Silver Spring international MS vs Takoma Park MS

[Anonymous]

What are everyone’s opinions/experiences with some of the other DCC middle school specifically Sligo and Newport Mill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are everyone’s opinions/experiences with some of the other DCC middle school specifically Sligo and Newport Mill?

Here's a thread about them from last year

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1047461.page#top

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current SSIMS parent. It's a mess right now. Many teachers left last year. Lots of fights, administration doesn't address issues. Safety concerns. I know of many families who either didn't send their incoming 6th grader or transferred to a different school.

Also a SSIMS parent. It’s a middle school, and there are middle school problems. I don’t know whether it’s better or worse than TPMS, but we’re happy (enough) there.

+1. Middle school is pretty unpleasant, no matter the school. Lower expectations accordingly. Having said that, SSIMS has some great teachers and staff, a ton of elective choices, and a very involved parent community.

That was my expectation too but seems like my kids were pretty happy at the TPMS STEM magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd focus on highschool. TPMS feeds to Blair. I'm not sure what SSIMS feeds to.

Is feeding to Blair a bad or good thing?

It's a fantastic school, especially if you are into STEM classes that aren't available elsewhere. Many west county parents are obsessed with getting their kids into Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was _not_ impressed by the SSIMS open house in November. The building is gloomy, underlit, and not well kept, and even the principal didn't seem to be able to highlight anything special about the school or the students or the community. None of the teachers seemed to want to be there, either. Maybe it's because it's a captive audience: the people in-boundary have this as their default, so there is no need to recruit or sell the place. I don't want to send DC there unless we have no other choice.

Interesting. I was at that same open house, and while I agree that the building leaves much to be desired, I actually quite liked the principal and left with a much more positive feeling than I arrived with. And the teachers that I heard presenting that night seemed really good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was _not_ impressed by the SSIMS open house in November. The building is gloomy, underlit, and not well kept, and even the principal didn't seem to be able to highlight anything special about the school or the students or the community. None of the teachers seemed to want to be there, either. Maybe it's because it's a captive audience: the people in-boundary have this as their default, so there is no need to recruit or sell the place. I don't want to send DC there unless we have no other choice.

Interesting. I was at that same open house, and while I agree that the building leaves much to be desired, I actually quite liked the principal and left with a much more positive feeling than I arrived with. And the teachers that I heard presenting that night seemed really good.

The SSIMS open house was modular, so it's totally possible we were in different sessions and had different experiences as a result. My sessions were disorganized and all the presenters seemed bored or were not actually members of the academic area they were presenting for. I get that no one wants to come do extra work in the evenings, but I just really _wanted_ to feel like there was a community there that my family could support and my kid could belong to. I don't even remember anyone saying they liked working there. The focus in the music session was not on music but rather on an annual trip to Hershey Park, the principal's comments centered on (no joke) the school's layout and on the language immersion program that only those who have been immersed since kindergarten or first grade were eligible to join, and the whole thing just felt sad. Throw in not one but (soon to be) two construction sites from what I understand and all the discipline stories, and I'm already in "just get it over with" mode.

Any SSIMS folks out there who can help? I'd really like to be a believer and have something to get excited about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was _not_ impressed by the SSIMS open house in November. The building is gloomy, underlit, and not well kept, and even the principal didn't seem to be able to highlight anything special about the school or the students or the community. None of the teachers seemed to want to be there, either. Maybe it's because it's a captive audience: the people in-boundary have this as their default, so there is no need to recruit or sell the place. I don't want to send DC there unless we have no other choice.

Interesting. I was at that same open house, and while I agree that the building leaves much to be desired, I actually quite liked the principal and left with a much more positive feeling than I arrived with. And the teachers that I heard presenting that night seemed really good.

The SSIMS open house was modular, so it's totally possible we were in different sessions and had different experiences as a result. My sessions were disorganized and all the presenters seemed bored or were not actually members of the academic area they were presenting for. I get that no one wants to come do extra work in the evenings, but I just really _wanted_ to feel like there was a community there that my family could support and my kid could belong to. I don't even remember anyone saying they liked working there. The focus in the music session was not on music but rather on an annual trip to Hershey Park, the principal's comments centered on (no joke) the school's layout and on the language immersion program that only those who have been immersed since kindergarten or first grade were eligible to join, and the whole thing just felt sad. Throw in not one but (soon to be) two construction sites from what I understand and all the discipline stories, and I'm already in "just get it over with" mode.

Any SSIMS folks out there who can help? I'd really like to be a believer and have something to get excited about.

My child attended SSIMS and is now at Blair (10th grade). The majority of his teachers were good at SSIMS and the principal ran the school well. However, this was our experience pre-pandemic and during the pandemic. Yes, the building is old but my kid didn't care. Yes, there were kids with discipline problems but nothing major, at least in my kid's experience. I think the increase in discipline problems is related to the pandemic and is widespread in many public middle schools. Plus middle school is just not that great--my kid liked ES and loves HS. I should note that my kid was in the Spanish immersion program and he often noted that the school felt like a school within a school. He was primarily friends with Spanish/French immersion students because of the schedule and being ahead in math.

[Anonymous]

A couple of things we liked about SSIMS were that the 8th graders all work on long-term community projects of their own design, either in a group or individually, as part of the IB program.

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/ssims/showcase/community-project-information/

Also, they offer 3 years of the Lights, Camera, Literacy film and media elective classes, which our kids both liked. At the end of the year, they have a film festival at the AFI theater in Silver Spring (walking distance from the school) and show the student films on the big screen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current SSIMS parent. It's a mess right now. Many teachers left last year. Lots of fights, administration doesn't address issues. Safety concerns. I know of many families who either didn't send their incoming 6th grader or transferred to a different school.

Also a SSIMS parent. It’s a middle school, and there are middle school problems. I don’t know whether it’s better or worse than TPMS, but we’re happy (enough) there.

I guess the question of whether they are typical middle school problems is how many fights and how violent are they? Sure fights can happen, but if it’s just a few then no big deal. If it’s more like the regular afternoon fight club social media antics of a few years ago that happened at many schools then that’s not really normal.

[Anonymous]

Recent SSIMs parent, as recent as last year. Principal is excellent. Counseling department went above and beyond for both of my kids to support ADHD and mental health issues. The 8th grade community project was a great experience for the students. The showcase was so fun to attend as a parent. Very impressive selection of projects. The art elective teachers are really engaging and the showcase at the end of the year highlights some amazing talent. My kids and their friends have gone on to all 5 DCC high schools. Wayne avenue construction is a mess, but the neighborhood is very on top of complaining about sidewalks and concerns for students since Sligo Creek Elementary shares a campus. 6th-8th grade projects in science and social studies were great to develop critical thinking, creativity, working in groups. Great experience overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your student is musical, TPMS has an amazing music program.

Also, the MATH and programming options are great even outside the magnet.