Catholic NoVA middle school grades
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Anonymous
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Can anyone share their personal recent experiences (last 1-2 years) with the middle school grades (6-8) at:
St. Ambrose Holy Spirit Nativity St. Bernadette’s In the alternative also thinking about All Saints or St. Theresa if we are able to move further west. I’m interested in how these first four schools help middle schoolers thrive, support critical thinking, have actual qualified teachers, etc. I like that HS is a bigger school but am really concerned about the middle school teacher turnover from the past 1-2 years. |
Anonymous
| DS is in 8th at St Bernadette. He loves it there. There has been little turnover in MS in our experience - much more in lower grades. We feel the curriculum is challenging and rigorous. He is conscientious and there is a lot of homework, but he still has time for extracurriculars. There is plenty of focus on critical thinking, especially in Religion, History, Literature, and English classes. I cannot speak to the girls cohort in his year, but the boys get along very well - all are friends, no one left out, despite varied interests. |
Anonymous
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Current Holy Spirit Middle School family. Yes, there's been a lot of turnover in the Middle School faculty for several school year cycles, now. The pandemic accelerated the turnover rate, and I don't believe it's unique to HS given the on-going national teacher shortage. Some excellent and not so excellent teachers have left. Some excellent and not so excellent teachers have been hired. It's a mix bag, which I think is endemic of teaching all around these days regardless of where your child(ren) attend school
The school has undergone recent changes in Administration (both with a new Principal and Middle School Principal) this past year....with a very mixed result from our perspetive. While sweet in nature, the new Middle School Principal seems rather clueless in her day to day duties and many of the kids view her as a light weight compared to the former Middle School Principal-who took a much more aggressive stance on discipline and overall structure. |
Anonymous
| Anyone have feedback on St. Ambrose or Nativity middle school program? |
Anonymous
| Nativity MS is OK. I would say if your child doesn't test into advanced math, the school is not academically challenging. Very little homework if at all. With their extra electives, language, maker space, etc...I feel they are stretched across too many subjects to focus enough time on the ones that count. |
Anonymous
| Im surprised Nativity does not have homework. Both Holy Spirit and St. Bernadette have heavy homework loads in most grades. Like 2-3 hours a night and on some weekends. |
Anonymous
+1 My child had more homework, tests, and projects in middle school at Holy Spirit than they did in 9th grade in all honors at one of the Catholic high schools. It was tough but the bright side is they were more than prepared and found freshman year fairly easy. |
Anonymous
| Does anyone have further thoughts about Nativity’s middle school grades? Are the teachers a revolving door or has it been fairly stable? |