How hard is it for a student to adjust to Catholic HS after public?
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Anonymous
| DC will be attending an area Catholic HS in the fall after attending public for K-8. How difficult is it to adjust to, especially socially since a lot of students know one another from their Catholic K-8th? Would appreciate hearing from other families who have been in a similar situation. |
Anonymous
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Alot of kids are in the same boat socially, as multiple K-8s feed into each high school. My ds did cross-country which starts in the summer, which was really helpful as it gave him a social group before school started. I would strongly consider something like that if it’s at all possible for your student.
I know at our Catholic K-8, kids coming from public school often had a hard time adjusting to the amount of homework. That may be an issue for your child. Also the hardness on grading, such as not accepting late work. |
Anonymous
| Most kid adapt within the first semester. |
Anonymous
| How different is rigor even if grade scale is the same? |
Anonymous
| I have the opposite question. How hard is it for a kid who was in Catholic school to join a public in 9th? Is it better to switch in 6th to meet more kids before hs and get used to the way publics do things and organize the curriculum? |
Anonymous
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It's been a few years but my DS went from a Fairfax County middle school to Gonzaga. The biggest adjustment for him was academic expectations. In FCPS, if he didn't have to hand something in, he would not do the suggested readings. They never had unannounced quizzes. They were allowed multiple retakes.
At Gonzaga, a teacher might have a quiz on the reading he was supposed to do the night before. And since he didn't do the reading, he performed poorly on the quiz. It took him a couple of weeks to realize that he needed to do whatever was assigned even if the didn't have to hand it in the next day. He was prepared for the workload and had no problem with the rigor of the work. It was just the expectations that was the adjustment. |
Anonymous
Significantly more rigor. |
Anonymous
No, avoid public middle schools - the weakest link in the chain. |
Anonymous
These are hard economic times many don’t have a choice. |
Anonymous
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My kid had a hard time with the praying and mass!
But beyond that, yes, the expectations. On the other hand, she was way ahead in math and language than the girls from parochial schools. I noticed at prize day it was all the girls from public schools who won the prizes. |
Anonymous
Except the poster asked if they should switch earlier than HS so their kid could get to know people, suggesting they do have a choice - the answer to that is no. |
Anonymous
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You have to name the specific Catholic school to get good answers.
My kid had zero social or academic issues going from Deal to SJC but I believe Deal was the #1 feeder school to SJC that year. |
Anonymous
No retakes, zeros if work is turned in late, expectations are much higher, and consequences for behavior. That’s the difference and that’s what parents pay tuition for. Sad that you have to pay for this now. Public schools used to be like this. |
Anonymous
| It really depends on the school and who classes they take. IMO, the teachers expect A LOT more from the kids at private school. |
Anonymous
This starts in elementary. We just started entrance process into a Catholic from our coveted K-2 and it’s really night and day. The Catholic school mailed us a summer work packet (to be graded at home and turned in on the first day of school!). I can’t imagine requiring all kids to do grade level math over the summer, not to mention trying to collect work packets from families at our public on the very first day of school. |