St John in Mclean

[Anonymous]

New family recently moved to the Mclean area with a K student looking for a Catholic school with solid academics and values. We missed the open house but recently toured the school. Wanted to know what your experience has been, academic level, community, etc. The tour only shows you so much.

[Anonymous]

For the things you listed here, I would go to Saint Luke before St. John’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the things you listed here, I would go to Saint Luke before St. John’s.

Boy have you got an agenda! All she “listed” was “solid academics” and “values”. St John has both and has always had better academic. Do better, especially if you are Catholic..

[Anonymous]

DP. One ought to at least look at St Luke’s on Georgetown Pike as a comparison. Pay attention to the curriculum differences at each school. St Luke has the standard Arlington Diocese curriculum. St John McLean has a different “classical” curriculum.

Different kids are different, so different kids will have “best fit” at different schools. So look at both schools and choose the best fit school for your children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the things you listed here, I would go to Saint Luke before St. John’s.

Boy have you got an agenda! All she “listed” was “solid academics” and “values”. St John has both and has always had better academic. Do better, especially if you are Catholic..

Yikes, that feels like an unnecessarily sharp response. OP did in fact list “solid academics” and “values” as priorities. I don’t have an agenda; I was simply sharing that those were also our priorities when we were looking two years ago.

We toured both schools (and several others) and chose Saint Luke, as you might have deduced. We’ve been very happy with the teaching, the strong community, and, most importantly, happy, well-rounded kids. I haven’t been back to St. John’s since we toured about 18 months ago, so it’s entirely possible things have evolved there as well.

As another poster said, families considering one school should absolutely visit the other. A “classical” curriculum doesn’t automatically mean “more academically serious.” The schools have different philosophies, facilities, and strengths. For us, things like classroom environment, STEM opportunities, a welcoming and engaged community, and (thinking several grades ahead) the middle school program and differentiated math mattered a great deal. No school is perfect, but we found a great fit for our children, and I hope OP does too.

And respectfully, if we’re talking about values, assuming bad intent or telling another parent to “do better” as a Catholic probably isn’t the best starting point.