Catholic families

[Anonymous]

Hi-I am trying to understand how Catholic families handle schools around here. I see that there are some options for academies for high school (we are thinking that the diocese high schools like O'Connel seem a bit too large) but what do families do for k-8--do you go to your parish school? I live in Mclean and while I think the public schools here are great, hubby and I both want our kids educated in the Catholic tradition and want to know if our parish (St. John) would be our only option for the younger years.

[Anonymous]

Many families attend their parish school and other families attend Catholic Schools that are not their parish schools.

The Arlington Diocese has a list of schools on their website-both affiliated and not affiliated with the diocese.

In addition to O'Connell some people send their high school aged children to the single-sex schools in DC (Gonzaga for boys, Georgetown Visitation for girls.)

[Anonymous]

yes you can apply to non-parish schools but i think most give preference to in boundary parishioners then out of boundary parishioners then catholics then non-catholics. So if you like another parish school, you might consider joining the parish as well. I thought you weren't allowed to do this (when i was growing up) but it seems like people do that around here. Also there are independent catholic schools - Stoneridge (lovely), woods academy (montessori) in maryland come to mind. I'm across the river so someone in VA can pipe in with those options there.

[Anonymous]

We live in VA and our DS will start kindergarten this fall. We live in a parish without a school so we applied to our closest school, St. Mary's in Old Town Alexandria. We didn't really consider other Catholic schools because we think this is one of the better ones in Alexandria/Mt. Vernon area and for our commute it will work out best. As far as HS, Bishop Ireton is in Alexandria which we hope our son will attend there in about 9 years. Wow, that's a long time from now. Don't know much about other Catholic options in VA.

[Anonymous]

It's funny-I grew up in Philly and it seemed like everyone was Catholic and you just went to your local school k-8 and then either went to feeder hs or ...if your parents had some extra means..you would go to an academy from 9-12. Around here, I feel so much pressure even for pre k--FYI--I didn't go to pre K-I showed in kindergarten and seemed to do okay so I am just not sure what is hype and what is what parents in fact do today.

[Anonymous]

God bless you PP. I wish more folks had your sense: what's the big deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi-I am trying to understand how Catholic families handle schools around here. I see that there are some options for academies for high school (we are thinking that the diocese high schools like O'Connel seem a bit too large) but what do families do for k-8--do you go to your parish school? I live in Mclean and while I think the public schools here are great, hubby and I both want our kids educated in the Catholic tradition and want to know if our parish (St. John) would be our only option for the younger years.

You should seriously look at both The Heights and Oakcrest School. The Heights is all boys and is FABULOUS. Oakcrest is the sister school and also great. It doesn't matter that they are in Bethesda--both are absolutely worth checking out. Four of my friends have boys at the Heights, two at Oakcrest and they could not be happier. No brainer!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in VA and our DS will start kindergarten this fall. We live in a parish without a school so we applied to our closest school, St. Mary's in Old Town Alexandria. We didn't really consider other Catholic schools because we think this is one of the better ones in Alexandria/Mt. Vernon area and for our commute it will work out best. As far as HS, Bishop Ireton is in Alexandria which we hope our son will attend there in about 9 years. Wow, that's a long time from now. Don't know much about other Catholic options in VA.

Hey, our DS is starting St. Mary's in the fall as well. Currently he attends full time daycare in a pre-K program. . .we live south of Old Town off Collingwood Road. Are you near us?

[Anonymous]

And there's St. Anselm's Abbey in DC - a real academic jewel for boys that starts in 6th grade. Only trouble is it's kind of inconveniently located for a lot of people - over in Brookland.