Moving- school advice needed

[Anonymous]

Falls church

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:" We are European family, not interested in having to drive 15 min for every errand or get in the car when we are out of bread."

You aren't going to find that in the DC area along with all of your other requirements. Its very rare.

I live in the Washington-Liberty zone, across the street from a grocery store. We can run a lot of errands by foot or with a 5-10 min car ride. It's also nice to be pretty close to the river, Georgetown, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:" We are European family, not interested in having to drive 15 min for every errand or get in the car when we are out of bread."

You aren't going to find that in the DC area along with all of your other requirements. Its very rare.

I live in the Washington-Liberty zone, across the street from a grocery store. We can run a lot of errands by foot or with a 5-10 min car ride. It's also nice to be pretty close to the river, Georgetown, etc.

Of course that exists, but very few people live across from a store in Arlington. I live in the same zone and cannot walk to a grocery store in under 12-15 minutes, which we never do because why am I going to walk almost 30 minutes round trip for one item when I can hop in the car in 5 mins on a busy school night? Since OP is coming here from somewhere else, I wouldn’t want her to think that all of Arlington is walkable to stores. I can get to most places within five minutes but if I’m going to go to target or largest stores like that, it’s a good 15 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Falls Church City (Meridian) or Vienna (Madison). Vienna is very walkable and pleasant. I’m in Arlington. Don’t think any of the high schools are worth moving for.

[Anonymous]

Check the FCPS forum posts on Madison, since there has been quite a bit of student/parent discontent there over the past few years. It may or may not be a good fit for your family. But that’s true of any school.

[Anonymous]

Consider South Lakes High School, a highly regarded school pyramid, in Reston. The whole town was designed on a utopian dream as based on cutting-edge 1950s-era European town planning. (Do a web search to learn the history.) The architecture, cafes, and plaza around Lake Anne are stunning.

Reston is split up into villages with grocery stores, patisseries, cafes, barber shops, swimming pools, schools, etc., all within walking distance of houses on trails surrounded by nature. It feels suburban, so don’t expect Arlington, Bethesda, or even Falls Church type urbanism. The people that live in Reston love it and strongly support the high school, South Lakes.

[Anonymous]

Website for information on Reston: https://www.lakeanneplaza.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am new and have no idea where to post this question…

We are looking to move next year when my kids will be starting middle school.

Which school are you in, which county, that you LOVE? Looking for strong academics but also a walkable open community, with basic amenities in walking distance? We are European family, not interested in having to drive 15 min for every errand or get in the car when we are out of bread. Is this wishful thinking? Currently in ffx but looking for elsewhere. School quality is quite important.

Not Arlington. Unless you want to move again for high school.

The Arlington high schools are quite good and most families send kids there. (Hyperbole and even lying are common on this site, and some might unwittingly think families are fleeing for privates.) Didn’t the high schools all rank among the top twenty in all of the D.C. region on Niche? W-L was 11 I think, according to the ARLnow story. Solid academics, sports, and walkability for all the schools. You can’t beat that combo. Arlington is one of the few DC suburbs where students can walk to elementary, middle, and high schools. And the cafe or coffee shop after school or for lunch.

Top notch facilities too, either brand or relatively new.

The OP was specifically asking for school quality and already lives in the region and wants to stay in the region. So why would you suggest moving for a school based on a ridiculous rating such as Niche and has close to 3000 students? It's ranked 20 in VA, 892!!!! nationally (USNWR). What non-no-cut sports team is any kid trying out for and getting on easily with such a large student body? It's not a public vs private argument. The fact is, none of the Arlington schools has good college admissions results compared to the top schools in Fairfax.

When we moved here in 2016 W-L was ranked 12 or 13 in Virginia, ahead of Yorktown on US News And Yorktown was the largest Arlington school by population. You never know when you buy if the school will go up or down five places, if it will grow or shrink in size, and that honestly doesn’t matter. As long as the Arlington high schools don’t suddenly sink to 300 or so out of the roughly 350 high schools in the state, then we’re fine.

Then there’s the Niche ranking, the number of National Merit Semifinalists, etc. Arlington schools have decent stats.

And of the almost 25,000 high schools in the country who cares if W-L is ranked 892 according to US News as you claim.

For OP, I think they would be happy at South Lakes HS, W-L, possibly Madison, Meridian, Yorktown, Fairfax HS, B-CC HS, maybe Richard Montgomery, Wakefield, etc.

Maybe McLean HS, but the area does feel very suburban.

[Anonymous]

If you just want to walk to basic amenities/grocery/restaurants and you want good and diverse schools, Loudoun does have some options such as One Loudoun, Cascades, Belmont Chase, Brambleton. There are chain places, but also some farm-to-table ones. Lots of kids out here, so lots of things for them to do; you can always move back to DC later and live your best empty nest life.

Most newer Loudoun communities were designed to have a small town center in each neighborhood, and traffic is generally better because they build very wide roads.

When you do go in toward DC for events, you will get some insecure people "Meh Loudoun sux bunch of farmers I'm so cultured living here in my Sears Home," but the peace I live with every day not having to deal with crowds and traffic more than makes up for their anachronistic insults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington. Many walkable neighborhoods with good schools.

+1

We love Dorothy Hamm Middle School and Washington-Liberty HS.

They’ve been great for us. Lots of international families.

People on here like to complain, but they are great schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am new and have no idea where to post this question…

We are looking to move next year when my kids will be starting middle school.

Which school are you in, which county, that you LOVE? Looking for strong academics but also a walkable open community, with basic amenities in walking distance? We are European family, not interested in having to drive 15 min for every errand or get in the car when we are out of bread. Is this wishful thinking? Currently in ffx but looking for elsewhere. School quality is quite important.

Not Arlington. Unless you want to move again for high school.

The Arlington high schools are quite good and most families send kids there. (Hyperbole and even lying are common on this site, and some might unwittingly think families are fleeing for privates.) Didn’t the high schools all rank among the top twenty in all of the D.C. region on Niche? W-L was 11 I think, according to the ARLnow story. Solid academics, sports, and walkability for all the schools. You can’t beat that combo. Arlington is one of the few DC suburbs where students can walk to elementary, middle, and high schools. And the cafe or coffee shop after school or for lunch.

Top notch facilities too, either brand or relatively new.

The OP was specifically asking for school quality and already lives in the region and wants to stay in the region. So why would you suggest moving for a school based on a ridiculous rating such as Niche and has close to 3000 students? It's ranked 20 in VA, 892!!!! nationally (USNWR). What non-no-cut sports team is any kid trying out for and getting on easily with such a large student body? It's not a public vs private argument. The fact is, none of the Arlington schools has good college admissions results compared to the top schools in Fairfax.

OP wants top school quality and walkability that aspires to at least some of the qualities of European urbanism. The best of the best. If you want both Arlington is it. Or the Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS pyramid (for another good option), or maybe Madison or Fairfax High Schools (but those feel a bit suburban and OP is trying to get away from that).

APS is mid, not top quality. Hardly the best of the best--what a stupid observation. Why would anyone who had the choice to move for better schools within the region choose to move to Arlington?

Not that poster. And yet, many people do. We moved from DC to Arlington in part for the schools, and we are far from alone. No, the schools aren’t perfect. Yes, they are very good. Most people also need to consider things like proximity to work and cost in their decision.

+1

We have had great experiences at DHMS and W-L. The people complaining don’t have actual experiences with these schools.

[Anonymous]

We live in falls church city. We walk. My kids walk or ride bikes everywhere. There are upwards of 20 restaurants within a 5-15 minute walk. If I am grocery shopping I typically drive but if I forgot an item my spouse or kids will walk or bike to the store to get it. I am very happy with the secondary schools in fccps (middle and high)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am new and have no idea where to post this question…

We are looking to move next year when my kids will be starting middle school.

Which school are you in, which county, that you LOVE? Looking for strong academics but also a walkable open community, with basic amenities in walking distance? We are European family, not interested in having to drive 15 min for every errand or get in the car when we are out of bread. Is this wishful thinking? Currently in ffx but looking for elsewhere. School quality is quite important.

Falls Church City is your place.