current info/feedback on Bethesda Elementary School

[Anonymous]

Our son just completed K at BE and we are very happy so far with the school.

We had moved to downtown Bethesda expressedly for BE, because we heard they had a strong special needs team and we knew our child needed speech therapy. The speech therapist Katy Flaherty is amazingly good!

As for advanced skills, in K my son received little support. He started reading chapter books but his (otherwise excellent) teacher had no time to engage him since she was busy teaching many others how to decipher. Same thing for math. I assume support for all abilities increases in the older grades as students become more independent.

His K teacher managed the 25+ kids surprisingly well (with 2 aides, one helping a SN child full-time).

The broken playground equipment stayed broken for many months, unfortunately - glad to hear they might be changing it soon!

Welcome OP!

[Anonymous]

We just moved to Bethesda and recently registered our kids at BE. So happy to hear all of the positive feedback, both here and in our neighborhood (not quite so thrilled with the large class sizes, but that seems to be everywhere). I have a few quick questions:

1) What types of after school activities are usually offered during the school year? and are they generally a good thing? We want to get our kids involved in a few extracurricular activities to keep them active, but also to start meeting friends. Do most families participate in the school activities or sign up kids with outside organizations (soccer, dance, music, etc). ?

2)How are the hot school lunches? At their previous school, my kids primarily brought their own lunches and we will plan to do that again, but just curious to hear parent feedback in case we do opt to occasionally pay for lunch. Also, are there any restrictions or guidelines regarding lunches brought from home (ie: no peanut butter?).

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

22:54 here.

After school activities: no idea about sports, but the drama class was much enjoyed by our son and its teacher Ms. Alison is very good. I hope she comes back this year! It's a class organized by Imagination Stage, an excellent children's theatre just around the corner. I had to round up other parents the first semester to make up a big enough class, but afterwards the class became quite popular and had no trouble filling up. That way your kids can meet other children from different classrooms (same grade) or a different grade altogether. There was a pottery class that was quite popular as well.

One word of caution - be on time to pick up your child at 4pm after the activity if that is your plan. The terrible teacher of the cartooning class organized by Young Rembrandts used to leave at 4pm sharp, regardless of whether children had found their parents at the door or not! I stayed several times with DS's classmates until their parents came.

Cafeteria: only let your child order lunch on a tray if they are quick eaters!!! Mcps has a recurring problem of children lining up a long time to order their lunch and then not having enough time to eat. DS takes ages, so lunchbox it is. I believe there is no peanut ban (DS is allergic!).

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for the detailed response!