Norwood waitlist

[Anonymous]

Can anyone confirm class size is actually at 20 in 2011-12?

[Anonymous]

From what I have heard the classes will be at 20 next year.

[Anonymous]

Confirmed. 20 (less those that give up before June 1st). What a subtle way to raise tuition.

[Anonymous]

Confirmed. 20 (less those that give up before June 1st). What a subtle way to raise tuition.

Not sure what you are getting at here in reference to tuition. There are two full time experienced teachers in each homeroom. I know this has been debated before but I really would rather my child be in a room with 2 teachers and 20 kids for the social interaction than a room with 1 teacher and only 10 children. Math and reading happen in really small groups of only about 8 children. Also tuition for K, 1 and 2 was raised by less than $300 for next year eventhough Fridays are going to 2 hours longer from 12:30 to 2:30. Norwood's tuition overall for every grade is in some cases a lot less than other schools. They have kept tuition increases low for many years.

[Anonymous]

By "they have kept...." you actually mean "we have kept..."

Good to know Norwood is paying attention to the surprise some of us had when we knew that each class will have 20 kids.

In reference to the point made about tuition increase, the logic is simple. If they (I mean you) were planning to have 16 kids and 2 teachers, but now decided to have 20 kids instead, the actual quality of service provided per dollar paid has declined. Because tuition was not adjusted downwards to reflect this, the school became more expensive. Yet another way to see this is if you imagine that the school wants to raise the same revenue as if they had 20 kids in class, but with only 16. The other 4 tuition payments would have to be spread across the 16 parents. This would represent 100k distributed to 16, or 6k increase in tuition.

[Anonymous]

Well said, 20:54.

[Anonymous]

If class size is being increased to 20 in K, I find that disappointing, but bear in mind that many excellent schools (Sidwell, GDS, Beauvoir, etc.) have K classes that are as large or larger.

[Anonymous]

There are currently 19 kids in one class and 18 in the other so your logic only follows if there are only 16 in each class every year.

[Anonymous]

There also 2 art teachers, 2 PE teachers, a science teacher and a music teacher dedicated to the 37 children enrolled.

[Anonymous]

Excuse the typo.

[Anonymous]

This seems like ridiculous speculation. I, too, would be shocked to find out that someone got off the waitlist by bullying Mimi. That doesn't seem like how she does things at all, and she doesn't have the authority, I don't think, either. There is an admissions committee. I don't know what is happening with class size for next year, but there are only two K sections. I think there were a fair number of sibs as well, but this is based on anecdotal knowledge of the kids I know going into the class, and we woudl know some of the sibs but not non-sibs. I think it was a tough year for many people, so that is another reason why one waitlisted person bullying the WL into an accept doesn't make sense to me either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By the way, 2 homerooms of 20 kids each (40 total) and 2 full-time teachers.

Do you have this from the school? The goal used to be 16-18 in a K homeroom, which is the situation now.

That was back when there were 3 k's.

[Anonymous]

A couple of years ago K was the same size as it sounds likely to be next year, and there were two and a half classes--16, 16, and 8.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how many applicants they had this year? I think in another life I want to be admissions person. I fascinated on how they pick each child and how they decide.