Mosby Woods Elementary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 to everything the PP said. Mosby Woods is too large for the administration to manage effectively. I found the academics in AAP to be very weak there, but PP nailed it. In general, FCPS elementary school has weak academics and somewhat meh teachers. Most schools will have the same problems.

Mosby is zoned to Thoreau and then Oakton, which are reasonably strong. If you accept that the ES will be weak, but the middle and high will be decent, then a house zoned to Mosby wouldn't be a bad choice.

Well, your School Board member wants to spend the money that might otherwise relieve overcrowding at Mosby Woods on an unnecessary renovation and reopening of a former elementary school on the other side of Vienna near Tysons. If you think that's problematic, you might want to let Karl Frisch know.

I don't want to hijak this person's thread, but there was a meeting last night about this I didn't attend, do you know the proposal? Is there still going to be a new elementary school for us Mosby Woods, Oakton & Providence?

[Anonymous]

OP here - thank you, have a better idea now. Lots of good feedback, appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 to everything the PP said. Mosby Woods is too large for the administration to manage effectively. I found the academics in AAP to be very weak there, but PP nailed it. In general, FCPS elementary school has weak academics and somewhat meh teachers. Most schools will have the same problems.

Mosby is zoned to Thoreau and then Oakton, which are reasonably strong. If you accept that the ES will be weak, but the middle and high will be decent, then a house zoned to Mosby wouldn't be a bad choice.

Well, your School Board member wants to spend the money that might otherwise relieve overcrowding at Mosby Woods on an unnecessary renovation and reopening of a former elementary school on the other side of Vienna near Tysons. If you think that's problematic, you might want to let Karl Frisch know.

I don't want to hijak this person's thread, but there was a meeting last night about this I didn't attend, do you know the proposal? Is there still going to be a new elementary school for us Mosby Woods, Oakton & Providence?

That was tanked thanks to a small group of citizens who pretend they use Blake Lane Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's overcrowded, but so are most FCPS schools. Large classes, trailers, etc. Our experience is with AAP. The quality of the teachers varied. 3rd grade was terrific, 4th grade kind of meh, and 5th grade really good.

However, my DD had a terrible experience with bullying at Mosby. At the risk of revealing real life details, she made the mistake of telling some "friends" in 4th grade that she is gay, and she was bullied relentlessly until the winter of 5th grade.

She has a severe peanut and tree nut allergy, and a group of girls terrorized her by purposely sitting near the nut free table. Rather than deal with the girls, the administration lectured each class about the right of kids with food allergies to feel safe at school. We frequently were in contact with the counselors and Vice Principal, to no avail.

Finally, in 5th grade, one of the girls sent DD a note telling her that everyone hated her and she should jump off a building and commit suicide. Because there was documentation, the school finally intervened. However, the bullying investigation was ham-handed and inept, and the administrator conducting it outed my daughter to one of the classmates he spoke to. I was never informed of the result, apparently in violation of FCPS procedures.

I was not sad when we switched to DL. We have switched schools, and my daughter is in counseling. She says that the years at Mosby were the worst of her life.

So, if your kid is the kind who fits in easily, not a quirky outsider with something different about him or her, Mosby should be fine.

It sound like totally fictitious.

[Anonymous]

Mosby is a very diverse and large school. It is run well (logistically) despite the size, but it can be hard to be noticed. The PTA has a lot of good people...not snobby, just trying to help out. The thing we noticed the most was how much school spirit there is and participation in all schoolwide events at night. We had experience with two other elementary schools that were good, but when it came to participation, they couldn't hold a candle to Mosby. Things like the 6th grade fundraiser trivia night --- I thought it would be a bust because what can 3rd graders get out of a trivia contest? Turned out to be standing room only. Same with all the movie nights, bingo nights, and dances...and the Einstein night (science fair) and especially the annual staff basketball game against Providence! Wholy cow! They rock it!.

I was a mom of an AAP student. There seemed to be a divide in that the parents of in-bound students took responsibility for running the events and pta. I was kind of an anomole in getting involved, but at our previous school, it was just the opposite -- the AAP parents ran everything because of a socioeconomic divide. At Mosby, it's more of a location divide (with multiple highways and an interstate surrounding the school ftom the feeder base-school). My theory is that those who have to cross a highway or drive further to get to Mosby don't feel connected to the school and don't get involved with the work. Most of the AAP parents were not involved. I tried to be involved and felt bad for the in-zone parents because in some ways they were giving up their facility space for my AAP kid to go there.

Where the AAP parents do get involved is prepping their kids for IAAT, and thinking they are too good for Thoreau, and they have to get into TJ. When my kid's teacher put out the monthly newsletter for Dec, the survey question was: what are you doing over winter break (xmas break)? I was surprised how many kids said they were studying for the IAAT! I didn't even know that was a thing!

Anyway...like all FCPS schools, it has positives and negatives. The Mosby-in-zone community is a good group. It's too big (population of students) and needs a renovation, but it is run well and has a lot of community events and top notch school spirit. Academically, like other schools, it is very teacher dependent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mosby is a very diverse and large school. It is run well (logistically) despite the size, but it can be hard to be noticed. The PTA has a lot of good people...not snobby, just trying to help out. The thing we noticed the most was how much school spirit there is and participation in all schoolwide events at night.

I had the opposite experience. I felt like all of the school wide events were poorly run, impersonal cattle calls. When my kid was in 3rd, they had a museum open house in which all of the 3rd graders made museum artifacts. The principal was there yelling at everyone to "move it along," such that we couldn't even read or appreciate any kids' exhibits. The strings concert was similar, where the announcement after the concert was basically to get out and meet your kid outside. For Einstein night, my kid spent a ton of time on his exhibit, but none of the principals, APs, or any of the teachers even visited his display. It ended up being a complete waste of time. I've had kids in other schools, too, and the other schools felt so much warmer, more inviting, and more nurturing.

[Anonymous]

It sound like totally fictitious.

I'm the mom who wrote this, and I am trying to post the image of the note telling my daughter she should jump off a building, except I can't figure out how to do it. Sadly, it's not fictitious, and my daughter is in therapy to deal with the two years of bullying. But thanks for doubting - it is totally consistent with our experience at Mosby. For all I know, you are one of the parents of the girls who tormented my daughter.

[/img]https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1-XVV-_A3CZzfvk8EOYKFhIus-MuRTefe[img]

[Anonymous]

Let's see if this works. Mind you, this was after months and months of daily torment. This is what finally prompted the administration to do something - not the threats from the girls sitting near her with peanuts and Nutella, not the daily nastiness that made her have anxiety attacks in the mornings before school, not the anti-gay comments on the bus back from Jamestown, but a written note.

So, no, not lying, and not a fan of Mosby Woods.