Does your 1st grader love school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is happy going to school except when other children behave like beasts and her teacher has no control on it.

An ES in the City of Fairfax

[Anonymous]

Wish that Virginia Run area was a better commute for us!
Three happy parents from one school is pretty unheard of around here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd loved Kindergarten and first grade. She watches the clock in the morning because she wants to get to school. (Ours starts really late). Virginia Run ES out in the distant suburbs.

We're at VA Run, too! Never seen anyone else post about it on DCUM. Had to check twice to see if I'd posted that!

There's at least two of us, then . We just moved in last summer but have been pleasantly surprised with all the neighborhood activities and the school (not gonna lie, DH was the one pushing for moving all the way out here)!

Make that three of us My son is in 1st grade there and loves it. He also loved kindergarten last year. Our twins will start K next Fall and I hope they enjoy it just as much as he did.

How many kids in a class there? Are the classes somehow much smaller? We have 30 per class about in every grade level, sometimes one or two less, sometimes up to 34.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd loved Kindergarten and first grade. She watches the clock in the morning because she wants to get to school. (Ours starts really late). Virginia Run ES out in the distant suburbs.

We're at VA Run, too! Never seen anyone else post about it on DCUM. Had to check twice to see if I'd posted that!

There's at least two of us, then . We just moved in last summer but have been pleasantly surprised with all the neighborhood activities and the school (not gonna lie, DH was the one pushing for moving all the way out here)!

Make that three of us My son is in 1st grade there and loves it. He also loved kindergarten last year. Our twins will start K next Fall and I hope they enjoy it just as much as he did.

How many kids in a class there? Are the classes somehow much smaller? We have 30 per class about in every grade level, sometimes one or two less, sometimes up to 34.

One of the PPs with a kid at VA Run. My son's K class last year started out with 22 kids (teacher + full-time assistant, and there was a fabulous intern who was there the last three months of the year, too). One kid moved maybe halfway through the year, so there were 21 kids in the class from then on. In his first grade class, I believe there are 23 kids this year, with just the teacher and no aide. My son claims one of his classmates is moving out of state but I'm not sure about that. I can't speak for class sizes in the upper grades because he's our oldest child, but this link says 21-22 kids was about average thru grade 6 in 2014:
http://www.fcps.edu/it/studentreporting/documents/ElmClassSizeAvg2014.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd loved Kindergarten and first grade. She watches the clock in the morning because she wants to get to school. (Ours starts really late). Virginia Run ES out in the distant suburbs.

We're at VA Run, too! Never seen anyone else post about it on DCUM. Had to check twice to see if I'd posted that!

There's at least two of us, then . We just moved in last summer but have been pleasantly surprised with all the neighborhood activities and the school (not gonna lie, DH was the one pushing for moving all the way out here)!

Make that three of us My son is in 1st grade there and loves it. He also loved kindergarten last year. Our twins will start K next Fall and I hope they enjoy it just as much as he did.

How many kids in a class there? Are the classes somehow much smaller? We have 30 per class about in every grade level, sometimes one or two less, sometimes up to 34.

One of the PPs with a kid at VA Run. My son's K class last year started out with 22 kids (teacher + full-time assistant, and there was a fabulous intern who was there the last three months of the year, too). One kid moved maybe halfway through the year, so there were 21 kids in the class from then on. In his first grade class, I believe there are 23 kids this year, with just the teacher and no aide. My son claims one of his classmates is moving out of state but I'm not sure about that. I can't speak for class sizes in the upper grades because he's our oldest child, but this link says 21-22 kids was about average thru grade 6 in 2014:
http://www.fcps.edu/it/studentreporting/documents/ElmClassSizeAvg2014.pdf

How is that even possible? How can one county school have 21 kids in a class in first, and another have 30?? Is it title I?

[Anonymous]

I was curious and looked it up-their FARMs rate is about 30 percent-I don't think that is high enough to be a Title 1 school. Also, the Title 1 schools actually have much smaller class sizes (15-ish).

[Anonymous]

We're in MoCo.
Kindergarten last year was rough. Bad teacher and lots of personal stuff going on. Thankfully, 1st grade has been the complete opposite. DS loves it and his teacher who is awesome! He's got about 19 kids in his class

[Anonymous]

We are in West Springfield and DD LOVES 1st grade! Her teacher is great and generally nice kids in the class. She's learning a lot and we are very pleased.

[Anonymous]

Another VA Run posted here. My second grader has 23 and my kindergartener has 21. It fluctuates, though. When my 2nd was a kindergartener they had 28. We've been pretty lucky the past couple of years, though. We really love our school and it seems everyone I know loves it, too.

[Anonymous]

Virginia Run isn't title I. They adjusted the boundaries in 2010 but prior to that the FARMS % was likely around 20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virginia Run isn't title I. They adjusted the boundaries in 2010 but prior to that the FARMS % was likely around 20.

Actually, before the boundaries were adjusted in 2010, the FARMS % at Virginia Run was <10%. From what I understand, the classes are small in part because a lot of the houses in the area are slowly turning over, but it's taking time as younger families move into the SFHs and empty nesters move out in favor of smaller places.

[Anonymous]

I'm 22:33, thanks for the clarification. I definitely see a lot more families moving in than I did several years ago. It's nice!

[Anonymous]

Does Virginia Run do any differentiation in grades 1-6?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He liked gym and extended day.

LOL... same here! My son is doing very well in school and has no behavioral issues but if you were to ask him if he likes school he would say no. If we ask what he likes about school he say "lunch, recess, gym and SACC" He likes his teacher and she is wonderful but there are a million other things he would rather do that go to school

[Anonymous]

Yes, Haycock