St. Mary's Open House (Alexandria)

[Anonymous]

Did anyone attend this morning? What is the feedback?

[Anonymous]

I heard it was packed from a friend. Our children attend St. Mary's.

[Anonymous]

We attended this morning. There are definitely pros and cons to the school. More cons if you are not Catholic or not a particularly devout Catholic.

The gym was packed full with prospective families, and it was the most crowded open house we've seen, thus far. The tour groups were packed, which made it difficult to hear the tour guides and have questions answered. Older St. Mary's students accompanied the tours, and they were very well spoken and seemed to have a lot of pride in their school. It's a very large school, I think over 700 students. Class size target is 26. The school seemed very orderly and disciplined, and the children appeared well behaved. We did not see any chaos, but a lot of engaged learning. Not much diversity. We got the impression that it is a wonderful community, with very friendly parents and students. Several students came over and introduced themselves to us. Also several current parents. A nice community....if you are Catholic. Apparently 87% of graduates go on to Catholic high schools, e.g., BI, Gonzaga, Visitation.

What surprised us was just how indoctrinated the school is. Even as a Catholic family, we were surprised to hear that the students pray before and after every single class. The open house opened with a prayer followed by Hail Mary. There was much more conversation and presentation about religious studies than there was discussion about the basic academic curriculum. The principal spoke at length about how religion is infused into the curriculum in every way possible, right down to discussion of the sun (God), moon (Mary), and stars (Students). They spoke about how the children walk 6 blocks to the church for services and also have weekly mass in addition to that, in the school. The student tour guides discussed religion at length, as they have religion class every day, not to mention praying before and after every class, and also classes on learning how to pray.

This was our first Catholic school tour, and we also plan to visit Blessed Sacrament and St. Ritas. Can anyone comment if the other Catholic schools are this conservative? We want our child to have a Catholic education, but I am not confident if St. Mary's is the right fit for us. We want DS to be exposed to other things besides all religion all the time.

[Anonymous]

It really is that conservative, but there are many closet liberals, like myself. I've accepted that it's extremely conservative (as is Blessed Sacrament) because my DC adores his school, loves praying, going to Mass and is getting a great education. He's happy to be there, and enjoys every part of his school day. It's a great school, with attention to each student and their level of ability, so I can't complain. The level of detail at parent/teacher conferences is helpful as well. The principal is known to be somewhat of a tyrant, although I have had no one on one dealings with her. And yes, some of the graduates are accepted into the more rigorous Catholic high schools, e.g., Gonzaga, Visitation.

[Anonymous]

The school is the largest K-8 in the diocese - well over 700 students. Too large, IMHO. Kids are packed into the gym like sardines every Friday at mass. It is very Catholic, but that is to be expected....the school, parish priest, and Diocesan literature are very up front about the mission of the school, which first and foremost is to provide a Catholic education. If you are not up for weekly mass, daily religion class, and hourly Hail Marys, then a parochial school is not for you.

[Anonymous]

It takes about thirty seconds to say the Hail Mary so not a huge time suck. The tour was packed today but looked like a bunch of happy well behaved kids. I couldn't hear the tour guides either because it was so huge. The size of the school doesn't bother me. I like it actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We attended this morning. There are definitely pros and cons to the school. More cons if you are not Catholic or not a particularly devout Catholic.

The gym was packed full with prospective families, and it was the most crowded open house we've seen, thus far. The tour groups were packed, which made it difficult to hear the tour guides and have questions answered. Older St. Mary's students accompanied the tours, and they were very well spoken and seemed to have a lot of pride in their school. It's a very large school, I think over 700 students. Class size target is 26. The school seemed very orderly and disciplined, and the children appeared well behaved. We did not see any chaos, but a lot of engaged learning. Not much diversity. We got the impression that it is a wonderful community, with very friendly parents and students. Several students came over and introduced themselves to us. Also several current parents. A nice community....if you are Catholic. Apparently 87% of graduates go on to Catholic high schools, e.g., BI, Gonzaga, Visitation.

What surprised us was just how indoctrinated the school is. Even as a Catholic family, we were surprised to hear that the students pray before and after every single class. The open house opened with a prayer followed by Hail Mary. There was much more conversation and presentation about religious studies than there was discussion about the basic academic curriculum. The principal spoke at length about how religion is infused into the curriculum in every way possible, right down to discussion of the sun (God), moon (Mary), and stars (Students). They spoke about how the children walk 6 blocks to the church for services and also have weekly mass in addition to that, in the school. The student tour guides discussed religion at length, as they have religion class every day, not to mention praying before and after every class, and also classes on learning how to pray.

This was our first Catholic school tour, and we also plan to visit Blessed Sacrament and St. Ritas. Can anyone comment if the other Catholic schools are this conservative? We want our child to have a Catholic education, but I am not confident if St. Mary's is the right fit for us. We want DS to be exposed to other things besides all religion all the time.

They only walk to the church on the first Friday of the month. Mass is in the gym the remaining Fridays, so it's still just once per week, plus special holidays. BS is the same as I recall, as was St Agnes in Arlington. I think it's pretty standard in a Catholic school. I feel like all of the religious education/foundation seemed the same in every school we toured. They just each had a different feel to them. St. Mary's will also start any large gathering with a prayer, like the Christmas program, K graduation, etc. I'm not Catholic (DH is) so a lot of it was pretty unfamiliar to me, but I see it as part of the whole package and obviously a huge part of the school's identity, and I think the whole package is pretty great (so far).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We attended this morning. There are definitely pros and cons to the school. More cons if you are not Catholic or not a particularly devout Catholic.

The gym was packed full with prospective families, and it was the most crowded open house we've seen, thus far. The tour groups were packed, which made it difficult to hear the tour guides and have questions answered. Older St. Mary's students accompanied the tours, and they were very well spoken and seemed to have a lot of pride in their school. It's a very large school, I think over 700 students. Class size target is 26. The school seemed very orderly and disciplined, and the children appeared well behaved. We did not see any chaos, but a lot of engaged learning. Not much diversity. We got the impression that it is a wonderful community, with very friendly parents and students. Several students came over and introduced themselves to us. Also several current parents. A nice community....if you are Catholic. Apparently 87% of graduates go on to Catholic high schools, e.g., BI, Gonzaga, Visitation.

What surprised us was just how indoctrinated the school is. Even as a Catholic family, we were surprised to hear that the students pray before and after every single class. The open house opened with a prayer followed by Hail Mary. There was much more conversation and presentation about religious studies than there was discussion about the basic academic curriculum. The principal spoke at length about how religion is infused into the curriculum in every way possible, right down to discussion of the sun (God), moon (Mary), and stars (Students). They spoke about how the children walk 6 blocks to the church for services and also have weekly mass in addition to that, in the school. The student tour guides discussed religion at length, as they have religion class every day, not to mention praying before and after every class, and also classes on learning how to pray.

This was our first Catholic school tour, and we also plan to visit Blessed Sacrament and St. Ritas. Can anyone comment if the other Catholic schools are this conservative? We want our child to have a Catholic education, but I am not confident if St. Mary's is the right fit for us. We want DS to be exposed to other things besides all religion all the time.

Maybe that is common in the Arlington Diocese (which is known as one of the most conservative Catholic dioceses in the nation), but I never did that as a kid who went to Catholic grade school and high school in a town that was predominantly Catholic (the Catholic HS was twice as large as the public HS and there weren't any non-Catholic kids attending the Catholic HS... so you can see it was a CATHOLIC town). We never prayed before each class (unless it was a religion class -- and even then it was probably only in HS, not grade school). We did attend mass twice a week every week.... no meat on Fridays. Praying before each class would be too much for me... but I guess it works for some. I have friends with 2 kids at BS. They like it, but by the time the oldest was in 4th grade they were thinking more about going public for HS... too cliquey and limited in social options. There's only one class at each level. It gets a little old after K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th with the SAME kids (and parents). Plus they want more diversity and sports options. But, on the whole, I think they have been happy with BS.

[Anonymous]

Prospective St. Marys family here. We are Catholic (but not rigorously practicing), and after the tour yesterday, we are really curious about how the academics at St. Mary's compare in elementary to any of the Alexandria Public elementaries (e.g., Maury, MVCS, Jefferson-Houston). Is the curriculum better at St. Mary's?

We would love to hear from parents who have had children enrolled both in public and St. Mary's. I guess we are trying to detemine whether the level of religion taught at St. Mary's comes at the expense of other academic areas, and whether a more progressive Catholic family would feel overwhelmed there. For example, yesterday the principle said they were teaching that the Sun represents God and that the Moon represents the virgin Mary, while the stars are children and followers. Would that not confuse a child who should be learning about the solar system?

[Anonymous]

I don't have experience with St. Mary's but I've researched and compared Catholic school schedules to some APS schools. I found that in general, Art and Music were offered twice at week in my public school options while the Catholic schools offered those subjects only once a week. It also looked like the Catholic schools had more instructional time in Math and Language Arts and PE was offered twice a week at both public and parochial.

If there is a Catholic parochial school in the area that offers Art and Music twice a week I'd love to know about it!

[Anonymous]

Some info on academics here: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/306718.page#3572931

The curriculum is....fine. They have certain standards to adhere to that are Diocese prescribed. You can find each grade's curriculum on the Arlington Diocese website.

Does the school teach that the earth is flat and that Jesus lived during the time of dinosaurs? No. There is solid science and history and language arts...but religion IS a graded class that all grades take every day. They teach the catechism and prepare kids for sacraments. That is their mission.

[Anonymous]

St Marys follows a 6-day rotating schedule for "specials". Every day you have either art, music, computer, library or PE (x2). So, most weeks you have PE 2 times, and everything else once. K-5 grades have Spanish 2 or 3 times a week; Middle school has it every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have experience with St. Mary's but I've researched and compared Catholic school schedules to some APS schools. I found that in general, Art and Music were offered twice at week in my public school options while the Catholic schools offered those subjects only once a week. It also looked like the Catholic schools had more instructional time in Math and Language Arts and PE was offered twice a week at both public and parochial.

If there is a Catholic parochial school in the area that offers Art and Music twice a week I'd love to know about it!

St. Louis Catholic School in Alexandria offers music twice per week. The principal's undergrad degree is in Music Education, so music is a very important part of this school. We are there now and love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We attended this morning. There are definitely pros and cons to the school. More cons if you are not Catholic or not a particularly devout Catholic.

The gym was packed full with prospective families, and it was the most crowded open house we've seen, thus far. The tour groups were packed, which made it difficult to hear the tour guides and have questions answered. Older St. Mary's students accompanied the tours, and they were very well spoken and seemed to have a lot of pride in their school. It's a very large school, I think over 700 students. Class size target is 26. The school seemed very orderly and disciplined, and the children appeared well behaved. We did not see any chaos, but a lot of engaged learning. Not much diversity. We got the impression that it is a wonderful community, with very friendly parents and students. Several students came over and introduced themselves to us. Also several current parents. A nice community....if you are Catholic. Apparently 87% of graduates go on to Catholic high schools, e.g., BI, Gonzaga, Visitation.

What surprised us was just how indoctrinated the school is. Even as a Catholic family, we were surprised to hear that the students pray before and after every single class. The open house opened with a prayer followed by Hail Mary. There was much more conversation and presentation about religious studies than there was discussion about the basic academic curriculum. The principal spoke at length about how religion is infused into the curriculum in every way possible, right down to discussion of the sun (God), moon (Mary), and stars (Students). They spoke about how the children walk 6 blocks to the church for services and also have weekly mass in addition to that, in the school. The student tour guides discussed religion at length, as they have religion class every day, not to mention praying before and after every class, and also classes on learning how to pray.

This was our first Catholic school tour, and we also plan to visit Blessed Sacrament and St. Ritas. Can anyone comment if the other Catholic schools are this conservative? We want our child to have a Catholic education, but I am not confident if St. Mary's is the right fit for us. We want DS to be exposed to other things besides all religion all the time.

I was there, too. This is a spot-on summary. Also, for the "closet liberal" parent--is your child non-Catholic? We are Catholics but have not baptized or children and are clearly thus non-practicing. I loved the school and the kids, but I think our son would be at a disadvantage there--would be an outsider. I didn't fully realize that until I went to the open house. If we were practicing Catholics, I would definitely apply. I liked it very much in a lot of ways.

[Anonymous]

The mission of St Marys is to prepare students for the sacraments, chiefly penance, communion, and confirmation. If your child is not baptized, then that may become a topic of discussion at your dinner table when all of his/her classmates are hurtling toward first communion in 2nd grade (that year's focus) and your child is not.