Tell me about SSFS

[Anonymous]

This is from their website, regarding the ethnic diversity of the student body:

39% European American, 20% African American, 7% Asian, 4% Latino, 12% Multiracial, 1% Middle Eastern, 1% Pacific Islander, 2% Undisclosed, and 14% International (boarding and host family students represent 21 different countries across the globe)

We’re not an SSFS family, but we did apply and only turned the offer down due to the long commute. We applied to 5 DMV private schools and SSFS was the most diverse.

[Anonymous]

NP - I've seen this posted before about SSFS, and I have to think it's one person with the same complaint. I'm only familiar with the upper school, and the racial/ethnic diversity seems pretty good to me. I suppose it's possible that in a smaller lower school class, you could end up with some classes being less diverse than the school as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP - I've seen this posted before about SSFS, and I have to think it's one person with the same complaint. I'm only familiar with the upper school, and the racial/ethnic diversity seems pretty good to me. I suppose it's possible that in a smaller lower school class, you could end up with some classes being less diverse than the school as a whole.

The lower school does tend to be less diverse. There are a higher percentage of local
Olney families in the Lower School, one kid’s class was 50 non-white, and that doesn’t include families with Other types of diversity. The preschool is often the least diverse division.

We left because FA did not keep pace with tuition increases.

[Anonymous]

Wonder about credentialing requirement for teachers.

[Anonymous]

How many kids in 9th grade? Do most kids stay or leave before 12th?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many kids in 9th grade? Do most kids stay or leave before 12th?

My kid is a 10th grader, and he says there are 80-90 or so kids per grade. Most stay through 12th, which I think would be expected, right? They lost a couple who didn’t come back for 10th, but more kids come then went so there are more kids in 10th than there were in 9th. But the vast majority stay through graduation.

[Anonymous]

It’s so-so. The administration constantly saying what a magical place it is has a vaguely gaslightly effect-the school has good and bad points like any other. For my child, the bad probably outweighs the good but I know lots of families where the good outweighs the bad.

[Anonymous]

Are the middle school and high school academically challenging?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are the middle school and high school academically challenging?

I don’t know about the middle school but Upper school can be depending course selection. However if that is a priority I would look elsewhere. Academic achievement isn’t particularly valued. Multiple classes last year had teachers leave mid year and a patchwork of subs unfamiliar with the courses for literally months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the middle school and high school academically challenging?

I don’t know about the middle school but Upper school can be depending course selection. However if that is a priority I would look elsewhere. Academic achievement isn’t particularly valued. Multiple classes last year had teachers leave mid year and a patchwork of subs unfamiliar with the courses for literally months.

Is there a reason that they have chosen to not focus on academics? What is the focus?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the middle school and high school academically challenging?

I don’t know about the middle school but Upper school can be depending course selection. However if that is a priority I would look elsewhere. Academic achievement isn’t particularly valued. Multiple classes last year had teachers leave mid year and a patchwork of subs unfamiliar with the courses for literally months.

Is there a reason that they have chosen to not focus on academics? What is the focus?

My kid is in the Upper School, and they do focus on academics and value academics. It’s a school with the goal of preparing kids for college - they care about academics deeply. But the PP is right that last year was a mess in the Upper School, and they had some teachers leave and had some new teachers who struggled. I think a lot of it had to do with leadership, and the head of the upper school left last year and there is a new head this year. Things seem off to a good start. We’ll see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We applied to SSFS for K and ended up turning down an admissions offer, mostly because it’s too far from our house.

However, we were impressed by the K curriculum and the Quaker model of learning—both academic and socio-emotional—were very appealing.

Not sure what grade you’re looking at?

Well she did say "everything" so posting that it's too far from your house counts, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the middle school and high school academically challenging?

I don’t know about the middle school but Upper school can be depending course selection. However if that is a priority I would look elsewhere. Academic achievement isn’t particularly valued. Multiple classes last year had teachers leave mid year and a patchwork of subs unfamiliar with the courses for literally months.

Is there a reason that they have chosen to not focus on academics? What is the focus?

Community, leadership, the new discipline policy, etc. All kinds of things which sound good and are important! It gets to be too much time when the basics often aren’t being addressed though. Like having at least passable teachers in all of the classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We looked into it, but couldn’t afford it even with FA because it maxes out at 50%. It’s CD also not very diverse, DD is AA and we didn’t want her to be the only one or one of two in the classroom. We picked a different private school that doesn’t have the beautiful grounds or lunch included but is much less expensive. We needed to prioritize the education not the scenery.

I've never posted a DCUM entry bashing a PP but PP, your statement could not be further from the truth, and you are just bashing SSFS because you think if you post it, people will believe it. Here is pointer to photos of the first day of school.

https://www.ssfs.org/news-media/online-photo-gallery/~resource-collection/5397

As far as "scenery". Clearly you have not been on campus. I used to wonder why they didn't landscape and then told myself it was the Quaker, simple, life.
PP, stay off of DCUM if you are going to post lies.

I stand by what I posted. Picking the photos with the non shore kids in to post doesn’t mean anything. Tuition for 2nd grade is 27k if I remember correctly. Even 50% of that us unattainable for most. HS is 40k. Look into how much of their budget goes towards lawn care and outside maintenance.

Please do tell us how much of their budget goes to lawn care and maintenance and then let's see it compare with where you are currently. I also disagree with your comment about "just photos of diversity" if you actually attended the school, visited the Open house or were in fact informed, you would know that the make of the classrooms is very different than it was even 5 years ago. It has been a very important aspect of the school to change its demographic. But it does seem attention to details is not your strength.

[Anonymous]

Can any current families at the school speak to any changes in the upper school with the new head to strengthen the teaching and academics. Our kids are considering SSFS for high school, and we definitely want an academically challenging environment for them (while of course supporting social/emotional well-being).