Cold spring ES, how is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in 1st grade when the school opened. I think 72. I still remember being distracted by the open walls. Thinking to myself I wonder if what they’re doing next-door is more interesting.

Maybe I'm in the minority but I kind of enjoyed the openness.

[Anonymous]

This is op. Thank you for these information. My 4th grader is great at academic, and he does not mind doing extras on math in higher level. His reading is above level, and writing is just okay. Magnet program mentions here refer to enriched classes within school, right? He has been 99% on all map tests throughout school years and his current school is not competitive in academic. I assume it is likely he may do fine if we make the move, and facing some competition might be a great thing to him. He is not well behaved and easily distracted in class, and that could be a problem. He does not need to pay much attention in class because he knows the matetials ahead. If there are challenges, he could sit still for hours listening to teachers. My concern is also that he may not ne well liked due to his distraction behavior and the school is a lot smaller than I thought to be.

My 2nd grader is falling behind on everything like math, reading and writing. Their current school has 900+ to 1000 kids. There are limited resources from teacher to focus on him for improvement or working with him 1:1. If I make the move to Cold Spring ES, what might be the possible end results for this 2nd grader? Good move or bad move for him.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in an open school and my kids went through Cold Spring. Not a big deal at all. They don't know any different anyway.

Amazing community where kids will find a great cohort of friends that walk and bike to school daily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is op. Thank you for these information. My 4th grader is great at academic, and he does not mind doing extras on math in higher level. His reading is above level, and writing is just okay. Magnet program mentions here refer to enriched classes within school, right? He has been 99% on all map tests throughout school years and his current school is not competitive in academic. I assume it is likely he may do fine if we make the move, and facing some competition might be a great thing to him. He is not well behaved and easily distracted in class, and that could be a problem. He does not need to pay much attention in class because he knows the matetials ahead. If there are challenges, he could sit still for hours listening to teachers. My concern is also that he may not ne well liked due to his distraction behavior and the school is a lot smaller than I thought to be.

My 2nd grader is falling behind on everything like math, reading and writing. Their current school has 900+ to 1000 kids. There are limited resources from teacher to focus on him for improvement or working with him 1:1. If I make the move to Cold Spring ES, what might be the possible end results for this 2nd grader? Good move or bad move for him.

great move you are over thinking - buy the house

[Anonymous]

Hello -

I am a parent of 3 young children who decided to move OUT of this neighborhood due to the open classroom concept. We moved 2 months before our oldest was due to start Kinder, so have no experience attending. I toured the school with the principal (who was lovely). The classrooms are like a carpeted gym with an ikea bookshelf/divider in the middle thereby creating 2 classrooms. The classrooms are also open to the hall with no doors, so you get additional background noise as well. The school was originally built to teach to the open concept/group teaching model where each class is larger with several teachers and then they break into small groups for learning activities. Unfortunately thats not how they are using the space. I suggest you reach out to the school and request a tour so you can make a decision first hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is op. Thank you for these information. My 4th grader is great at academic, and he does not mind doing extras on math in higher level. His reading is above level, and writing is just okay. Magnet program mentions here refer to enriched classes within school, right? He has been 99% on all map tests throughout school years and his current school is not competitive in academic. I assume it is likely he may do fine if we make the move, and facing some competition might be a great thing to him. He is not well behaved and easily distracted in class, and that could be a problem. He does not need to pay much attention in class because he knows the matetials ahead. If there are challenges, he could sit still for hours listening to teachers. My concern is also that he may not ne well liked due to his distraction behavior and the school is a lot smaller than I thought to be.

My 2nd grader is falling behind on everything like math, reading and writing. Their current school has 900+ to 1000 kids. There are limited resources from teacher to focus on him for improvement or working with him 1:1. If I make the move to Cold Spring ES, what might be the possible end results for this 2nd grader? Good move or bad move for him.

Because it's not a divese school in terms of SES, the teachers may actually spend some time with your child. At many MCPS ES these days teachers are solely focused on those who are struggling and don't have time for children at or above grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello -

I am a parent of 3 young children who decided to move OUT of this neighborhood due to the open classroom concept. We moved 2 months before our oldest was due to start Kinder, so have no experience attending. I toured the school with the principal (who was lovely). The classrooms are like a carpeted gym with an ikea bookshelf/divider in the middle thereby creating 2 classrooms. The classrooms are also open to the hall with no doors, so you get additional background noise as well. The school was originally built to teach to the open concept/group teaching model where each class is larger with several teachers and then they break into small groups for learning activities. Unfortunately thats not how they are using the space. I suggest you reach out to the school and request a tour so you can make a decision first hand.

Where did you move? This seems extreme

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is op. Thank you for these information. My 4th grader is great at academic, and he does not mind doing extras on math in higher level. His reading is above level, and writing is just okay. Magnet program mentions here refer to enriched classes within school, right? He has been 99% on all map tests throughout school years and his current school is not competitive in academic. I assume it is likely he may do fine if we make the move, and facing some competition might be a great thing to him. He is not well behaved and easily distracted in class, and that could be a problem. He does not need to pay much attention in class because he knows the matetials ahead. If there are challenges, he could sit still for hours listening to teachers. My concern is also that he may not ne well liked due to his distraction behavior and the school is a lot smaller than I thought to be.

My 2nd grader is falling behind on everything like math, reading and writing. Their current school has 900+ to 1000 kids. There are limited resources from teacher to focus on him for improvement or working with him 1:1. If I make the move to Cold Spring ES, what might be the possible end results for this 2nd grader? Good move or bad move for him.

I wanted to clarify for you that your child will not be in the magnet unless he applied as a 3rd grader. It is highly competitive. The magnet kids had little interaction with neighborhood kids unless at recess when we were there. Many of the non-magnet students are still 99% so your child will have peers who are also gifted and they will differentiate for math. But gifted kids are so common they might not stand out here like at your other school.

Your younger child might get frustrated here. Do they have an IEP? We found the teachers very caring but they didn’t have a lot of time to support our son who struggled in early grades. That support is provided by a resource teacher and para educators for kids with IEPs. We found the school didn’t have enough trained staffing in that area though the staff they had at the time tried their best. Sometimes title 1 and focus schools are actually better equipped. We did private intervention as did most people we knew.