Quality of education at Washington International School (primary school)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The turnover is at the Tregaron campus.

From my child's MS -> HS class we had a few move to Europe and 1 or 2 move to other independent schools. That's not a lot of turnover. Our experience in the primary and middle schools was fantastic. And yes, the IB diploma program is VERY challenging.

There are a few parents early on who get spooked when their kindergartners aren't reading Harry Potter in English and "everyone else's kids at Sidwell, etc., are!" Apparently they missed the whole mission of the school: preK and K are conducted entirely in Spanish or French, so if your kid isn't reading Harry Potter when she's 6, you can't blame it on school. (Although when she's able to read Harry Potter in both English AND in Spanish or French later, you CAN thank the school.) Complaints about the later elementary years and middle school are few and far between, in my experience, and the only meaningful complaint I've ever heard about the IB diploma program is that it's really, really difficult and time-consuming.

[Anonymous]

This is 12:23 again to answer a PP's question about where kids go if they leave WIS and don't leave the area or the country: over the years we have heard of some moving to Sidwell and one or two moving to St. Albans. The most overlap in both admissions (from talking to parents) and for kids leaving seems to be with GDS. We also had applied to both GDS and WIS and chose WIS after acceptance at both. I think it is less common to move from other local independents to WIS because the kids either don't have the language component or their parents are scared off by it, but we have had many come from highly regarded international and UN schools to WIS and they do quite well.

[Anonymous]

Several have moved from Tregaron to local public schools in the last two-three years as well.

[Anonymous]

I was one of those nervous parents in kinder at WIS. I met with the principal a lot and she always listened and helped me and greeted every problem with a way forward and a smile. She really understood my worries and spent time with me and worked with our teachers too. She invited me to visit the class and we worked out a way to do this with our teacher, so that the children could be natural in their learning. I started to see my DS speak and play and have fun in French. I couldn't believe it. Now we are in grade 2 and I am grateful for all of the time our principal spent with me and my family. If it were not for her wisdom and care and spot on observations I don't think we would have made it. It really is true that my child reads, writes, speaks and learns in two languages. While for many this may be typical, for our family it was an extraordinary gift.

[Anonymous]

Reviving this old thread. Do current/former WIS parents still feel the same way about the quality of the education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reviving this old thread. Do current/former WIS parents still feel the same way about the quality of the education?

I'm one of the parents who responded to the original thread and yes - we are still very satisfied with the quality of education and our kids' overall experience. We are coming close to the end of our time at WIS and I am truly getting sad. It will be hard to say goodbye to a wonderful community of people, not to mention being an empty nester, but that's a whole other thread topic!

[Anonymous]

I'm a WIS primary school parent and have not been pleased with the quality of the education. The school has a particularly poor math program and teachers do not communicate effectively with parents; in fact it is frequently difficult to get a response from teachers at all. There also has been significant turn over of the English speaking teachers (at least those who teach on the Spanish side) and one of the school's best teachers left after her requests to teach a higher grade went unheeded. Parents claim things improve in the middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a WIS primary school parent and have not been pleased with the quality of the education. The school has a particularly poor math program and teachers do not communicate effectively with parents; in fact it is frequently difficult to get a response from teachers at all. There also has been significant turn over of the English speaking teachers (at least those who teach on the Spanish side) and one of the school's best teachers left after her requests to teach a higher grade went unheeded. Parents claim things improve in the middle school.

What are the final high-school level average IB diploma scores at WIS? Do the kids get 6s and 7s? Are they getting a total of 40-42 so that they are competitive for admission to the top European unis? I.e. is the IB performance equiv to the top level IB schools in the EU?

[Anonymous]

PP - all of your questions are answered on the WIS website through the academics link.

But to quickly answer you...yes, the students regularly receive offers from the top European (and Canadian) universities. There are always kids in each class who receive the highest score (which is actually a 45, not a 40-42, when you add in the EE and TOK essay scores). I have no idea about the scores from top IB scores in the EU, but WIS' average scores are consistently well above the world average.

Hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

PP had asked about the Elementary School
and odd that a responder was quick with a non answer giving IB scores from the HS . How many of those IB scores are generated by new admits at HS level from other IB schools vs how many were lifers - non tutored lifers .

PP - if you are still interested in objective information on the Elementary school, call up the PYP accreditation agency and ask them for how they rate this school as compared to other IB schools that teach the PYP in DC, USA and abroad

That would perhaps be an unfiltered answer more so than getting “ feedback” on an anonymous forum when you have no idea who is responding calling themselves a “ WIS parent “ fwiw - the new HOS is also a “ WIS parent “ technically and ,though prior HOS used to post only rarely on this forum, when he did so he used his registered DCUM ‘s profile and posted under his own name.

His honesty, integrity and transparency are truly missed.

[Anonymous]

NP question — if a kid joins in K, are they going to be hopelessly behind their K classmates who got the language immersion in PK there?

Also, how did you decide b/t French and Spanish?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP question — if a kid joins in K, are they going to be hopelessly behind their K classmates who got the language immersion in PK there?

Also, how did you decide b/t French and Spanish?

We have a kid in K who joined in preK with no knowledge of their immersion language and they were quick to adjust and integrate with kids who started in PS. Now in K there are a few new children who also did not speak a word of the immersion language and based what I have seen during the first few weeks of online learning they were doing fine. The teachers always switch to English if the kid has no idea what is going on and then they repeat in the foreign language. At school children speak English to each other so I would not be too worried about your kid being lost.
In terms of picking the language, we picked the one that gave us a better vibe when we visited. We did not care much either way and are happy with our choice.

[Anonymous]

Wondering what HOS has time to trawl thru the stuff that appears on this site while trying to run a sc hool in a pandemic. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wondering what HOS has time to trawl thru the stuff that appears on this site while trying to run a sc hool in a pandemic. Seriously.

Also most of the posts in this thread predate the arrival of the current HOS with whom the angry PP seems to have a major problem.

[Anonymous]

To the recent NP, for kids joining in K who need extra language support there is a track in first grade (and beyond) where you get additional language support. They call it FAL and SAL. Most kids who joined in K really had no problem picking up the language fast and fitting right in.