Moving from the Mclean School to Bullis

[Anonymous]

Op. My son is currently in the seventh grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. I really want him to go with Bullis, but I am afraid that he may get lost in the system. I don't want him to fall through the cracks. He love the arts of all kinds. I am just scare, because he is being so overwhelmed at his current school. The problem with his current school is that it is too darn demanding and above grade level.

Os he being overwhelmed at McLean? If so why would he be less overwhelmed at Bullis?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. I really want him to go with Bullis, but I am afraid that he may get lost in the system. I don't want him to fall through the cracks. He love the arts of all kinds. I am just scare, because he is being so overwhelmed at his current school. The problem with his current school is that it is too darn demanding and above grade level.

Os he being overwhelmed at McLean? If so why would he be less overwhelmed at Bullis?

I am pp. Sorry I misunderstood your original post.

[Anonymous]

This is only anecdotal, but I have had two conversations with parents who moved kids from McLean to Bullis, and then back to McLean again (am current McLean parent). The kids missed the smaller and more attentive environment at McLean. I think that some time at McLean and then a move to another, larger school, can work well, depending on the need/desire/motivation to leave McLean. The parents I talked to who are contemplating a move to another school, mostly at the start of ninth or tenth grade, cite either finances or child's need for a larger athletic environment. The latter is particularly true where a child has a strong athletic ability or interest in sports not offered at McLean, like football. A few parents also leave to gain some reputation/bragging rights at a more well known school. From our early experience in MS, the academics are very challenging, the small classes are both supportive and challenging (nowhere to hide if you are one of 8 kids in a class) and the methodology very successful. Our DC's year has more than 40 kids, and it's not suffering, so far as I can tell, from enrollment, and if anything, the school seems to be setting higher standards and getting choosier under the new head.

OP, you need to visit and speak with ADs and parents at both schools to figure out whether one or the other or a combo would work best for your son - they each offer different pluses and minuses. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is only anecdotal, but I have had two conversations with parents who moved kids from McLean to Bullis, and then back to McLean again (am current McLean parent). The kids missed the smaller and more attentive environment at McLean. I think that some time at McLean and then a move to another, larger school, can work well, depending on the need/desire/motivation to leave McLean. The parents I talked to who are contemplating a move to another school, mostly at the start of ninth or tenth grade, cite either finances or child's need for a larger athletic environment. The latter is particularly true where a child has a strong athletic ability or interest in sports not offered at McLean, like football. A few parents also leave to gain some reputation/bragging rights at a more well known school. From our early experience in MS, the academics are very challenging, the small classes are both supportive and challenging (nowhere to hide if you are one of 8 kids in a class) and the methodology very successful. Our DC's year has more than 40 kids, and it's not suffering, so far as I can tell, from enrollment, and if anything, the school seems to be setting higher standards and getting choosier under the new head.

OP, you need to visit and speak with ADs and parents at both schools to figure out whether one or the other or a combo would work best for your son - they each offer different pluses and minuses. Good luck!

While I agree with most of your post, I disagree that the academics are challenging. Having left Mclean for another school, the academics are far from challenging or interesting.

[Anonymous]

I can relate to this post as it has been my intention to transfer DS to Bullis after middle school at McLean. We applied out for high school but, assuming DS is accepted at Bullis or SAES and it is our decision to make, I suspect that we will end up staying at McLean. DS is a bright guy who came to McLean after a lost year at his local public. There was such a huge gap between his intelligence and his work product. i know that a natural lack of organization was part of the problem but also that he didn't seem to be learning in school. Consequently I was trying to teach him in the evenings before he could complete homework. Those were some painful times! He doesn't have a learning disability diagnosis but his psych-Ed test showed that he is dominantly a visual learner and he quite literally had shut off audio processing sometime in ES. He was winging it, as the tester told me. At McLean, teachers use audio cues for him to learn from lectures but still provide video feedback like charts and pics for the physics unit, to which he can easily relate. I have seen such progress in this audio and visual processing connection. Maybe this isn't the best example but is freshest in my mind since I was just reviewing his homework, yes on a snow day. I recently took the upper school tour and sort of loved it more than I expected. I can completely see how the classroom environment would play to his strengths and help him develop more tools to address his weaknesses. I am not convinced yet that the learning center at Bullis will be the right fit. Bullis is nice though with that beautiful campus and all the turf. There are so many trade offs and luckily plenty of time to consider them.

[Anonymous]

How do the schools (Bullis, StA, McL) handle tutoring? Another parent from McL shared that tutoring takes place at lunch time and is in a noisy, cubicle or trailer environment. Would think less than optimal, especially if parents foot the bill. Does anyone have experience here to share?

[Anonymous]

My DD goes to McLean and from what I can tell, they use the resource period to review material covered in class that DC may not have grasped initially or needs additional reinforcement. Also, she is in the afterschool program and does homework and receives some support there as well. I have not heard anything about tutoring but then I have no asked about it either. I think DD is getting all the support she needs that she has not needed the extra tutoring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do the schools (Bullis, StA, McL) handle tutoring? Another parent from McL shared that tutoring takes place at lunch time and is in a noisy, cubicle or trailer environment. Would think less than optimal, especially if parents foot the bill. Does anyone have experience here to share?

When we toured McLean we saw the space for tutoring. It was a nice-looking room, with partitions. And inside, not in a trailer.

[Anonymous]

From our limited experience, the best tutoring in middle school goes on informally after class or during free periods - teachers are not only incredibly willing to meet one on one but actually encourage it.

[Anonymous]

And btw, no charge for teacher tutoring - of course this is for the occasional meeting one on one after school to walk through tough material, not for any formal permanent arrangement. At our prior school, we had math and English tutors which we had to arrange for privately and pay for ourselves. At McLean, we haven't really needed this type of arrangement, because the classes are so small and the teachers immediately see if there is a struggle going on - they address during class period if possible and if not arrange to meet the student during a free period or after school to go over it again.

[Anonymous]

OP - if your son is in 7th, get him in to McLean in 8th if you can - tough transition year being at the end of middle school, but they have a pretty intense English program focused on grammar, vocab and writing skills to get them ready for high school, as well as an overall focus on organization and skills needed for high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - if your son is in 7th, get him in to McLean in 8th if you can - tough transition year being at the end of middle school, but they have a pretty intense English program focused on grammar, vocab and writing skills to get them ready for high school, as well as an overall focus on organization and skills needed for high school.

Our public middle school does the same thing and we don't have to pay $30,000 for that help.

[Anonymous]

McLean isn't an athletic powerhouse. Nor st. Andrews. That is though a far bigger part of the Bullis identity.