SSSAS, Burgundy Farm or Browne?

[Anonymous]

Each combined classroom has two regular teachers, one science teacher and access to several language teachers. So it's not like your child is stuck with one "dud" teacher.

[Anonymous]

But wouldn't the "dud" teachers be responsible for teaching math, grammar, spellling, history, reading, history, etc? Reading what I have in these forums, most parents go nuts if their kid has one teacher they don't like. But 2 teachers for 2 years?

[Anonymous]

If your child is bright and you want them to have a great education and are willing to support it in any way possible PLEASE choose your public school. SSSAS and all the other second tier private schools are a waste of money unless you are so rich it doesn't matter what your child ends up doing in life or your child is a genius and the private school is going to pay him to go there. Well even in that case your child will have limits put on his education that no public school could match. ASK how many students are taking AP classes in each grade: 9th, 10th, and 11th and what the requirements are to take them. Be aware that colleges will not care that your child took classes as hard as APs or honors when it comes to GPA because second tier private schools do not get that type of consideration in the admissions process. ASK how many students graduate having taken Calculus. ASK how many graduates pursue college majors outside of liberal arts. Do not fool yourself into thinking that private school teachers are as well trained as those in public school. That is not the case and if your child is not a favored student at a second tier private school be aware they will get the worst of those. AND ASK how many of the private school's graduates who are accepted to ivy league and the most selective colleges are athletic recruits, legacies, or minorities. ASK for a chart showing GPA correlation with SAT score. ASK for a plot of the SAT scores of the most recent graduating classes. Public schools publish all of this information and you cannot make an informed choice about a school without it. You are going to spend $120k for high school so this is important. Follow this advice you won't be sorry.

[Anonymous]

All 3 are great schools, my child went to Brugundy for middle school, ended up being fine. Went on to Catholic (local) and did great. Currently Freshman in college and all worked out in the end.

[Anonymous]

I tend to agree that if your child is bright, motivated and outgoing, don't dismiss public school - at least take a look. Private helps kids succeed that may be lost in the shuffle in public. They also offer a more inspired curriculum, but it is not head-over-heels better. Whether public or private, it is the teacher and the delivery of the curriculum that really makes a difference. Visit the schools and you will probably have a pretty strong sense of what feels right for your child - all of the schools mentioned have good programs and nice families.

[Anonymous]

You get some dud teachers everywhere. One of my kids had duds in the 2/3 year. They weren't horrible -- just not anywhere near as great as we had come to expect at Burgundy. And in all honesty, DC liked them-- it was me who couldnt stand them, and though there were other parents who shared my view, there were also others who loved these same teachers. That said, every other year we have adored the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your child is bright and you want them to have a great education and are willing to support it in any way possible PLEASE choose your public school. SSSAS and all the other second tier private schools are a waste of money unless you are so rich it doesn't matter what your child ends up doing in life or your child is a genius and the private school is going to pay him to go there. Well even in that case your child will have limits put on his education that no public school could match. ASK how many students are taking AP classes in each grade: 9th, 10th, and 11th and what the requirements are to take them. Be aware that colleges will not care that your child took classes as hard as APs or honors when it comes to GPA because second tier private schools do not get that type of consideration in the admissions process. ASK how many students graduate having taken Calculus. ASK how many graduates pursue college majors outside of liberal arts. Do not fool yourself into thinking that private school teachers are as well trained as those in public school. That is not the case and if your child is not a favored student at a second tier private school be aware they will get the worst of those. AND ASK how many of the private school's graduates who are accepted to ivy league and the most selective colleges are athletic recruits, legacies, or minorities. ASK for a chart showing GPA correlation with SAT score. ASK for a plot of the SAT scores of the most recent graduating classes. Public schools publish all of this information and you cannot make an informed choice about a school without it. You are going to spend $120k for high school so this is important. Follow this advice you won't be sorry.

This is terribly misinformed. A very small fraction of kids go ivy. That is true of all schools. SSSAS and burgundy and Browne all work hard to instill a love of learning, stress importance of character and compassion, and foster intellectual curiosity. That is what I am paying for. If those things important to you, I would consider all three of these schools. They have different cultures, but I think all share some common and wonderful traits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child is bright and you want them to have a great education and are willing to support it in any way possible PLEASE choose your public school. SSSAS and all the other second tier private schools are a waste of money unless you are so rich it doesn't matter what your child ends up doing in life or your child is a genius and the private school is going to pay him to go there. Well even in that case your child will have limits put on his education that no public school could match. ASK how many students are taking AP classes in each grade: 9th, 10th, and 11th and what the requirements are to take them. Be aware that colleges will not care that your child took classes as hard as APs or honors when it comes to GPA because second tier private schools do not get that type of consideration in the admissions process. ASK how many students graduate having taken Calculus. ASK how many graduates pursue college majors outside of liberal arts. Do not fool yourself into thinking that private school teachers are as well trained as those in public school. That is not the case and if your child is not a favored student at a second tier private school be aware they will get the worst of those. AND ASK how many of the private school's graduates who are accepted to ivy league and the most selective colleges are athletic recruits, legacies, or minorities. ASK for a chart showing GPA correlation with SAT score. ASK for a plot of the SAT scores of the most recent graduating classes. Public schools publish all of this information and you cannot make an informed choice about a school without it. You are going to spend $120k for high school so this is important. Follow this advice you won't be sorry.

This is terribly misinformed. A very small fraction of kids go ivy. That is true of all schools. SSSAS and burgundy and Browne all work hard to instill a love of learning, stress importance of character and compassion, and foster intellectual curiosity. That is what I am paying for. If those things important to you, I would consider all three of these schools. They have different cultures, but I think all share some common and wonderful traits.

I agree. School is about so much more than just the numbers. Most of us agree that you can get a great, quality education at most of the public schools in this area. However, there is so much more to the experience than AP classes, Calculus and gaining admission into an ivy. We all have different values and some of us value aspects of private schools that public schools don't or can't offer. For us, that experience for our children is well worth the cost.

[Anonymous]

We went through the private school mill -- twice, actually. We found the instructional quality uneven and amateurish, especially at Burgundy. We were also really distressed by the fully-tolerated bullying. Private school teachers in VA are not subject to any form of regulation or licensing, and we didn't view throwing pencils as appropriate pedagogical behavior. Our DC is high-capacity, and the only private school answer to the gifted is to skip a grade. We sent DC to Alexandria City public three years ago, and it has been simply phenomenal in every respect. We really feel quite ripped off by Burgundy in particular.

[Anonymous]

Would it be possible to elaborate on the fully-tolerated bullying you cite? I am a current Burgundy parent and I am not aware of such a condition and I am on the campus quite often. I cannot believe this is going on right in front of me and I am just missing it ... Such a strong and unpleasant accusation deserves something concrete as an example.

[Anonymous]

I've never seen anything like that either at Burgundy. So sorry that your child had a bad experience; I don't think that is the norm AT ALL.

[Anonymous]

We found the instructional quality uneven and amateurish, especially at Burgundy. We were also really distressed by the fully-tolerated bullying. Private school teachers in VA are not subject to any form of regulation or licensing, and we didn't view throwing pencils as appropriate pedagogical behavior.

+1 Another former Burgundy parent. I agree whole-heartedly with this post. The education was sub-par and uneven, and the bullying policy in actual practice was laughable. By and large the children seemed out-of-control, and there were no consequences for bad behavior or poor work product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We found the instructional quality uneven and amateurish, especially at Burgundy. We were also really distressed by the fully-tolerated bullying. Private school teachers in VA are not subject to any form of regulation or licensing, and we didn't view throwing pencils as appropriate pedagogical behavior.

+1 Another former Burgundy parent. I agree whole-heartedly with this post. The education was sub-par and uneven, and the bullying policy in actual practice was laughable. By and large the children seemed out-of-control, and there were no consequences for bad behavior or poor work product.

Examples, please? I too am a Burgundy parent (of two) and have neither seen nor heard of any such issues. Our experience has been the opposite: there's inevitable minor bullying and mean girl stuff in any group of kids, but the teachers clamp down very quickly. Serious request for examples, PP: if we've just missed something I'd genuninely like to know. Dish, please!

Overall, btw, we're pretty happy with Burgundy. It's a little uneven in places, but on the whole it seems to produce happy, well-rounded, curious kids who do well in high school admissions and in college. Certainly our kids are happy. Some people may want more homework, more tests, more course offerings, etc., but for us, happy, curious kids is our measure of success.

[Anonymous]

Question for the Burgundy parents -- what age do students start there? I see on their website that they start at JK but I can't tell what age that is.

Not trying to derail this conversations, which I am finding very interesting, but my inability to find this info has me feeling pretty stupid.

[Anonymous]

15:09, they start at 4