Timber Lane/Jackson/Falls Church

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Greenway Downs and my son is not yet in school but my neighbors all love Timberlane. I like that FCHS is a bit smaller than some of the other high schools in the area and I am assuming by the time my son is high school aged it will of been updated a bit. Greenway Downs is a great neighborhood by the way!

+1 live there too and my child attends timber lane. We are very happy with both the neighborhood and the school.
My only complaint is the the attendance zoning for the school. The majority of the timber lane kids live north of lee highway and will attend mclean high school and the junior high that goes with it(don't know the name) while the kids in greenway downs will attend Luther Jackson and falls church hs. All of my child's friends live on the other side of lee highway so come junior high time he will be separated from all of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Greenway Downs and my son is not yet in school but my neighbors all love Timberlane. I like that FCHS is a bit smaller than some of the other high schools in the area and I am assuming by the time my son is high school aged it will of been updated a bit. Greenway Downs is a great neighborhood by the way!

+1 live there too and my child attends timber lane. We are very happy with both the neighborhood and the school.
My only complaint is the the attendance zoning for the school. The majority of the timber lane kids live north of lee highway and will attend mclean high school and the junior high that goes with it(don't know the name) while the kids in greenway downs will attend Luther Jackson and falls church hs. All of my child's friends live on the other side of lee highway so come junior high time he will be separated from all of them.

As split feeders go, Timber Lane is a fairly even split between McLean and Falls Church, even if the area south of Lee zoned for Timber Lane is smaller. But Jackson pulls in kids who are going to Falls Church, Oakton, Madison and even Marshall, so he'll be meeting a lot of new kids in any event. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Both of our kids went to Timber Lane and we were very happy with it - TL is a real "hidden gem"!

We're in the McLean pyramid, so I can't really comment on Luther Jackson and FCHS. I will note that DD has struggled with the pressure-cooker atmosphere at McLean, and Longfellow is a hive - very impersonal. We both wonder if our kids wouldn't have been better off if we'd moved into a house in the FCHS part of TL's territory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both of our kids went to Timber Lane and we were very happy with it - TL is a real "hidden gem"!

We're in the McLean pyramid, so I can't really comment on Luther Jackson and FCHS. I will note that DD has struggled with the pressure-cooker atmosphere at McLean, and Longfellow is a hive - very impersonal. We both wonder if our kids wouldn't have been better off if we'd moved into a house in the FCHS part of TL's territory.

Sometimes the grass always looks greener, or maybe there are times when another school would indeed be a better fit. There was a post by a FCHS student a while back on another thread about the school in which the student generally had good things to say about FCHS. His or her main complaint, as I recall, was that the counselors encouraged students to "aim low" when it came to applying to colleges, rather than help the students explore all their options or how they might get financial aid. In that case, it seemed like the student would have liked, if not more pressure, a bit more help.

[Anonymous]

Does Timber Lane divert an unequal amount of time and resources to the ESL students so that they can catch up? My concern is that if my DD enters TL knowing how to read that she will be ignored in favor of catching the other kids up to speed. I've also heard of some behavior problems and bullying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does Timber Lane divert an unequal amount of time and resources to the ESL students so that they can catch up? My concern is that if my DD enters TL knowing how to read that she will be ignored in favor of catching the other kids up to speed. I've also heard of some behavior problems and bullying.

Those are two different things. Kids receiving ESOL services require more resources than other students and Timber Lane also gets extra resources as a Title I school.

However, most Timber Lane students are English-proficient and not receiving ESOL services, and Timber Lane also has Advanced Academics programs in addition to the General Education curriculum.

If you read the prior posts on this thread from people who have kids at the school, they seem quite satisfied.