community. I’m going to be really sad to leave. We had every intention of staying through 8th but at this rate, the school will cost almost double
what it was when we started. I wish they’d find ways to stabilize the tuition, but they’ve already said it’s going up next year. They think their tuition should be on par with other independents and frequently cite other schools as “peer schools” that they are not in the same level as.

One other thing to note, there are only 11 students in the 7th grade class this year. They can’t seem to keep the middle school fully enrolled.

How was the tuition for next year shared with you already?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. We left Holy Redeemer for FCS. Inclusive is not a word I would use to describe HRS. I didn’t appreciate comments from the priest about our interfaith family (I am Catholic) being “confusing” for our children.

I'm assuming this was with the old priest who left. The new priest seems very open and nice and the parochial vicar, who is also new, is just awesome. He regularly plays sports with the kids during PE or recess and has set up some monthly family evenings / movie nights . We're also an interfaith family and have definitely never felt out of place. It is of course a Catholic school so some parents might feel like it's not for them and make a different choice but at the current tuition we consider it excellent value and our kids absolutely love going and are sad if they miss a day of school. They've been very accommodating and reactive to different learning styles too and we've felt very supported. I'm sure they'd love going to Friends too but we'd have to significantly change our lifestyle and future for that to happen and it would just be a ton of money.