Advice on 3 schools

[Anonymous]

I would do WIS because I hate applying to places.

[Anonymous]

I know nothing about the 3 schools you mentioned but I have a child that has been participating in Language Immersion since first grade. He has really enjoyed the experience and is above grade level in math and on grade level for language arts. There are reasons that some kids do not do well in language immersion type programs but many students respond well to the challenge. My sons school sees the kids who are struggling drop out between 1st-3rd grade because the kids are struggling with math, that is the usual hurdle. The class loses about 1/3 of the kids by the time they are in 6th grade but most of that is due to families moving or leaving for other programs.

Sorry, I know my resposne is not specific to the schools you are looking at but I saw the concern about the language piece and thought I would share our experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here! Thanks for more feedback. We are talking about a son here, but there is a daughter behind him too.

I think your husband's fears about single sex are well founded, then, since you have a boy.

The thing is, even if you think to yourself, oh, we won't send him to STA, most likely your son will want to follow his friends to STA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:St. Patrick’s is now under the leadership of a former Beauvoir administrator who was also the Head of SSSAS’s Lower School. She’s a terrific leader and administrator.

WIS is not in the same league as St. Pat’s and Beauvoir. They spend a lot of time and energy on bilingualism and the rest of the curriculum suffers, especially in the lower grades. Checkout WIS’ outplacement for the grades you’re interested in. Their track record is not great.

You lost me on the “brighter kids” use better words. The kids who come across as brighter in third grade tend to have tiger parents and a lot of those kids flame out in hs. Beauvoir and St Pats are both great with St Pats having less parents who are full of themselves. When kids are young you have to deal with the parents so please remember this. It just don’t know about WIS but I am sure it is a great school.

Between St. Pat’s and Beauvoir, I’d choose Beauvoir and did. It’s a better resourced school, and the emphasis on preK to 3rd means that young kids are getting the school’s full attention. In a K-12, the earlier years get short shrift because the resources go to the upper school.

3 kids at Beauvoir and they all were accepted to the top schools, GDS, Sidwell, and NCS/STA. Outplacement does depend on how bright your kid is and how well-behaved. In preK differences between kids are not as apparent. By 3rd the brighter kids begin to stand out and WISC is considered a more reliable test than WPPSI for assessing IQ.

Even with the Beauvoir advantage, some kids did not get accepted into NCS/STA. They were the ones with behavioral or learning issues, or the kids just weren’t bright enough. NCS/STA is grueling in the upper grades. The schools would be doing no favors to admit kids who couldn’t handle a workload that even bright kids struggle with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everybody—

We are lucky to have offers from: Beauvoir, St Patrick’s, and WIS. We appreciate that all are good schools, but would like to hear from some families who had to make similar decisions.

A few considerations on our mind:

We liked BVR a lot on many dimensions but are a little bit concerned that transitioning to another school at grade 4 will be challenging. We understand that BVR has a strong link with NCS/St Albans but DH is not very comfortable with the idea of single sex education. He is concerned that it doesn’t prepare kids for a society with both genders and also that a single sex school could be a challenging social environment.

We also liked St Patrick’s but are not sure how easy outplacement would be. High school seems like a more natural transition point perhaps, but could also be difficult if you are only considering DC privates.

WIS is the only K-12 school we are considering. DH really likes the bilingual aspect of it though neither of us speak French/Spanish. We are concerned about the curriculum in early years and whether an extra language would slow academic progress and the social-emotional skills development. The school didn’t come across as nurturing as BVR and St. Patrick’s. We would love to hear from those who have spent some years in WIS - how helpful has the school been to deal with any issues, etc.

Beauvoir without question. Even if you don't want single sex most kids get their first choice outplacement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everybody—

We are lucky to have offers from: Beauvoir, St Patrick’s, and WIS. We appreciate that all are good schools, but would like to hear from some families who had to make similar decisions.

A few considerations on our mind:

We liked BVR a lot on many dimensions but are a little bit concerned that transitioning to another school at grade 4 will be challenging. We understand that BVR has a strong link with NCS/St Albans but DH is not very comfortable with the idea of single sex education. He is concerned that it doesn’t prepare kids for a society with both genders and also that a single sex school could be a challenging social environment.

We also liked St Patrick’s but are not sure how easy outplacement would be. High school seems like a more natural transition point perhaps, but could also be difficult if you are only considering DC privates.

WIS is the only K-12 school we are considering. DH really likes the bilingual aspect of it though neither of us speak French/Spanish. We are concerned about the curriculum in early years and whether an extra language would slow academic progress and the social-emotional skills development. The school didn’t come across as nurturing as BVR and St. Patrick’s. We would love to hear from those who have spent some years in WIS - how helpful has the school been to deal with any issues, etc.

Curious what you decided? We had a similar choice — in the end we did not choose WIS — despite really loving the schools program and supportive environment.