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Forest Knolls Elementary in Silver Spring - opinions?
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Anonymous
| I have a 3 yo who will begin kindergarten at Forest Knolls Elementary in the Fall of 2010. I don't have a good 'gut feeling' about the school and therefore we are contemplating moving before she begins. Good or bad insight? TIA! |
Anonymous
| Not the OP, but in same situation. Any feedback? |
Anonymous
|
Hopefull you'll get some responses from more knowledgeable people, but some info at:
http://www.greatschools.net/school/parentReviews.page?id=894&state=MD and much more at: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schoolodex/schooloverview.aspx?s=02803 I always recommend taking a look at the "At a Glance" info for the school on the MoCo page, as well as survey results (you can compare to results from surveys at other schools in the county, for example). |
Anonymous
| pp here. wow, great resources. thanks a lot. |
Anonymous
|
I am in the same boat: 2010 kindergartner and wondering what to think about Forest Knolls. For what it is worth, I too had/have a not so great "gut feeling" about Forest Knolls (and public school in general esp in the "downcounty"). After much research and anxiety, I am beginning to feel a bit better about sending my kids there as it seems like a nice, good and caring school. It has a very active PTA, pretty goods scores and because it is a "magnet" for special ed extra resources that other elem. schools in the area don't have. That said, I don't consider the middle school (or high school) to be an option and if we could move to a better district I would in a heartbeat.
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Anonymous
| PP what are the middle and high schools that you don't consider to be an option, and why? I live in a nearby neighborhood, so a different elementary school, but i don't know if it would be the same later schools. I have not learned enough about the upper grades to have a strong opinion yet. |
Anonymous
| Curious, what is setting off alarms? |
Anonymous
|
We moved into the Forest Knolls neighborhood in the summer of 2001 so that our son could enter Forest Knolls ES for first grade. We 'bought' the school before the house and have never regretted the move. The school has an excellent reputation, fantastic parent involvement, great teachers and a wonderful group of students. The school community is tight-knit in the best of ways with a neighborhood pool, family barbeques, ladies' nights out, guys' nights out - all in all a great support system and a good place to raise young children. Our two are now entering middle school and high school. The local middle school is Silver Spring International Middle School which has improved so greatly in the last few years that the majority of this year's fifth grade students will be attending sixth grade there in the fall. SSIMS was also included in Jay Mathew's Washington Post Magazine as one of the best middle schools in the area. The downcounty consortium offers five high schools to choose from. I can report back on the one my son chose in a few years!
The quality of a school goes far beyond test scores and FARMs rates and is truly about the people who call the school their own - the teachers, administration, parents and students. Our children both received good educations at FKES and have made friends and learned skills that will be with them forever. The community they have been privileged to grow up in here in Silver Spring has by far been better than we dreamed of. |
Anonymous
| Is this in the neighborhood of Holy Cross Hospital near Forest Glenn Metro? |
Anonymous
| No, it's off of University, between Route 29 and Arcola. |
Anonymous
Depends. I live near Sligo Creek Park in the South Four Corners community and my children will go to Forest Knolls. |
Anonymous
|
"SSIMS was also included in Jay Mathew's Washington Post Magazine as one of the best middle schools in the area. "
heh. Matthews is also the one that ranks high schools solely on how many kids the school gets into AP classes, which says virtually nothing about the quality of the school (to me) and the type of kids your child would be going to school with. Maybe his middle school assessments are based on more meaningful information though.... |
Anonymous
What do you mean by the "type of kids", and what does it have to do with how the school should be ranked? |
Anonymous
|
For what its worth, to the original question, my son is going into first grade at FKES this year. The kindergarten experience was a wonderful one for us. We'd moved to the area in December after relocating from Florida. Even though we started well into the school year, we were made to feel very welcome and my son made new friends there very quickly. He had some minor behavior issues very early on due to the changes that had occurred. Really caring professionals and close but loving supervision nipped the issue in the bud and by the end of the school year, he had really just flourished.
The school has a really nice community feel. The teachers and staff are very caring, professional and everyone really seems to go the extra mile for the children. Resources are not lacking and class sizes are nice and small. There's a very experienced principal and a young and dynamic principal intern acting as assistant principal this year who make a great team. I'm not sure why you had a not so good "gut feeling" about the place, as I have always had the exact opposite. I have nothing but the highest esteem for this school and we're looking forward to the coming school year. |
Anonymous
| PP, thank you for sharing your experience with FKES. Most of the times DCUM reading DCUM freaks me out and makes me feel like I've got it all wrong (DC vs BCC, etc...). Its' nice to hear good feedback on the ES kiddos will attend. THANK YOU! |