Claremont Immersion

[Anonymous]

I have a rising Kindergartner, and I'm strongly considering the APS immersion school we are zoned for (Claremont). I've looked through the old threads, but I can't find specifics about the curriculum- specifically, how fluent in Spanish are the kids when they move on to middle school? I've also heard some not great things about the science and math curriculum there- are you pretty much making a trade-off when you pick immersion? Honest questions- I'm really interested in the program.

[Anonymous]

Love it, love the teachers, nice facilities too.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid in k at claremont. Where have your heard about bad science and math curriculum? I have never heard that. Kids are learning Spanish in the math science section of the day, but they all catch up.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a Claremont alum now in middle school. We loved the school - but there are various issues. First, a child starting to learn Spanish from scratch at Claremont will not be all that fluent at the end of 5th grade. They expect them to be at high-beginning/low-intermediate level on an assessment tool that they use. Their comprehension will be very good. The amount of Spanish a child learns there also depends on what families do/don't do outside of school. There are lots of resources in the area (including Spanish-language kids theater) that can make a big difference in proficiency.

The math/science curriculum is the same one used throughout APS but, especially in science, it's dependent on the teacher -- our DC had one very good science teacher and a couple of mediocre ones along the way.

No regrets about Claremont -- we miss it actually! -- but as much as we love it, it, like any school, has its issues.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid in k at claremont. Where have your heard about bad science and math curriculum? I have never heard that. Kids are learning Spanish in the math science section of the day, but they all catch up.

How do you know they "all catch up"?

[Anonymous]

This is OP- thanks for the replies so far.

I was told by several parents (one who withdrew their child a couple years ago and sent them to the neighborhood school, and another with two that went through the program and had very different experiences) that the science instruction is below average. The kids that are not native Spanish speakers get lost in the subject matter, and lose interest. Maybe the effort is placed on the Spanish language instruction, and not so much on teaching science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a Claremont alum now in middle school. We loved the school - but there are various issues. First, a child starting to learn Spanish from scratch at Claremont will not be all that fluent at the end of 5th grade. They expect them to be at high-beginning/low-intermediate level on an assessment tool that they use. Their comprehension will be very good. The amount of Spanish a child learns there also depends on what families do/don't do outside of school. There are lots of resources in the area (including Spanish-language kids theater) that can make a big difference in proficiency.

The math/science curriculum is the same one used throughout APS but, especially in science, it's dependent on the teacher -- our DC had one very good science teacher and a couple of mediocre ones along the way.

No regrets about Claremont -- we miss it actually! -- but as much as we love it, it, like any school, has its issues.

Good luck!

Could you tell us more about this? My DC loves acting and this would be a great way for her to practice her Spanish!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a Claremont alum now in middle school. We loved the school - but there are various issues. First, a child starting to learn Spanish from scratch at Claremont will not be all that fluent at the end of 5th grade. They expect them to be at high-beginning/low-intermediate level on an assessment tool that they use. Their comprehension will be very good. The amount of Spanish a child learns there also depends on what families do/don't do outside of school. There are lots of resources in the area (including Spanish-language kids theater) that can make a big difference in proficiency.

The math/science curriculum is the same one used throughout APS but, especially in science, it's dependent on the teacher -- our DC had one very good science teacher and a couple of mediocre ones along the way.

No regrets about Claremont -- we miss it actually! -- but as much as we love it, it, like any school, has its issues.

Good luck!

Did you continue with immersion in MS? Just wondering. We are at Key and only in K but I know MS will be here before I know it.

[Anonymous]

The principal explained that by the time they took sols they were caught up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The principal explained that by the time they took sols they were caught up.

If you look at the most recent test scores, only about 71% passed the most recent SOLs in science. It also looks like that score has declined over the past couple of years. I suppose that's caught up, but it's not really a great score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a Claremont alum now in middle school. We loved the school - but there are various issues. First, a child starting to learn Spanish from scratch at Claremont will not be all that fluent at the end of 5th grade. They expect them to be at high-beginning/low-intermediate level on an assessment tool that they use. Their comprehension will be very good. The amount of Spanish a child learns there also depends on what families do/don't do outside of school. There are lots of resources in the area (including Spanish-language kids theater) that can make a big difference in proficiency.

The math/science curriculum is the same one used throughout APS but, especially in science, it's dependent on the teacher -- our DC had one very good science teacher and a couple of mediocre ones along the way.

No regrets about Claremont -- we miss it actually! -- but as much as we love it, it, like any school, has its issues.

Good luck!

Did you continue with immersion in MS? Just wondering. We are at Key and only in K but I know MS will be here before I know it.

Parent of a Key alum here - most of my son's friends did continue w/immersion in MS at Gunston, then some continued in HS at Wakefield and others went to their home high schools, W-L or Yorktown. My son went to H-B -- if he hadn't gotten in, he would have continued with immersion at Gunston -- and they have a "Spanish for Fluent Speakers" starting in 6th grade that is mostly made up of Key and Claremont kids. So that's taking one class instead of half-day immersion, but it's a higher level class that recognizes these kids have had years of Spanish already. Then in high school they can move to Spanish 4 or 5, and can take AP Spanish in 10th, or start a new language if they prefer.

He's less fluent than his friends who continued in immersion, but still fairly proficient. I feel like the language starting at an early age was still a great boost, even though he didn't continue in full immersion.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone with Claremont/Key kids see a decline in performance or interest in the Spanish taught subjects?

[Anonymous]

My Key alum kid had very high interest/performance in math, which was taught in Spanish (and had no difficulty moving to the next level of math in middle school when it was taught in English). He's a couple years above grade in math.

He did not have high interest in science, though he performed well. That's proven the same now that he's taking it in English.

So his interest/performance does not seem to have been affected by what language the subject was taught in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a Claremont alum now in middle school. We loved the school - but there are various issues. First, a child starting to learn Spanish from scratch at Claremont will not be all that fluent at the end of 5th grade. They expect them to be at high-beginning/low-intermediate level on an assessment tool that they use. Their comprehension will be very good. The amount of Spanish a child learns there also depends on what families do/don't do outside of school. There are lots of resources in the area (including Spanish-language kids theater) that can make a big difference in proficiency.

The math/science curriculum is the same one used throughout APS but, especially in science, it's dependent on the teacher -- our DC had one very good science teacher and a couple of mediocre ones along the way.

No regrets about Claremont -- we miss it actually! -- but as much as we love it, it, like any school, has its issues.

Good luck!

Could you tell us more about this? My DC loves acting and this would be a great way for her to practice her Spanish!

Teatro de la Luna has bilingual theater classes in DC and both Teatro de la Luna and GALA Theater have kid's productions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a Claremont alum now in middle school. We loved the school - but there are various issues. First, a child starting to learn Spanish from scratch at Claremont will not be all that fluent at the end of 5th grade. They expect them to be at high-beginning/low-intermediate level on an assessment tool that they use. Their comprehension will be very good. The amount of Spanish a child learns there also depends on what families do/don't do outside of school. There are lots of resources in the area (including Spanish-language kids theater) that can make a big difference in proficiency.

The math/science curriculum is the same one used throughout APS but, especially in science, it's dependent on the teacher -- our DC had one very good science teacher and a couple of mediocre ones along the way.

No regrets about Claremont -- we miss it actually! -- but as much as we love it, it, like any school, has its issues.

Good luck!

Did you continue with immersion in MS? Just wondering. We are at Key and only in K but I know MS will be here before I know it.

Dropped immersion after 6th grade. DC has learning disabilities. Elementary school immersion is very hands-on and DC did great. In middle school, the format leans on lectures and DC struggled more. I still think it's a great program and DC's level of Spanish is very high. We've kept up DC's oral Spanish through other means.