Subjective capsule reviews of MD private elementary schools

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01/01/2014 09:16

Subject: Subjective capsule reviews of MD private elementary schools

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Anonymous

Over the past two years we visited a host of MoCo MD private schools, some of them multiple times, in search of the perfect school for first and later second grade. Because of where we live, we generally looked at schools north of the beltway, stretching far out into northern MoCo. In the process (I’m realizing as I read these boards) we became pretty substantial resources on what the various schools have to offer – everything from the “specials” (art, music, PE, etc.) available, to their general approach to academics, to their physical environments, to their admissions processes, to the teaching styles/methods observable during visits, to how impressive is the scholarly work adorning the walls, and so forth.

I’m offering capsule summaries of the various schools we visited in the hopes that it might be useful to some readers. They are intended as information for prospective parents only, and are not intended to argue against others’ contrary impressions of these schools.

First – the child. The right school is largely a function of the child’s needs. Ours is academically strong across the board and particularly attracted to performance opportunities. Her challenges were on the social side – we wanted a school where she could have a somewhat protected social environment and occasional teacher intervention/facilitation if an issue arose, for example, on the playground (you’ll see below that we cast the net pretty wide in terms of the types of schools we visited). We also wanted a school that was not only academically challenging but allowing for a high degree of individualization in the curriculum. The right teaching style was also important to us – we valued positive encouragement, flexibility of method, and not allowing dominant personalities to take over the classroom.

The following is a rough ranking of how much we liked the schools we visited, from most to least. Again, these are subjective and reflect the alignment between a particular child and the school. You may have a different set of priorities.

The first four are the schools I would have little hesitation in recommending to parents in similar situations:

The Barnesville School – OK, some of you have heard me sing its praises before, but it goes atop this list since we chose it and so far it indeed appears to be our dream school. We love the strong academic instruction, the teachers are fantastic, and the school administration is incredibly flexible and responsive whenever something comes up. The classes are small but the school is large enough to offer rewarding performance opportunities. The building is very nice, and the outdoor playground and play areas are the best we found. It feels like being part of an extended family; parent volunteerism is rampant, and one feels like other parents and teachers are always looking out for your child. The kids there are quite happy. OK, I could go on, but enough.

St. Andrews (SAES) – impressed us as an up-and-coming school. The teacher we observed impressed us favorably, as did the head of school. Seems well able to individualize to student needs, and social/emotional thinking is a part of the classroom curriculum. Demonstrated to us various ways in which the teaching methods reflect their research findings concerning how kids learn best. Lower school campus just OK; upper school one (3rd grade begins there next year) much nicer.

Norwood – Clearly a strong school on a lovely campus. We thought the academics looked good, there was some commitment to teaching what it means to be part of a community, and we found the strong arts focus especially seductive given our child’s interests. Nothing bad to say about it per se other than that they were not able to offer quite the same level of individualization that Barnesville and St. Andrews offered. Norwood seems to rely on a group of kids entering each year with a comparable array of aptitudes so they do a bit less flexing to meet individual family needs.

Sandy Spring Friends (SSFS) – Clearly behind the first three in terms of how attractive we found it, but still a perfectly good school. Was willing to spend a fair amount of time answering questions during the admissions process (more than Norwood), and many parents might like the separate-buildings “camp” feel of the place in nice natural surroundings. It wasn’t the right fit for us – we didn’t see a teacher whose style we particularly liked, and the administration didn’t seem used to the same frequency of parent-school communication that we were looking for, but others who are comfortable taking a more “hands off” approach to their child’s schooling might like it better.

OK, the next five were OK but each had something about them that made them the wrong choice for us:

Harbor – The biggest strikes against Harbor were that they only went up to 2nd grade (forcing an almost immediate further placement decision) and their smallness precluded the sorts of school performance opportunities we hoped for. That said, they were very accepting of different learning styles and offered an impressive array of specials for their size, including violin lessons, Spanish, etc; the school’s emphasis on early childhood education has its upsides, too. We know other parents there; one set is very happy with it, and other less so, though the ones who are less happy have still chosen to stay.

New Jewish School – Well, it no longer exists. Closed. And it was very small. We were favorably impressed by the teaching methods there, though.

McLean – Visited twice, got thorough tours both times, the kids seem very happy there. Nice environment, many activities to offer. Having said that, McLean definitely assumes that if you are coming in the door, your child must have a learning issue (each time we were quizzed closely on what academic challenge was the reason for our visiting). If your child is strong everywhere academically but just needs some help on the social side, they’re not as good a fit. The school seems to focus on helping with certain very specific learning challenges.

Lone Oak Montessori – We never thought Montessori was for us, but of all the Montessori programs this was the one that made us take the closest look. The teacher made a strong impression, they seem to offer decent opportunities in the arts, and expressed marvelous flexibility in terms of where we wanted the focus in the classroom. Head of school very nice and responsive. But extremely small, and the physical environment was a little depressing (no real playground to speak of).

Christ Episcopal (CES) – Very warm, friendly reception, and seemed to offer small-ish classes, fair amount of individual attention. We weren’t crazy about the physical setting, the lack of strong arts opportunities, or the teaching/disciplinary methods (not that they were bad, they just didn’t fit our child).

Then there were five schools that just didn’t fit at all:

Charles E. Smith – seems like a perfectly good school, but the 40-45% share of time spent on Judaic studies was too high for us, and the teaching methods involved far too much frontal teaching, school felt very big, not as much potential for individualized learning methods.

Feynman – a school for the gifted, but extremely small, and didn’t offer as much as we felt was needed in terms of PE or the arts. Also the presentation focused too much on the superficially-impressive things the kids were doing rather than on how their teaching methods work for individual styles.

TJ Prep -- very much liked the teacher there but it was just too small for us; would have broken our child’s heart to be spending each day in those little rooms with only a few kids!

Seneca Academy – we attended there previously and did not have a good experience; found them inflexible in dealing with kids who were a little bit quirky (even if they were cheerful, hard-working, successful students). Surprisingly cold and uncaring.

Maddux – Probably our worst experience, and we had it two times; admissions process is disorganized, random and unresponsive – little rhyme or reason in how they treat a prospective family – even getting calls returned or acknowledged was nearly impossible. Open Houses were cattle calls and it was hard to get any questions answered unless one was ready to interrupt and talk over everyone else. We know people who have kids there and like it but it’s basically a lottery whether they treat you even with passable manners – we verified this not just one year but two and ultimately wrote them off as an unprofessional operation.

There, those are our highly subjective reviews of 14 MD private schools we visited. Happy to answer any questions about any of these experiences. Contrary opinions are of course welcome.