Choosing between West Springfield and Wakefield Forest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield is an AMAZING elementary! I would pick that one hands down. Plus, it feeds to better high school and middle school. West Springfield, no question!

Uh, no. Frost and Woodson have a decided edge over Irving and West Springfield.

Agreed -- Frost and Woodson have a decided pressure cooker edge over Irving and West Springfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Pressure Cooker Factor is much higher at Frost and Woodson.

Does that trickle down at all to the elementary schools?

So sorry -- I made the assumption the home search would involve a home purchase. In general, people who purchase a home are planning to stay in the home for a while. If the OP is not purchasing a home and instead seeking a rental, it would be much easier to move before middle school begins.

OP here - I should have been clearer. We are going to be renting for the foreseeable future, so there is a fair chance that we will move again in the next few years. That is why I am focused on the elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Thank you to everyone who replied. Giving one last bump in case anyone else cares to weigh in.

[Anonymous]

We're across the road from most West Springfield ES kids (mine go to Rolling Valley), but we have a lot of friends at WSES who love it. I think the two neighborhoods you're comparing are very comparable, though, so'd I'd just go with the better house and commute.

We've found the West Springfield area to be a very friendly, low-key community.

[Anonymous]

Woodson is a good school, but the few teachers I know who have kids enrolled, pulled them and placed them at other schools. So, there is something going on with the culture there that isn't everyone's cup of tea.

[Anonymous]

Ok. I can give some info about Wakefield Forest ES. It was small, but is growing. Many grades have 4 classes now, but smallish ones. We have a new principal, who is advising little to no homework. There is a LLIV program, where about 2/3 of the AAP kids stay for, and the other 1/3 switch to Canterbury Woods. We seem to have a STEM focus going on right now, driven by the principal as well as some PTA families. We just had a huge and awesome STEAM fair. The strings program is very good. As for Frost and Woodson, it gets more diverse there-as the Asian kids are less of a minority. WFES is pretty white. Overall, we have had great teachers, and only one mediocre one in 6th grade. I see the stress of my middle schooler, but that could be internal or from me, not sure if from Frost.

[Anonymous]

DC is currently in K at WSES. There are 20 children in the class. All three K teachers are super stars and have been teaching 20+ years. I have children in the higher grades as well. No homework, just focus on reading and reading comprehension. New principal who is wonderful. The school is small, maybe less than 500 kids. Great community and amazing SACC staff. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. A lot of military families but also permanent residents as well. I commute to DC every day as do my neighbors. Agree with PP that it's tough to get a house although there are quite a few rentals due to popularity among military families. I have a lot of friends who have moved here or are trying to get in. We had no idea before we settled here and got lucky. Extremely low pressure at school. I would think scores drop because the super smart kids move on to the 'gifted' center after second grade. I do know a few families who returned to WSES. Principal is focusing on pull out for center eligible kids. We also just raised money for a state of the art STEAM Lab next year. Highly recommend WSES. They have a kindergarten play date in August for all incoming. It's a great school and great community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is currently in K at WSES. There are 20 children in the class. All three K teachers are super stars and have been teaching 20+ years. I have children in the higher grades as well. No homework, just focus on reading and reading comprehension. New principal who is wonderful. The school is small, maybe less than 500 kids. Great community and amazing SACC staff. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. A lot of military families but also permanent residents as well. I commute to DC every day as do my neighbors. Agree with PP that it's tough to get a house although there are quite a few rentals due to popularity among military families. I have a lot of friends who have moved here or are trying to get in. We had no idea before we settled here and got lucky. Extremely low pressure at school. I would think scores drop because the super smart kids move on to the 'gifted' center after second grade. I do know a few families who returned to WSES. Principal is focusing on pull out for center eligible kids. We also just raised money for a state of the art STEAM Lab next year. Highly recommend WSES. They have a kindergarten play date in August for all incoming. It's a great school and great community.

Hi! Thank you (and everyone else who responded) for the extremely informative replies. I feel pretty good about both choices. Now we just need to find a good place to live. I am a little confused about the bolded part. I was under the impression that both WFES and WSES had the AAP programs in the school. Am I wrong about this? If so, where do the AAP kids wind up going? It's obviously too soon to tell whether my 5 year old will be in AAP, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility, so I'd like to know.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You can choose to send your child to Keene Mill if your child gets in or keep your child at WSES for pull out classes. I'm not too familiar with this but do know many families who opted to stay at WSES as more resources seem to be directed to pull outs than have been in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is currently in K at WSES. There are 20 children in the class. All three K teachers are super stars and have been teaching 20+ years. I have children in the higher grades as well. No homework, just focus on reading and reading comprehension. New principal who is wonderful. The school is small, maybe less than 500 kids. Great community and amazing SACC staff. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. A lot of military families but also permanent residents as well. I commute to DC every day as do my neighbors. Agree with PP that it's tough to get a house although there are quite a few rentals due to popularity among military families. I have a lot of friends who have moved here or are trying to get in. We had no idea before we settled here and got lucky. Extremely low pressure at school. I would think scores drop because the super smart kids move on to the 'gifted' center after second grade. I do know a few families who returned to WSES. Principal is focusing on pull out for center eligible kids. We also just raised money for a state of the art STEAM Lab next year. Highly recommend WSES. They have a kindergarten play date in August for all incoming. It's a great school and great community.

Hi! Thank you (and everyone else who responded) for the extremely informative replies. I feel pretty good about both choices. Now we just need to find a good place to live. I am a little confused about the bolded part. I was under the impression that both WFES and WSES had the AAP programs in the school. Am I wrong about this? If so, where do the AAP kids wind up going? It's obviously too soon to tell whether my 5 year old will be in AAP, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility, so I'd like to know.

Thanks!

The transfer report for AAP is here:

http://151.188.217.200/fts_drupal_support/dashboard/region1-5aaptransferreport.pdf

You can view how many students for each grade opted to attend the AAP Center school (vs. stay at the base school) as of September 2016).

West Springfield Elementary -> Keene Mill
3rd grade: 4
4th grade: 9
5th grade: 10
6th grade: 13

Wakefield Forest Elementary -> Canterbury Woods
3rd grade: 17
4th grade: 10
5th grade: 8
6th grade: 12

[Anonymous]

Keene Mill is that school with the horrible Al Fresco program where the AAP kids go on a field trip without the general ed kids. I really don't know why anyone would want to send their child to a school like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keene Mill is that school with the horrible Al Fresco program where the AAP kids go on a field trip without the general ed kids. I really don't know why anyone would want to send their child to a school like that.

I would not describe it as "horrible". It is also not a field trip.

https://www.facebook.com/CampAlFresco

https://tinyurl.com/alfresco123

[Anonymous]

Thank you to everyone who responded. Both schools are great but we just found our new home near West Springfield. We love the community and the neighborhood and think that our son will be very happy (although he really does prefer the idea of being a wolf over a mustang ... oh, well).

Again, thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keene Mill is that school with the horrible Al Fresco program where the AAP kids go on a field trip without the general ed kids. I really don't know why anyone would want to send their child to a school like that.

Do your kids go there? Doesn't sound like it. You're just maligning an elementary school on the internet.