Northwood High School

[Anonymous]

We are considering this as a DCC choice. Does anyone have experience there?

[Anonymous]

DS just started at Northwood this fall, so we don't have too much of a feel for it yet. I was impressed with most of the teachers at Back to School night, much more than his middle school teachers.

They are one of the few (only?) high schools in MCPS that have block schedules with 4 classes for 90 minutes each day, for a total of 8 classes. They have each class every other day. Most schools have 7 periods each day. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, they get an extra class of their choosing. But to accommodate that, they spend less time overall in each class. Also, several teachers have said they'd prefer to have the students every day because they feel they lose a lot of momentum with the current schedule. If they have a class on a Thursday, say, they won't have it again until the next Monday.

I was concerned about fights that broke out after a recent football game that caused a huge number of police officers to descend on the school, even closing University Boulevard. That happened on a Friday night, and the principal didn’t address it with parents until the next Tuesday afternoon on the school listserv and primarily blamed students who did not go to Northwood. Seemed kind of lame to me. That said, DS says he sees very little in the way of fighting at school itself, less than at middle school.

The PTSA seems to be in flux as the president (who had already been president for two years) just quit and no one has stepped forward to fill the void. At the same time, the first meeting was very well attended.

I hope someone less new to the school can chime in here about their general impression of the school.

[Anonymous]

I have two kids there, both seniors (one took summer classes to skip over a grade). We have had a wonderful experience there.

They went to Sligo for MS, and we saw much more "violence" in school there than at Northwood--meaning fights in halls, etc. At NHS, my kids have found their core group of friends and have been able to avoid any problems. I heard that the fight at football was in fact primarily due to kids who didn't go NHS--still an issue, but I wasn't all that concerned. I didn't find it any more dangerous than any other place in Silver Spring on a Friday night.

Overall, we have been very happy. Not involved in PTSA, but my kids both play sports and enjoy having an "extra" class due to the block schedules, which they tell me they prefer.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thank you very much.

If you could do it again, would you choose Northwood again? What is your take on the academics there?