Anonymous wrote:
Hi DCUM Family I have a few Stokes & MV questions that maybe you can help answer.
Do both schools have teachers aides in PK3/4? What is the teacher student ratio in those grades? Throughout the school?
How long is the nap time in PK?
Since both schools are immersion programs.... will the teacher be the same for english and the target language or will they have multiple lead teachers?
Stokes: Do parents get a choice of the extracurricular (after school) activities or is your child just placed?
MV: Is it a structured/formal program (like stokes) or is it more of a free for all
Thank you for any feedback!
OP--MV has 2 teachers aids and 1 lead teacher in the combined PK3/4 class. I am not sure of the ratio (my child is in a upper grade), but I believe there are 20 kids in each class. In the upper grades it is no more than 1:11 (1 lead teacher/ 1 assistant). When my child was in PK naps were approximately 45 mins. However, his teacher let him sleep for longer when necessary (sometimes he would sleep for 1 hr or more). The PK3/4 class is all Spanish so there is no English teacher. However, in 1st grade in on each grade has 2 lead teachers, 1 in Spanish and 1 in English.
I am not sure about the structure of aftercare for younger kids. For K and above it is a mixture of structured activities that all kids in the class participate (e.g., art, gardening, soccer, and swimming) and fee for all time (usually after 5p.m. until pickup at 6 or 6:30p).
Hope that helps.
I'm a Stokes parent, and the Pre-K structure at MV sounds similar to what we have at Stokes. There are 2 teachers in each classroom, (approx. 1 teacher for every 11 kids) but Pre-K is full immersion at Stokes-- no English. Aftercare for the Pre-K classes are essentially an extension of the school day, no extracurricular activities, but it is well run and the aftercare teachers are amazingly loving and caring. All kids get plenty of outside time (weather permitting of course) with an exclusive Pre-K only playground. I think nap time is about an hour, but if your child doesn't need a nap, they just call it quiet/rest time. Upper grades are 50/50 immersion with one teacher English/one teacher target language with about the same teacher:student ratio.
I hope that helps.
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