Washington Episcopal School -- what is it like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I’m sorry, but you are minimizing the school’s academic chops. The top of the class kids at WES have always had their pick of Sidwell, GDS, St. Alban’s, etc. There is a broad range of talents in the class since the kids start so young. The graduating class typically includes kids who go to a broad range of schools, including public HS like Whitman or the magnets.

This is factual. Some of you guys should look at their end-of-year magazines. Kids are accepted to Sidwell, Maret, STA/NCS, etc. and a few kids stand out every year as high SSAT scorers.

Don't underestimate these kids.

This is mostly incorrect actually. I don’t want to identify anyone specific since it is such as a small school. But the kids going to the more competitive admissions like Maret, GDS, Potomac, NCS, STA have often been middle to bottom of the class. A lot of the top kids academically have decided against the DC private schools and are at schools like Whitman or one of the Catholic schools. So you can’t read as much into prior years as much as you think by the percentages. A lot of the smartest kids want something different for high school and a lot of middle of road kids end up at places that have a reputation for being strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m sorry, but you are minimizing the school’s academic chops. The top of the class kids at WES have always had their pick of Sidwell, GDS, St. Alban’s, etc. There is a broad range of talents in the class since the kids start so young. The graduating class typically includes kids who go to a broad range of schools, including public HS like Whitman or the magnets.

This is factual. Some of you guys should look at their end-of-year magazines. Kids are accepted to Sidwell, Maret, STA/NCS, etc. and a few kids stand out every year as high SSAT scorers.

Don't underestimate these kids.

This is mostly incorrect actually. I don’t want to identify anyone specific since it is such as a small school. But the kids going to the more competitive admissions like Maret, GDS, Potomac, NCS, STA have often been middle to bottom of the class. A lot of the top kids academically have decided against the DC private schools and are at schools like Whitman or one of the Catholic schools. So you can’t read as much into prior years as much as you think by the percentages. A lot of the smartest kids want something different for high school and a lot of middle of road kids end up at places that have a reputation for being strong.

The fact that "middle of the road kids" can get into the DC private schools that are competitive seems to tell me that WES is a strong academic school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m sorry, but you are minimizing the school’s academic chops. The top of the class kids at WES have always had their pick of Sidwell, GDS, St. Alban’s, etc. There is a broad range of talents in the class since the kids start so young. The graduating class typically includes kids who go to a broad range of schools, including public HS like Whitman or the magnets.

This is factual. Some of you guys should look at their end-of-year magazines. Kids are accepted to Sidwell, Maret, STA/NCS, etc. and a few kids stand out every year as high SSAT scorers.

Don't underestimate these kids.

This is mostly incorrect actually. I don’t want to identify anyone specific since it is such as a small school. But the kids going to the more competitive admissions like Maret, GDS, Potomac, NCS, STA have often been middle to bottom of the class. A lot of the top kids academically have decided against the DC private schools and are at schools like Whitman or one of the Catholic schools. So you can’t read as much into prior years as much as you think by the percentages. A lot of the smartest kids want something different for high school and a lot of middle of road kids end up at places that have a reputation for being strong.

The fact that "middle of the road kids" can get into the DC private schools that are competitive seems to tell me that WES is a strong academic school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m sorry, but you are minimizing the school’s academic chops. The top of the class kids at WES have always had their pick of Sidwell, GDS, St. Alban’s, etc. There is a broad range of talents in the class since the kids start so young. The graduating class typically includes kids who go to a broad range of schools, including public HS like Whitman or the magnets.

This is factual. Some of you guys should look at their end-of-year magazines. Kids are accepted to Sidwell, Maret, STA/NCS, etc. and a few kids stand out every year as high SSAT scorers.

Don't underestimate these kids.

This is mostly incorrect actually. I don’t want to identify anyone specific since it is such as a small school. But the kids going to the more competitive admissions like Maret, GDS, Potomac, NCS, STA have often been middle to bottom of the class. A lot of the top kids academically have decided against the DC private schools and are at schools like Whitman or one of the Catholic schools. So you can’t read as much into prior years as much as you think by the percentages. A lot of the smartest kids want something different for high school and a lot of middle of road kids end up at places that have a reputation for being strong.

The fact that "middle of the road kids" can get into the DC private schools that are competitive seems to tell me that WES is a strong academic school!



New poster. I don’t think previous post was arguing that WES is academically weak, but that the academic strength of the student or the K-8 school is loosely tied with the high school chosen. That was true for my child’s class. We had two very strong students in my child’s grade and both went to Whitman. There were other kids in the grade that went to Big 3 type schools but it wasn’t because they were unusually strong students.

[Anonymous]

New poster. I don’t think previous post was arguing that WES is academically weak, but that the academic strength of the student or the K-8 school is loosely tied with the high school chosen. That was true for my child’s class. We had two very strong students in my child’s grade and both went to Whitman. There were other kids in the grade that went to Big 3 type schools but it wasn’t because they were unusually strong students.



What is the culture like around grades? Do kids get "ranked" or talk about grades a lot, esp in MS - how do you know who the strong students are? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

New poster. I don’t think previous post was arguing that WES is academically weak, but that the academic strength of the student or the K-8 school is loosely tied with the high school chosen. That was true for my child’s class. We had two very strong students in my child’s grade and both went to Whitman. There were other kids in the grade that went to Big 3 type schools but it wasn’t because they were unusually strong students.

What is the culture like around grades? Do kids get "ranked" or talk about grades a lot, or is there a published honor roll, esp in MS? How do you know who the strong students are? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the culture like around grades? Do kids get "ranked" or talk about grades a lot, or is there a published honor roll, esp in MS? How do you know who the strong students are? Just curious.

In my experience, the kids don't really care about each others' grades. They aren't ranked, but there is one award at the end of 8th grade for everyone who has the equivalent of a 4.0 GPA. But, the fame with lasts for a day then people forget about it. Even though grades are sometimes asked, they're almost always within friend groups.

[Anonymous]

New poster. Not a WES parent, have children at another K-8, but we were admitted at WES and strongly considered it. We know many WES families with wonderful, well adjusted, bright, successful children.

Chiming in with my 2 cents on k-8 outplacement. There is not a single k-8 school that is going to send a majority of its students to Sidwell, Maret, GDS, StA/NCS.

All the k-8 schools here have a diverse set of students with differing interests and ability levels who land at high schools across the region. A k-8 is not where you should be if you are a Big3 or bust family. If that is what's most important to you, get your child in to those schools in the early years. Most families at k-8s are not there with a singular focused on a specific outplacement result. They have varying reasons for preferring a k-8 over a k-12 over for the elementary and middle school years. There isn't any one right answer or way to do this. Find the school that seems to be the best fit for your kid.

[Anonymous]

Kids might say so and so is probably the top student (and they might be wrong or right) in our class, but the school is definitely not ranking anyone. They know who is in the top math class, who consistently gets great grades or wins academic awards at the end of the year, but it's sort of a non-issue.

[Anonymous]

Grades are not an issue at WES.

[Anonymous]

How does WES deal with disruptive behavior/bullying at school? Or does this not exist in such a small environment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does WES deal with disruptive behavior/bullying at school? Or does this not exist in such a small environment?

That’s a good question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does WES deal with disruptive behavior/bullying at school? Or does this not exist in such a small environment?

WES isn't a school where disciplinary matters happen every day. As a parent, you know things get around when there's a disruptive kid. But the Dean of Students and Head of School are very fast with punishments or whatnot. Bullying does not happen. Even if a child is quiet, there are friend groups for kids like them in every grade.

[Anonymous]

Experience is a decade old but WES was an amazing landing pad for my kids. Moved them out of a pressure cooker Big 3 and they thrived at WES.

[Anonymous]

We had an incident with some crappy behavior from a classmate that was directed at my kid. We spoke with admin and they dealt with it. I can’t speak to how WES would handle something that rose to the level of “true bullying,” but admin has always been very responsive in addressing concerns and questions on a wide range issues.

Our experience is upper ES and MS so can’t speak to experience in younger years.