Private Schools in Alexandria

[kelleyharry]

Can anyone offer any recommendations for private schools in the Alexandria area? I'm leaning towards Montessori for my son who will enter kindergarten in 2013. Please provide good and bad experiences on any schools, as well. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

There is Old Town Montessori, which is only available through a kindergarten equivalent level. Its sister school, Aquinas Montessori, goes through elementary. It's out near Mt. Vernon and I've heard very good things about it from parents of kids there. We would have considered it had it not been geographically unworkable.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I am planning to look into those schools.

[Anonymous]

Aquinas owns Old Town. My child went to Aquinas and we loved it. 3 main buildings, huge playground with swings, soccer field, all sorts of playground equipment and a built-in pool. I suggest you send your child there for half-day summer camp to gauge the fit. Mine went onto top private school and was significantly ahead in most areas of academics. He loved all his teachers and we were very happy with his development.

[kelleyharry]

@ 16:55. Thank you for your input. I knew the Aquinas owned Old Town and the Aquinas location is my preferred choice. Can I ask why you chose this school over the other schools in the area, and over the location in Old Town?

Thank you again.

[Anonymous]

16:55 here. We chose it because I also went to a Montessori when I was young and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Wanted my child to have the same.

Aquinas just has a substantially larger campus with significantly more resources and the location is better than being sandwiched in Old Town.

We started exploring with Aquinas where they have you bring your child in for a couple hours to interact and then they sit down with you to discuss. Our son cried when he had to leave - he was having so much fun. The teacher was fabulous and we really liked how she approached everything.

We left after 3 years to go to a bigger private school - part of the decision was based upon private entrance years with maximum openings. When we told the teacher, she cried at hearing our son would be leaving and then told us how much she loved teaching him.

[Anonymous]

Anyone have an update on Alexandria Country Day? Is there a new Head?

[Anonymous]

It takes at least a year to get a new Head. Lots of prep work, research, series of interviews, etc. Not unusual for a search to go 1 - 2 years. ACDS has a temp Head now. Worse thing you can do is rush into hiring someone quickly.

[Anonymous]

For the OP, I was going to suggest looking at ACDS. Montessori is not for every child, and in my experience, has some downfalls - but only you know your child best. ACDS seems to be a wonderful school with great parents and kids. The incident with the former head of the school seems to be a non issue within the community. Every parent I spoke with at the Open House was very pleased with the way it was handled - the school administration was very open and above board. Everyone seems very pleased with the acting head of school. My child loved the class visit, they have upgraded their facilities to include a real gym and cafeteria. Classrooms are large and bright, and the technology department was by far the best we saw (including STA).

The parents (at least the ones who talked to me) do not seem snooty, the atmosphere does not seem elitist, everyone seems pretty down to earth. By far, the "friendliest" open house I attended this year. We are looking for 4th grade - we are certainly hoping we get accepted, as it is at the top of our list.

[Anonymous]

I feel like we're so lucky here in Alexandria with so many great independent schools to choose from. We chose St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School and have been enormously happy....as have our kids. I have two in the Lower School.

When going through the admissions process I wondered could the school really be that good?! Our experience has truly exceeded our expectations. When the school says they are "living their mission"....they really are.
My children are met where they are academically while still being challenged. The "special" classes like science, art, etc. are very engaging and I'm always amazed at what they are learning.

Academics, sports, the arts are not the only focus....it's important to the school for the kids to be good people. They do a lot of service learning and giving back to the community. I could go on and on, but just wanted to offer an experience from SSSAS.

[Anonymous]

My children went to Old Town Montessori and the Burgundy Farm... OTMS is great for very young kids, but so tiny that even an active kindergartner may feel a little understimulated. Don't really know about Aquinas, as we decided to send the kids to Burgundy (not a Montessori school, but some similar elements in the early childhood program.) We have love Burgundy.