Westland Middle School
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Anonymous
| We are moving from NJ from an excellent public school system. I had an appointment with guidance counselor to register and pick courses for my daughter who will be a 6th grader. Of course counselor was brand new and had very little answers about proper placement and courses. I had questions about the culture also at school. Any thoughts from parents who children attend? Any advice would be appreciated. I left meeting concerned and confused. |
Anonymous
|
We moved into the area the summer before sixth. I've been super impressed with the school, and my child has thrived. I'm sure yours will too. As far as placement, here is some advice.
1) The "gifted" program is misnamed. It serves kids who have solid skills but aren't super high flyers. I've heard it serves the truly gifted kids well too, but I don't have experience since my kid isn't. 2) They'll work with you to find the right spot, so if you choose the wrong level they'll move her at your request. 3) As for math, she probably took a placement test and will take another in class the first week of school. I think their suggestions have been good for levels for my kid. 4) You can choose foreign language or reading. If you pick foreign language it's a high school pace class and it goes on their trancript for high school. We chose reading and I was glad. Lots of work on writing, which every kid can use, and less pressure. If you do choose foreign language in sixth, skip Mandarin. The teacher is the only bad teacher we've encountered there. 5) If your daughter is considering vocal music, I'd encourage you to go for it. Carrie Eyeler , the chorus teacher, is amazing! As far as culture -- it's a warm welcoming place. There are parents who put a lot of pressure on kids, and the staff try to alleviate that for them, but otherwise it's a warm welcoming, if somewhat large, community. |
Anonymous
| For Pyle and Westland parents, how do these schools differ? we too are moving to the area, and the middle school will end up being one of those. |
Anonymous
Westland has never had a sex scandal among students. |
Anonymous
Pyle feeds to Whitman and Westland feeds to BCC. Generally Pyle/Whitman is considered to have better scores but a bit more of a pressure cooker atmosphere. Both are good schools (at least insofar as any middle school can be). |
Anonymous
Sexting, not sex. The Westland kids just haven't been caught. |
Anonymous
That stuff happens at the best of the best of schools, especially privates. I wouldn't even count that as a reason to not consider Pyle. Be a diligent parent, watch what your kids do and teach them right from wrong. that's all we can do! |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thank you for the input about Westland. I did choose reading over the foreign language, I did not feel she was developmentally ready for a high school level class that reports on a transcript. Thanks for the info on the choral teacher. I will speak to my daughter about it. |
Anonymous
| Don't pick Italian. |