Primary Day, Norwood, Green Acres

[Anonymous]

Looking for strong academics without crushing rigidity. Son entering 1st grade. Which of these is our best choice?

[Anonymous]

Norwood.

[Anonymous]

A better question is what has the best outplacement

[Anonymous]

PD. In retrospect, it's one school I wish we had looked at.

[Anonymous]

10:45 again. Wished we had looked at not because of outplacement but the kids come out of there consistently confident and prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:45 again. Wished we had looked at not because of outplacement but the kids come out of there consistently confident and prepared.

No, have to disagree. Have been rather underwhelmed by most of them.

[Anonymous]

Heard mixed reviews on Norwood. Weak academics? Primary Day seems the most solid in this respect.

[Anonymous]

Primary Day has strong academics, almost as good as MCPS, however, many kids red-shirted, so you can't easily measure the outcomes.
Norwood is not quite as good as MCPS, but many parents will supplement. Little red-shirting.
Green Acres is like summer camp all year.

[Anonymous]

PD is horrible -- it's academics are rigid, there is no differentiation and there is a TON of redshirting, including of girls. Curriculum never changes, used again and again every year with no updating. Staff credentials are not the same as what you will find elsewhere. If you look into PD, question this point rigorously and see whether you get a straight answer. No support services if you come to find you need them. Yes, there are some good points (outplacement, music) but they don't outweigh the academics. Sent first child there, rest to MCPS and MCPS is 1000% better. No question.

[Anonymous]

Forget Green Acres. THE SCHOOL IS A JOKE!

[Anonymous]

Hi 11:37- could you comment more on MC vs. PD- what was your 2nd grader doing in mc vs the one who went to pd? Do the specials at PD make a difference compared to less specials in MC? We are Bradley Hills ES, and I am really struggling on what to do... thank you.

[Anonymous]

I have one child in MCPS and one at one of the above mentioned schools. Agree with the tone here the above mentioned schools are a complete waste of money. My dd who is in public school is not jaded and spoiled. I have never heard her say, "this is boring!" like the one in private school loves to say. He is always bored because nothing measures up to the Disney like experience in private school.
When my public school child does an extra outside of school, she takes it seriously and is happy to be there. She loves summer camp. That is because she is not being spoiled all day long.
Don't get me going about the other one. Nothing measures up in his eyes.
WRT academics, OP save your money. They will screw your kid up. We have more tutors that I can describe. We have one more year, then freedom!

[Anonymous]

Norwood for sure. Solid academics and extra-curriculars.

[Anonymous]

12:21 if you hate it so much, name the school. Otherwise you sound like a fake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi 11:37- could you comment more on MC vs. PD- what was your 2nd grader doing in mc vs the one who went to pd? Do the specials at PD make a difference compared to less specials in MC? We are Bradley Hills ES, and I am really struggling on what to do... thank you.

When my DC started K in MCPS, there were several noticeable differences that made me cringe that I had wasted so much money on PDS. First, as I noted above, the differentiation. For example, her MCPS K teacher noticed immediately that she could read and therefore gave her access to a special shelf of books for her to read while other kids were being taught the alphabet. All kids were ultimately grouped into Math and Reading groups based on ability while at PDS my older DC in PDS was struggling with boredom but wasn't given anything different to do because "it was outside the curriculum."

Second, I loved the quality difference in the facilities. The facilities at our MCPS school are just far and away better -- PDS has no gym, ours has a spectacular one; PDS has no cafeteria, ours had a great one where the kids could socialize at lunch (without a prayer first!); PDS has no Health Room, our has a staffed Health Room with beds, closet for individual needs (my DC requires equipment in case of a medical episode and it is kept onsite in the closet), bathroom, safe room, refrigerator and telephone for the kids to use; PDS has no counselor, ours has a counselor with her own spacious office with a couch and a table for lunch bunches to resolve issues among students as well as offering in-classroom character building lessons; PDS's director was inaccessible, our principal is available via phone, email, at drop-off and pick-up and for lunch bunches with the students themselves if they just want to hang with her; PDS has a dearth of musical instruments (though a wonderful music teacher while we were there) while our school has 2 music rooms and tons of instruments; PDS has no extracurricular activities run at the school, ours has all kinds of academic and sports programs run right at the school as well a huge theater production for upperclass students. I could go on and on, but you get my point.

As to the weekly number of specials themselves, I don't feel like my DC lost anything other than public speaking opportunities. At PDS, art and music were geared toward putting on weekly "Beako" assemblies on Friday morning. Each class does a presentation every other week (though over the years I noted that they are the same ones every year over and over again and I just wanted to put a needle in my eye after a while). These assemblies gave the kids a ton of experience public speaking that is not present in our MCPS school. All other specials are the same amount, generally, and again, in better facilities with better trained teachers and a lot more supplies.

With respect to academics, the fluidity available at our MCPS school has made sure that my DC is never bored with the work. Kids are accelerated when they have shown that they can do the work and I know that there are children who get support when they are not advancing at the same pace as the rest of the class including ESOL support, handwriting support, math support, and reading support. At PDS, families are told to get a tutor to resolve issues spotted by teachers.

With respect to atmosphere, PDS is extremely homogenous. Both racially and socio-economically (and politically, come to think of it) My sense was that those were factors that actually drew people to the school. OTOH, my neighborhood looks and acts like my neighborhood. I like that.

The redshirting at PDS is notorious (search the boards and you will see). My DC's class there had several 7 year-olds in K (boys and girls) while at the same time having 5 year olds. Think about that for a minute in terms of what grade a girl might be in when she gets her first period or when a boy is hitting puberty with an age spread of 20 months in a class. Or what grade they will be in when they can get a driver's license and starting high school. (I'm sure I will get flamed for pointing all this out, but I think PDS in particular errs on the side of holding kids back solely to boost academic achievement for outplacement purposes. Just IMHO).

PDS seems impresses at first, especially since there is nothing else to compare it to if your other children at home are younger and haven't started elem. yet. But I now think of it as a complete waste of time and money. Its smallness and old-fashioned charm drew me in (the nervous mom sending her child to school for the first time). But after just a few weeks with DC#2 in K at MCPS, I realized how I had given in to fears and wished I sent DC#1 to MCPS as well.

I hope this helps.