bethesda elementary vs. wood acres vs. burning tree

[Anonymous]

if you had a choice between these three schools, which would you choose and why? dc would be entering in 4th grade, in case that factors into your opinion.

[Anonymous]

Wood Acres/Burning Tree are interchangeable. And I suspect that Bethesda ES is as well, the main difference being that WA/BT feed into Pyle/Whitman and BE feeds into Westland/BCC. Since your child is entering 4th grade and thus almost done with elem school, I'd focus on discerning differences between the middle and high schools. You can't go wrong with any of the three.

[Anonymous]

Wood Acres is going to be under construction from December 2014 to September 2016. http://www.woodacrespta.org/component/content/article/38-addition/welcome6/63-addition

The kids will be in a temporary location.

We've been very disappointed with Wood Acres, but have no experience with the others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wood Acres is going to be under construction from December 2014 to September 2016. http://www.woodacrespta.org/component/content/article/38-addition/welcome6/63-addition

The kids will be in a temporary location.

We've been very disappointed with Wood Acres, but have no experience with the others.

If the temporary location is Radnor, that is not very disruptive as it is very, very close by.

[Anonymous]

All three are great schools. We have loved Pyle and Whitman.

[Anonymous]

NP here. 20:43 Would you please elaborate on why you are disappointed with Wood Acres Elementary?

[Anonymous]

I think Burning Tree is more highly ranked than the other two. I am too lazy to look up the data.

Woodacres is going to be remodeled to accommodate current enrollment for the second time in 20 years. The Westbard shopping center close to us is going to be remodeled to mixed use residential which, I predict will send another 100+ kids we can't accommodate, even with the remodel. They are also building a large townhouse development on Little Falls Parkway, not sure which school this will feed to.

Bannockburn has several hundred fewer kids and in the Whitman/Pyle cluster, and zero multi-family high rises feeding into it. It's essentially the same community as Woodacres.

BCC is more economically diverse and in the "city", if this is a factor for you. I found Whitman to be sheltered and a pressure cooker, but I am in the minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. 20:43 Would you please elaborate on why you are disappointed with Wood Acres Elementary?

NP here- the complaints I have heard is that its huge and easy for kids to get lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Burning Tree is more highly ranked than the other two. I am too lazy to look up the data.

Woodacres is going to be remodeled to accommodate current enrollment for the second time in 20 years. The Westbard shopping center close to us is going to be remodeled to mixed use residential which, I predict will send another 100+ kids we can't accommodate, even with the remodel. They are also building a large townhouse development on Little Falls Parkway, not sure which school this will feed to.

Bannockburn has several hundred fewer kids and in the Whitman/Pyle cluster, and zero multi-family high rises feeding into it. It's essentially the same community as Woodacres.

BCC is more economically diverse and in the "city", if this is a factor for you. I found Whitman to be sheltered and a pressure cooker, but I am in the minority.

Interesting - I think of "sheltered" and "pressure cooker" as contradictory things. By "sheltered" do you mean homogeneous? Or is BCC or Whitman noticeably warmer/friendlier in environment than the other?

[Anonymous]

By sheltered, I mean close to zero economic diversity, and a quiet, safe, suburban setting. The pressure cooker being that high achieving parents that can afford the neighborhood have high expectations of their progeny. It is more homogeneous than BCC. I would say the only school more sheltered in the county is Churchill or perhaps Poolesville.

BCC is in downtown Bethesda. Not everyone lives in a 1.8 Million dollar house. Kids ride metro, bus, scooters to school. There are even some brown kids that aren't Harvard legacies there. I always thought people there were more grounded by the setting.

-Whitman grad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By sheltered, I mean close to zero economic diversity, and a quiet, safe, suburban setting. The pressure cooker being that high achieving parents that can afford the neighborhood have high expectations of their progeny. It is more homogeneous than BCC. I would say the only school more sheltered in the county is Churchill or perhaps Poolesville.

BCC is in downtown Bethesda. Not everyone lives in a 1.8 Million dollar house. Kids ride metro, bus, scooters to school. There are even some brown kids that aren't Harvard legacies there. I always thought people there were more grounded by the setting.

-Whitman grad

One factor to keep in mind is school spirit. Whitman seems to have much more than BCC for whatever reason. There was an article in the BCC paper recently about this and I've certainly noticed it at sports events -even at events at BCC there will be more Whitman fans. This may not be important to everyone of course but it is a noticeable difference.

Every kid is different of course but my friends DC at BCC did IB and seemed to have plenty of pressure cooking. Mine at Whitman did a heavy AP schedule but wasn't under nearly as much pressure.