Montessori School of Arlington -REVIEWS NEEDED

[Anonymous]

I think it’s just to do K-8 in one location. I am all for them getting the proper space to carry our Montessori style learning. If Arlington is offering it, then don’t half-way do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s just to do K-8 in one location. I am all for them getting the proper space to carry our Montessori style learning. If Arlington is offering it, then don’t half-way do it.

What is proper space for montessori style learning? I know they have special manipulatives but what does proper space mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to AEM to see Montessori parents losing it over the new JFAC proposal. Spoiler alert - they don't like it much.

Arlington Montessori's goal for years has been to get their own brand new school building and expand to 12th grade. That is their sole focus. They are about to get as close to it as they ever will by getting a newly renovated-to-Montessori-specs Career Center building. Changing the plan (again) now, puts them in another existing old building and delays expansion of the program.

I wonder though if there is demand for montessori in the higher grades. aren't the numbers really low?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to AEM to see Montessori parents losing it over the new JFAC proposal. Spoiler alert - they don't like it much.

Arlington Montessori's goal for years has been to get their own brand new school building and expand to 12th grade. That is their sole focus. They are about to get as close to it as they ever will by getting a newly renovated-to-Montessori-specs Career Center building. Changing the plan (again) now, puts them in another existing old building and delays expansion of the program.

APS doesn’t owe them an expansion of their program. These people are so entitled.

They also whined earlier this year about needing more access to intensified classes so they can attend TJHSST. These people just want taxpayers to pay for a private school for their snowflakes.

How can you have montessori and an option to intensified? isn't that against the self directed model?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to AEM to see Montessori parents losing it over the new JFAC proposal. Spoiler alert - they don't like it much.

I saw the comments about Mary not supporting this idea. That school board fiasco and the people trying to blame her makes more sense now.

It always made sense, you just didn't know the background

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to AEM to see Montessori parents losing it over the new JFAC proposal. Spoiler alert - they don't like it much.

I saw the comments about Mary not supporting this idea. That school board fiasco and the people trying to blame her makes more sense now.

It always made sense, you just didn't know the background

Pretty obvious now who was gunning for her and why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to AEM to see Montessori parents losing it over the new JFAC proposal. Spoiler alert - they don't like it much.

Arlington Montessori's goal for years has been to get their own brand new school building and expand to 12th grade. That is their sole focus. They are about to get as close to it as they ever will by getting a newly renovated-to-Montessori-specs Career Center building. Changing the plan (again) now, puts them in another existing old building and delays expansion of the program.

I wonder though if there is demand for montessori in the higher grades. aren't the numbers really low?

It's small. They are in a couple of trailers behind Gunston.

[Anonymous]

It’s like 40 something kids. With a teacher, aide and apparently, a dedicated Sped teacher. Just like private school. 💪

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I am also trying to find out about the school culture. Did you get to meet other parents? Get to know the parents in your DC's grade? Have an organized feeling from the teacher? Get information about what is going on in the classroom?

We are coming from years of private school experiences ($ doesn't buy you a way out of the current state of education in this area when you don't want to be at the $40K and above pricetag) but youngest child doesn't have a great crop of students at her current private school. She needs a wider pool of kiddos. And our neighborhood APS school is the absolute pits.

Thanks for any insights!

Private doesn't work for you. Your neighborhood public school doesn't work for you. Perhaps you should try homeschooling for a better crop of peers.

OP here. Homeschooling has gotten us some of the weirdest crop of students. Parents who don’t watch their kids at all at group events and let them run wild. Rude and nasty behavior of the kids with no one who keeps them inline. We were able to disengage to a point and try to concentrate on academics in a part time program. Youngest kid has just awful kids in her hybrid cohort that we need to pull her out. Back to the drawing board. Preschool had such nice sweet and normal kids. great and friendly kids. Why is that so hard to find going forward?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I am also trying to find out about the school culture. Did you get to meet other parents? Get to know the parents in your DC's grade? Have an organized feeling from the teacher? Get information about what is going on in the classroom?

We are coming from years of private school experiences ($ doesn't buy you a way out of the current state of education in this area when you don't want to be at the $40K and above pricetag) but youngest child doesn't have a great crop of students at her current private school. She needs a wider pool of kiddos. And our neighborhood APS school is the absolute pits.

Thanks for any insights!

Private doesn't work for you. Your neighborhood public school doesn't work for you. Perhaps you should try homeschooling for a better crop of peers.

OP here. Homeschooling has gotten us some of the weirdest crop of students. Parents who don’t watch their kids at all at group events and let them run wild. Rude and nasty behavior of the kids with no one who keeps them inline. We were able to disengage to a point and try to concentrate on academics in a part time program. Youngest kid has just awful kids in her hybrid cohort that we need to pull her out. Back to the drawing board. Preschool had such nice sweet and normal kids. great and friendly kids. Why is that so hard to find going forward?

They’re probably at the neighborhood public schools. Is yours really that bad?

Also, have you been offered a spot at MPSA? If not that’s probably not going to be an option anyway.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a current Montessori student here - my DD was in Montessori starting at age 4 at Drew, then MPSA, and now at Gunston Montessori Middle Years program. Very happy with all stages of the program. At MPSA, faculty, administration, and extended day staff were supportive and fellow parents were engaged. Gunston middle years program has 70-80 in the back trailers and students can participate in school wide activities like band, orchestra, sports, theatre, and clubs. Curriculum is more structured with weekly assignments and grading, though they still have flexibility to choose project topics. There are a lot of group projects but this may be true of traditional students as well. We appreciate the socioeconomic diversity of the program which is built-in to the lottery process at the pre-K years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a current Montessori student here - my DD was in Montessori starting at age 4 at Drew, then MPSA, and now at Gunston Montessori Middle Years program. Very happy with all stages of the program. At MPSA, faculty, administration, and extended day staff were supportive and fellow parents were engaged. Gunston middle years program has 70-80 in the back trailers and students can participate in school wide activities like band, orchestra, sports, theatre, and clubs. Curriculum is more structured with weekly assignments and grading, though they still have flexibility to choose project topics. There are a lot of group projects but this may be true of traditional students as well. We appreciate the socioeconomic diversity of the program which is built-in to the lottery process at the pre-K years.

Do you feel like the Montessori curriculum is challenging and preparing your child for high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I am also trying to find out about the school culture. Did you get to meet other parents? Get to know the parents in your DC's grade? Have an organized feeling from the teacher? Get information about what is going on in the classroom?

We are coming from years of private school experiences ($ doesn't buy you a way out of the current state of education in this area when you don't want to be at the $40K and above pricetag) but youngest child doesn't have a great crop of students at her current private school. She needs a wider pool of kiddos. And our neighborhood APS school is the absolute pits.

Thanks for any insights!

Private doesn't work for you. Your neighborhood public school doesn't work for you. Perhaps you should try homeschooling for a better crop of peers.

OP here. Homeschooling has gotten us some of the weirdest crop of students. Parents who don’t watch their kids at all at group events and let them run wild. Rude and nasty behavior of the kids with no one who keeps them inline. We were able to disengage to a point and try to concentrate on academics in a part time program. Youngest kid has just awful kids in her hybrid cohort that we need to pull her out. Back to the drawing board. Preschool had such nice sweet and normal kids. great and friendly kids. Why is that so hard to find going forward?

It does sound like your family has difficulty with just about everyone. Good luck finding something suitable to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a current Montessori student here - my DD was in Montessori starting at age 4 at Drew, then MPSA, and now at Gunston Montessori Middle Years program. Very happy with all stages of the program. At MPSA, faculty, administration, and extended day staff were supportive and fellow parents were engaged. Gunston middle years program has 70-80 in the back trailers and students can participate in school wide activities like band, orchestra, sports, theatre, and clubs. Curriculum is more structured with weekly assignments and grading, though they still have flexibility to choose project topics. There are a lot of group projects but this may be true of traditional students as well. We appreciate the socioeconomic diversity of the program which is built-in to the lottery process at the pre-K years.

Do you feel like the Montessori curriculum is challenging and preparing your child for high school?

Yes and for the real world as well. There was a big jump from elementary to middle school in terms of pressure and amount of work but I heard that is true for other non-Montessori APS middle schoolers. Getting used to routine testing and weekly letter grades was a challenge (since elementary just had "meets standard" targets), but the grading scheme is required by the school of all students. The Montessori method has definitely helped my child with workload management and comfort level in advocating for herself and her classmates. In the middle years, there is a transition to a more traditional style of learning by 8th grade, and the content itself seems challenging. Almost all the core classes are considered "intensified" but students who need extra help enroll in more fundamental classes and the more advanced students can qualify for accelerated math (i.e., pre-algebra at 6th or 7th grades). As parents, we are actually asked not to intervene to help with school work but encourage our child to reach out to individual teachers for support, which is working well. In the Montessori program, each child prepares and delivers their own custom presentation for the parent-teacher conferences (this has been the case since around 4th grade) in which they cover their strengths, improvement areas, and goals, which is good preparation for the real world.

Good luck with whatever you decide - from what I can tell, there is no "right" path and kids can do well across a variety of different options with strong parent and teacher support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you give us the scoop, the pluses and minuses about APS’ Montessori program?

Is it good, not good? A good principal? Anything active with the PTA? Would you send your own kids these? Do kids learn much?

What did you decide and how did it work out for you?