Garrett Park Elementary

[Anonymous]

I am looking for information on Garrett Park Elem from current parents; specifically, what do you like (or not like) about the school? How are the teachers? How are the new facilities? Any problems with bullying? Is it a warm environment, and would you recommend this school? Thank you!

[Anonymous]

My DD is currently in 5th grade at Garrett Park.

Most of the teachers we have had were very good. In six years, we have had two classroom teachers and two subject teachers who were young and not very experienced, and one classroom teacher who yelled. (Many other kids and parents liked her, but for others her style was too forceful.)

The new facilities are fabulous.

I have not had any personal experience with bullying. Another parent once said that she felt her daughter was being excluded by the "popular girls", but DD seems to be oblivious to this, and is friends with all kinds of kids. I can also tell that they take bullying prevention very seriously. The counselor takes the time to get to know kids, and they are taught about being nice to others and what to do if someone bothers them. (Move away, tell them to stop, etc.)

I think overall it is a warm and nurturing environment. It is a small school. The administrators know all the kids by name. The parents are very involved, and not just the SAHMs either. A lot of working moms and dads find ways to help after hours and are encouraged to do so.

Living outside of the town of Garrett Park, it can be hard to make friends with the in-towners, who have all known each other for ages. In our five years at the school, neither I nor DD have ever been inside a house that is in Garrett Park or GP Estates, but we have both made many new friends in other neighborhoods assigned to the school. Of course, this could just be coincidence. I don't know what percentage of students are from GP proper. It might not be that many by now.

[Anonymous]

My son is currently at Garrett Park. The facilities are great, the administration is very efficient. I find the teachers to be very responsive, and for the most part very warm and nurturing. One of my son's teachers last year clearly could not stand him, but luckily agreed to transfer him to a different one who loved him to death, so it all worked out in the end. The kids my son hangs out with seem to be very academically-oriented, intelligent, and curious, which I think is great. The parents are very involved. Math curriculum could be more challenging, but then again that's an issue that's not limited to Garrett Park.

[Anonymous]

Bullying. The most overblown, hand wringing, and barely existent word of 2012.

From the first day that schools were invented kids have always made fun of each other. A thousand years from now it will still be the case. Kids will be kids. There is no way to prevent it.

The real problem is overly sensitive children and their helicopter parents.

[Anonymous]

The other part of the problem is children and their ignorant parents who feed off of and derive a sense of power from other children's sensitivities and vulnerabilities. By the way, how does a word "barely exist?"

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks very much for the informative responses, I appreciate you taking the time to write them.

[Anonymous]

Garrett Park is not as great as it may appeared to be. The majority, here, are just a bunch of, uneducated, red-necks! I totally agreed with the other parent who wrote about the teacher that yelled... because is an on going issue.

There are some teachers that are warm and nurturing but the rest are a bunch of bullies.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Garrett Park is not as great as it may appeared to be. [b]The majority, here, are just a bunch of, uneducated, red-necks![/b] I totally agreed with the other parent who wrote about the teacher that yelled... because is an on going issue.

There are some teachers that are warm and nurturing but the rest are a bunch of bullies.
[/quote]

Love that you revived a year-plus-old thread to put unnecessary commas in a sentence calling others uneducated. Fantastic!