Norwood Lower School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually when we started at Norwood, our "buddy family" said that a "gender divide" was part of the school culture - its reinforced by single sex parties mostly, and play dates.

This past year, our DD was invited to many, many, many girls parties but not a single party for a boy.

This isn't a gender divide, it's basic finance. If you invite both sexes, you need to invite a lot more kids, and your party tab gets massive.

Its not a case of finance. The parents will invite EVERY girl in the grade or EVERY boy. Not just the classroom. If you invited your whole classroom of boys and girls it would actually work out cheaper (17-18 kids). When you invite all one gender, you're inviting about 25-30 kids.

And finance isn't a problem at Norwood. Many of the parents are loaded. At least those throwing parties are, for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually when we started at Norwood, our "buddy family" said that a "gender divide" was part of the school culture - its reinforced by single sex parties mostly, and play dates.

This past year, our DD was invited to many, many, many girls parties but not a single party for a boy.

This isn't a gender divide, it's basic finance. If you invite both sexes, you need to invite a lot more kids, and your party tab gets massive.

Its not a case of finance. The parents will invite EVERY girl in the grade or EVERY boy. Not just the classroom. If you invited your whole classroom of boys and girls it would actually work out cheaper (17-18 kids). When you invite all one gender, you're inviting about 25-30 kids.

And finance isn't a problem at Norwood. Many of the parents are loaded. At least those throwing parties are, for sure.

Wow, so much wrong with this. Norwood has homerooms, but those homerooms intermix a great deal, especially at the younger ages...meaning if someone wants to invite all his/her friends, he can't just invite his class. And then, as a parent, you don't want just a handful of boys/girls left out...so you''re left with either having to invite just his homeroom and leaving out a bunch of friends, inviting all of one sex, or inviting everyone in the grade, which is both expensive and unwieldy.

As for your second comment...we'll, the less said about that kind of idiocy, the better.

[Anonymous]

The question is just how this socializing compares to other environments. I do not have kids at Norwood but we have looked into it in the past. In my non-Norwood environment, parties have included both sexes from preschool up until about 3rd or 4th grade, when they have turned into boys or girls only.

That is a different question from how traditionally masculine (sporty) or feminine (fancy) the kids there tend to be. I can't speak to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question is just how this socializing compares to other environments. I do not have kids at Norwood but we have looked into it in the past. In my non-Norwood environment, parties have included both sexes from preschool up until about 3rd or 4th grade, when they have turned into boys or girls only.

That is a different question from how traditionally masculine (sporty) or feminine (fancy) the kids there tend to be. I can't speak to that.

Honestly I don't find the boys particularly sporty. I find them socially awkward though. Like on a playdate they will prefer to just do their own private computer game than interact with their play date. The girls are actually pretty un-fussy. Mostly quiet and very bright girls perhaps a little shy sometimes.

[Anonymous]

I don't find a gender devide at all abnormal. My son in 6th grade has been there since k. In younger grades parties were both genders. Around 2nd/3rd it switched to just boy or girl. Then from what I hear that changes again around. 7th grade.

There are both sporty and non sporty boys and girls. All kids play on teams. There is a no cut policy. Some boys and some
Girls are socially awkward but that is true in all schools. Overall it is a nice bunch of kids. As they get older, with differentiated learning kids tend to be in The same classes year after year. High reading hasn't changed much since 1st grade, although it's not reading in middle school. Math track for high level is solid w/ the track graduating 8th grade finishing honors geometry. Not all the kids are at the level but a solid group each year will go off to high school ready for algebra 2.

Could the math dept do a better job of engaging the kids? Absolutely! But it is moving in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've been thrilled with Norwood and will be sending a K student in the fall to join our 2nd grader. My DD has loved all the teachers and honestly doesn't ever say anything that suggests a gender divide. I also don't notice that when watching kids play after school. I saw more of a gender divide at my DDs previous DCPS.

what thrills you, exactly?

Its easy to come on this board and attempt to balance any coherent criticism which has been posted, but really you have to be coherent yourself. Just saying you're "thrilled" makes your post look like a desperate attempt to improve school image but without any of the facts to back it up.

Nothing better than anonymous trolls on free message boards that beat people up for not giving the specificity they demand. LOL! Do you spend your spare time going after TripAdvisor posters who give five stars to hotels but just say "great!" or "fantastic!"? It's a free message board, not Foreign Policy Magazine.

Back to the topic, my children certainly do not feel it is overly sporty and we as a family are also ... wait for it ... thrilled.

We enjoy the values instilled daily at chapel and quite frankly throughout the school in each and every class. The moralistic, selfless, inclusive lessons are fantastic. Not hippy dippy, but not parochial (our way is the right way). Are the academics top notch? Not certain I could make that assessment as I am no early childhood education expert but we are impressed with what our kids are learning and our children are certainly learning a lot than their previous school, they now really like school and we have not seen any subjects where are lacking v. peers at privates and publics elsewhere. We were previously at a MoCo public close to the school with disinterested teachers, overcrowded classrooms and our kids were ambivalent about school.

At the end of the day, visit the school (and others) and I would guess you will soon get a feeling that it is or is not a fit for your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've been thrilled with Norwood and will be sending a K student in the fall to join our 2nd grader. My DD has loved all the teachers and honestly doesn't ever say anything that suggests a gender divide. I also don't notice that when watching kids play after school. I saw more of a gender divide at my DDs previous DCPS.

what thrills you, exactly?

Its easy to come on this board and attempt to balance any coherent criticism which has been posted, but really you have to be coherent yourself. Just saying you're "thrilled" makes your post look like a desperate attempt to improve school image but without any of the facts to back it up.

Nothing better than anonymous trolls on free message boards that beat people up for not giving the specificity they demand. LOL! Do you spend your spare time going after TripAdvisor posters who give five stars to hotels but just say "great!" or "fantastic!"? It's a free message board, not Foreign Policy Magazine.

Back to the topic, my children certainly do not feel it is overly sporty and we as a family are also ... wait for it ... thrilled.

We enjoy the values instilled daily at chapel and quite frankly throughout the school in each and every class. The moralistic, selfless, inclusive lessons are fantastic. Not hippy dippy, but not parochial (our way is the right way). Are the academics top notch? Not certain I could make that assessment as I am no early childhood education expert but we are impressed with what our kids are learning and our children are certainly learning a lot than their previous school, they now really like school and we have not seen any subjects where are lacking v. peers at privates and publics elsewhere. We were previously at a MoCo public close to the school with disinterested teachers, overcrowded classrooms and our kids were ambivalent about school.

At the end of the day, visit the school (and others) and I would guess you will soon get a feeling that it is or is not a fit for your child.

Top notch academics are really the most importantaspect of any school, be it private or public, parochial or not.

[Anonymous]

Top notch academics are really the most importantaspect of any school, be it private or public, parochial or not.

And also the hardest to quantify, so what's the point of trying?
Anyone that comes on here and says that their lower school is better academically than another school is just blowing smoke.
The truth is, all the high profile privates that are discussed here have strong academics...so determining what school is "best" is more about what fits your individual student, and whether it actually makes them excited about learning or not.

As for Norwood itself, well, I'm not a parent there. But after reading some other forum topics about schools with real problems, you should be happy that the biggest things to complain about are your kids not getting invited to coed parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Top notch academics are really the most importantaspect of any school, be it private or public, parochial or not.

And also the hardest to quantify, so what's the point of trying?
Anyone that comes on here and says that their lower school is better academically than another school is just blowing smoke.
The truth is, all the high profile privates that are discussed here have strong academics...so determining what school is "best" is more about what fits your individual student, and whether it actually makes them excited about learning or not.

As for Norwood itself, well, I'm not a parent there. But after reading some other forum topics about schools with real problems, you should be happy that the biggest things to complain about are your kids not getting invited to coed parties.

THIS! Amen!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Top notch academics are really the most importantaspect of any school, be it private or public, parochial or not.

And also the hardest to quantify, so what's the point of trying?
Anyone that comes on here and says that their lower school is better academically than another school is just blowing smoke.
The truth is, all the high profile privates that are discussed here have strong academics...so determining what school is "best" is more about what fits your individual student, and whether it actually makes them excited about learning or not.

As for Norwood itself, well, I'm not a parent there. But after reading some other forum topics about schools with real problems, you should be happy that the biggest things to complain about are your kids not getting invited to coed parties.

Firstly I would say that was a gross over-generalization. Secondly, if you say the academics are unquantifiable in one sentence and then that they are all strong in the next, you really do look like a very silly and muddled person.