norwood or bulls for third grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haha this is totally not true. I bet I live in your DC neighborhood and we love Norwood and didn't seriously consider or apply to those 2 other schools. We looked at Beauvoir briefly and we were extremely unimpressed with the school. Also, as a general matter we preferred to not send our kids to a sectarian school in the lower grades. Norwood is an excellent, secular, K-8 school and is increasingly becoming a real first choice for people in NW DC.

You must LOVE spending time in your car!

Norwood has AM and PM bus service to NWDC.

And the drive is really not bad from NW DC. There are many parents I know who live in DC who send their kids to the DC schools mentioned above, and others, who spend basically the same amount of time in their cars, if not more, than we do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there are some serious advantages to the k-8 model. There is a quite a bit of focus on the Middle School and I do think that is Norwood's strength. The grades are large enough for your kid to find their niche. The arts are really wonderful. The kids are pretty darn nice.

Academically, it is a mixed bag. Teachers are given quite a bit of freedom with varying results. But I think that happens everywhere. Teacher variability is certainly not an issue for privates alone. But when you are paying $30000+ per year, it can be frustrating to feel you have the "less" good math, english or history teacher.

There is also an issue with study skills. Teaching notetaking, organization, study techniques is also all over the map. This should be an important feature of any superior Middle
School program.

With that, I still think the advantages outweigh issues.

This is a balanced and thoughtful post and I agree with much of what you have said. I am curious though as to what you consider the advantages which outweigh the issues. Can you elaborate a little? I only ask because we found the issues outweighed the "advantages" for us, as in there were none we could find.

Sure, happy to go into more detail.
Arts:

Music is very good with a special nod to the Choral program and the violin program. Both in middle school and lower school. Excellent staff producing excellent results.

Art: Hands down the best visual arts program in the area. The instructors are artists and mentors and the work the kids create is quite breathtaking.

Leadership:
The middle schoolers are the leaders campus. They are the captains of teams, the soloists, the leads in plays. And yet they see their lower school teachers and kindergarten buddies. So, while they are clearly growing and becoming more responsible they are still in contact with the little girl/guy within. I do not think I am explaining this really well, but it is wonderful thing to behold. They seem to grow and change and have all this flux but are able to do it while still being comfortable in their own skin. Make no mistake, middle school is an awkward contrary stage of development. You feel like an adult one day a little kid the next. Or the changes are minute to minute. The K-8 seems to give the kids a nice space to work through this. My observation is that the kids are pretty confident when they leave. And not just the false bravado of the ones that grew early. ( there is definitely some of that) but a real sense that they can be who they are and be valued confidence.

Academics:
Solid. Rewards the good student/hard worker more than the intellectually curious. A little too easy and unengaging, so really best for the middle of the road student with the executive functioning skills already in place.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

original poster here: thanks for the help - I am going to visit both schools and try to decide

[Anonymous]

I am figuring out the same decision - any new thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Bump.