APS Gunston Middle School
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Anonymous
I think others are more up on this than I am, but I personally don't have hope that Gunston will not have issues with overcrowding anytime soon. Arlington county is not making this a priority, and the school board I think is doing what it can but they get limited funds and support from the county. Here is all I know about plans, but it is from last year. https://www.arlnow.com/2021/12/01/aps-targets-two-overcrowded-schools-in-latest-boundary-change-proposal/ |
Anonymous
When I say "this" I mean school overcrowding. Also I'm the PP who is sending my son to Gunston. Obviously overcrowding is a huge downside, but not enough to make me worry about sending DS. |
Anonymous
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^ Oh man, I just cannot use my words today.
I mean the Arlington board hasn't made overcrowding a priority across all APS schools, not just Gunston. They are busy with missing middle housing and such. |
Anonymous
NP. I also know several families with boys who transferred them out of Gunston for the same reasons (rough boys, bad behavior, felt like their kids were being dragged down). |
Anonymous
They opened up transfers last year and I assume they’ll do the same this year. I have a 5th grader set for Gunston next year so I’ll be watching for middle school information night |
Anonymous
| Students do not get homework or read novels or get grades due to equity. The principal is letting the school fail and Duran is cheering her on |
Anonymous
Um, that's district-wide. Not unique to Gunston. |
Anonymous
My friend's kid is in Gunston and reading a novel for English right now . . . She is in 6th |
Anonymous
Actually I want to add my kid is currently reading a novel in 5th. I don't know where this "APS doesn't read novels BS" comes from. |
Anonymous
They did recently adopt a new, more rigorous curriculum, I think, so maybe it's that? But I think a lot depended (and maybe still depends) on what the teacher wanted to teach. |
Anonymous
Students do get homework. And they do read novels. Stop spreading lies. |
Anonymous
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We sent our second (boy) to private for middle school--which was a financial hardship for us--after the experience of our first. We found that Gunston did not provide enough support to kids who struggled with the change to having 6-7 different teachers, multiple assignments to juggle, longer-term assignments, etc. They had teams of teachers, etc who coordinated some but we were unable to get any student-level support for our kid without an IEP. We knew our second DS, who was even more scatter-brained than the first, was going to get there, get immediately overwhelmed, decide he "couldn't do school" or "hated school," and we would never get him back on track. We sent him to a private with very small classes that focused on developing academic skills (not just content) and when he went back to Gunston for 8th he did...OK....but it was the year of virtual learning so also hard to say.
Middle school is hard, its hard for boys, big schools are hard, multiple classes/teachers are hard.....there are lots of reasons your kid can slip. What we could have done, instead of full private, was enroll in an after-school program or get a tutor. The downside is, there are hardly any offerings like that in south Arlington--you have to schlep to north Arlington or McLean. |
Anonymous
My kids each read multiple novels (in Spanish and in English) during their time at Gunston. They also got homework and they also got grades. I think PP is referring to standards-based grading, which doesn't mean no grades at all. |
Anonymous
Wait until you get to high school. Then you'll get it. |