Westbrook Elementary - ISO recent reviews - moving from out of town to Bethesda this Jan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overcrowded.

Overcrowded and feeds into BCC. A a newcomer, you should know that you want an elementary that feeds into Whitman High School.

Why? BCC is much better.

Both BCC and Whitman are spectacular schools. You can't go wrong with either one. To say one is better than the other is ludicrous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Westbrook is an amazing school. It has huge parent involvement and is very much a neighborhood school. Take a look at their website. You can see from the site that there is a ton of parent involvement. It is NOT overcrowded. It was just renovated and enlarged. The new principal is lovely and seems to have a very nice relationship with faculty and parents. The homework so far for my second grader is not very much at all. I am not a fan of homework in second grade, so this is a plus for me. There are lots of extracurriculars. Call and speak to the principal or PTA president about the school. That's a good way to get a feel for it.

OK PTA President, we got your message. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Westbrook is an amazing school. It has huge parent involvement and is very much a neighborhood school. Take a look at their website. You can see from the site that there is a ton of parent involvement. It is NOT overcrowded. It was just renovated and enlarged. The new principal is lovely and seems to have a very nice relationship with faculty and parents. The homework so far for my second grader is not very much at all. I am not a fan of homework in second grade, so this is a plus for me. There are lots of extracurriculars. Call and speak to the principal or PTA president about the school. That's a good way to get a feel for it.

OK PTA President, we got your message. Thanks.

I'm not PP (and also not PTA president), but i live in the westbrook zone. PP, what the poster wrote is exactly what I hear from the parents in my neighborhood. My kid is 4, so I've done a lot of inquiring, and really, the dozen families I know really well with small kids in Westbrook echo what your suspected PTA president said. Parents are VERY happy there. I'm sure there are exceptions to that rule, as there probably are anywhere, but I wouldn't dismiss the PP's post since it really is what I have heard from all parents.

[Anonymous]

Attended the neighborhood open house today. New space (gym, more classrooms, bigger front office, playground) was nice, but not a lot of warmth and lots of bland hallways. It was not clear why the new space did not allow for more natural light and I found all the stairs off-putting.

Neighbors all seem excited about the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Attended the neighborhood open house today. New space (gym, more classrooms, bigger front office, playground) was nice, but not a lot of warmth and lots of bland hallways. It was not clear why the new space did not allow for more natural light and I found all the stairs off-putting.

Neighbors all seem excited about the school.

You don't like Westbrook ES because it has too many stairs? Do you or your child have a mobility impairment?

[Anonymous]

OP - thanks for all the feedback. Any suggestions on how to get DD acclimated within the school? Are there activities to join etc that would promote making new friends? She is relatively shy kid - not the type to walk up to someone new and introduce herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - thanks for all the feedback. Any suggestions on how to get DD acclimated within the school? Are there activities to join etc that would promote making new friends? She is relatively shy kid - not the type to walk up to someone new and introduce herself.

Same question here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Westbrook is an amazing school. It has huge parent involvement and is very much a neighborhood school. Take a look at their website. You can see from the site that there is a ton of parent involvement. It is NOT overcrowded. It was just renovated and enlarged. The new principal is lovely and seems to have a very nice relationship with faculty and parents. The homework so far for my second grader is not very much at all. I am not a fan of homework in second grade, so this is a plus for me. There are lots of extracurriculars. Call and speak to the principal or PTA president about the school. That's a good way to get a feel for it.

OK PTA President, we got your message. Thanks.

LOL. Too, funny. If you only knew who I really was! I can assure you that I'm not the PTA president.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Westbrook is an amazing school. It has huge parent involvement and is very much a neighborhood school. Take a look at their website. You can see from the site that there is a ton of parent involvement. It is NOT overcrowded. It was just renovated and enlarged. The new principal is lovely and seems to have a very nice relationship with faculty and parents. The homework so far for my second grader is not very much at all. I am not a fan of homework in second grade, so this is a plus for me. There are lots of extracurriculars. Call and speak to the principal or PTA president about the school. That's a good way to get a feel for it.

OK PTA President, we got your message. Thanks.

LOL. Too, funny. If you only knew who I really was! I can assure you that I'm not the PTA president.

You must be a former president then.

OP if you want to learn about Westbrook, the PTA president is the last person you want to talk to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just look at the "schools at a glance" section on the MCPS website. You'll see that it is predominantly white (probably more so than most other elem schools in MCPS), and it has a very low percentage of students receiving FARMs. Judge as you will.

Unfortunately that is true. The school is very monolithic in many ways not just color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Westbrook is an amazing school. It has huge parent involvement and is very much a neighborhood school. Take a look at their website. You can see from the site that there is a ton of parent involvement. It is NOT overcrowded. It was just renovated and enlarged. The new principal is lovely and seems to have a very nice relationship with faculty and parents. The homework so far for my second grader is not very much at all. I am not a fan of homework in second grade, so this is a plus for me. There are lots of extracurriculars. Call and speak to the principal or PTA president about the school. That's a good way to get a feel for it.

OK PTA President, we got your message. Thanks.

LOL. Too, funny. If you only knew who I really was! I can assure you that I'm not the PTA president.

You must be a former president then.

OP if you want to learn about Westbrook, the PTA president is the last person you want to talk to.

What makes you say that pp?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just look at the "schools at a glance" section on the MCPS website. You'll see that it is predominantly white (probably more so than most other elem schools in MCPS), and it has a very low percentage of students receiving FARMs. Judge as you will.

Unfortunately that is true. The school is very monolithic in many ways not just color.

PP, could you please explain what you mean by that?

[Anonymous]

I agree that the new principal seems really nice but she is making one BIG mistake. She is using the PTA to convey her messages. Another principal used to do it and it did not end up very well for the community. So time will only tell....