| Considering st Barts for rising 7th grade son. Thoughts? |
| No |
Your opinion is compellingly presented. |
| The seventh grade teacher is awesome. Class sizes are small, which has its pros and cons in middle school. Be advised that there is one person on here who has a bone to pick with the principal and who never misses a chance to badmouth the school. Recommend talking to current families for a more balanced perspective. |
| I would pass. Try Little Flower, Mercy, or Dechantal. SBS can be very cliquey lacross moms. That class particularly had some of the tougher moms move to HC so that helped but the whole tone of the school is pretty bro foward in the worst ways. |
| Are the boys all very sports oriented? |
| Sporty, yes, but would not characterize most boys there as “bros.” The current sixth grade class is girl heavy. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by how kind and friendly the students are in our DC’s class. It’s a welcoming place, worth checking out. |
| Yes, heavy bro culture. |
| The “bro” culture has not been our experience. We really like St. Bart’s. As another poster recommended, go tour and talk to current parents. It’s hard to know how much to weigh feedback one way or the other on an anonymous forum. |
Especially here where one poster takes every opportunity to criticize the school and the headmaster. A parent and parishioner called her out on this some months ago in a post in which she identified herself. The critic crawled back into her hole. It’s very unlikely that St Barts is “bro” heavy given it’s proximity to all boys Mater Dei, which is heavy into sports. If these parish schools are girl heavy —-and they frequently are—- then it’s Mater Dei that’s a major cause. I’d dismiss the claims of this particular malcontent, if I were you. If you understand the landscape of the Catholic K8’s in Bethesda - Potomac, you can appreciate her claims are ridiculous. And driven by animus. |
| Highly recommend visiting and seeing the school for yourself. They have an Open House on 1/30. Our visit really sealed the deal when we were going through the application process a few years ago. It’s a special place. I do not understand the bro or lax mom references, but maybe we run in different circles. Parents we’ve met are mostly laidback and nice. |
| Thank you appreciate that |
| This school is in my neighborhood, and has a pretty campus. We get our Christmas trees from there every year. The few people I’ve known who sent their kids there liked it. |
| We have been pretty unhappy with the defensiveness of the administration when they fail to provide what was marketed and promised. The no library thing is a huge bummer and the rescource room is woeful underfunded. They simply cannot provide the level of service that would be bare minimum elsewhere and the administrion has an angery unprofessional response when questioned. I strongly recommend looking around. St. Bart's may rally someday but it is not currently in a good place. The combative aggressive culture is probably where the bro label is coming from. Good luck! |
Isn't the prinipal from Mater Dei? It is within reason that he brought that vibe with him. |