Private School for Gifted and Talented Child in NOVA or DC?

[Anonymous]

12.08...Nysmith.... Really!!!! .... Really !!!!! ...., really.....
The head of school doesn't even know any kids. Asks everyone what grade the children are...... Sounds like a car salesman than an educator. Generalized statements, doesn't know specifics at all. Teachers didn't look excited. Children seemed distracted. Arts/music/pe was very very weak. There is much more to life than being good at science and math (and this is coming from someone who is educated from worlds best tech schools)

[Anonymous]

The problem with Nysmith is that they select these "gifted" kids based on an IQ test that the kids take before IQ testing is particularly meaningful. Lots of average kids at Nysmith. I know several, and they are nice but not PG kids.

[Anonymous]

OP, how old are your children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not send them early, wait until at least 17. Unless they are the most mature 16 year old you have ever encountered.

I'm good friends with a someone who went to college at 16, and his brothers went at 16-17. Their school is a top 5 school. They were too young maturity wise; them. They all say that...especially with alcohol foolishness that happens at College that they didn't experience in high school because they were skipping multiple grades.

N=1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going at 16 is one thing, skipping high school and going at 11 or 12 is very uncommon and I would imagine very difficult. Especially since, if the child is that gifted, they will have little in common with their classmates which would only increase their isolation.

Better to look into the experiences of kids who have actually gone to college at 11 or 12 than to base your decision on what people with no experience with this "imagine."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid Nysmith at all costs. It was a horrible experience for my child. They like the children smart, but not too smart. They are a lot of talk but not much action. Cookie cutter kids for a cookie cutter program, but they throw in school for the gifted and parents flock to the hype.

Since we have a child at nysmith we would be interested in the alternatives you found - was it GDS? Holton? the ffx county AAP? I know there was one poster with a daughter who started off at nysmith, left for holton, and then decided to home-school because holton didn't have enough flexibility either.

Part of the challenge in creating a gifted school is being able to attract parents who self-select (albeit those who can also afford private school tuition) to send their gifted kids there. And you can't do that without enough of a brand about being a school for gifted children so that parents will look at the school and send their kids there. So the school has to try to get those kids. Whether or not the program is the most perfect in the world for all children is a different question - and the answer would also be relative to the other options. But why would you avoid nysmith at all costs? We would be interested to hear more specifics about what you found lacking rather than "all talk no action". Our child is doing well and the curriculum is more advanced that the same age at Sidwell, at least for math and science. For humanities it is probably about the same as other private schools. Would you use the same terms to describe the options for a super-smart kid at the other DC privates?

Glad your pglet is thriving at GDS, but I recommend that the OP ask a lot of questions and talk to some parents before considering GDS L/MS for her child. GDS HS is open to acceleration and dual enrollment and is a good place for pg kids. GDS Lower and Middle Schools don't seem to offer much in the way of meaningful acceleration and certainly wouldn't have met the needs of my pg kids. The parents of pg kids in GDS L/MS with whom I have spoken didn't think their kids' academic needs were being met. There's no way you would get 4-5 years of acceleration there. You might get some acceleration in math, but it has been a struggle for even the most talented GDS math students to get significant acceleration in math before HS.

[Anonymous]

I have a pg dd, and our current plan is to stick with FCPS GT program through 8th grade and then look into small private high schools that allow a lot of independence and creativity (Howard Gardner, GW community, etc)

[Anonymous]

I'm the previous GDS poster (and, again, I am not the person whose kid had a bad experience at Nysmith -- that poster never said her kid then went to GDS).

And, yes, your kid can be working 4-5 years above grade level in the GDS L/MS. Maybe not in math (2-3 is probably more realistic in terms of instruction), but certainly in humanities. I'm not sure how to gauge science or foreign language because those subjects often aren't taught in ES, but certainly my kid has learned stuff in both during LS/MS years that other kids learn in HS.

Not all PG kids are primarily interested in math. And some PG kids who are seen as math kids may be categorized that way because math is easier to accelerate so it's both an outlet for someone who wants to learn more faster and a relatively objective indicator of how far ahead that kid could be. At least that was my own experience. Math teachers were my best allies when I looked for more challenge. But once I got it (i.e. admission into college classes), I used it to take humanities classes because, as it turned out, that's what I was more interested in. Couldn't tell that from ES/MS, though, because humanities weren't taught in a way that showed me their potential. By contrast, at GDS my DC has seen that from an early age.

Interestingly (well, to me, at least), DC seems to be a science/languages/philosophy oriented-person and that was something that because apparent as early as 1st grade at GDS. That's another thing I value about the school. Kids don't get typecast as math/sci vs humanities -- there's space for and an appreciation of a kind of intellectual dual citizenship.

[Anonymous]

I highly recommend Ideaventions in Reston. It’s a small school, perfect for EG and PG kids.

[Anonymous]

OP, FCPS AAP is good for moderately gifted, high achieving kids, not as much for profoundly gifted kids. It’s more of an accelerated curriculum than a true gifted program like you had growing up. It’s also fairly weak in language arts. That said, one boy in my daughter’s 5th grade class went to the middle school for math in 3rd and 4th grades and now does high school math online, so they can accommodate kids who are especially gifted in one subject.

If you do move for AAP, make sure to choose a less crowded center. Ours (Mosby Woods) is overcrowded with 28-30 kids per class. By contrast, a colleague’s kid in Burke has 22 kids in his AAP class (I forget which center).

[Anonymous]

Also - there is a private school in Loudoun called Loudoun School for Advanced Studies (preciously Loudoun School for the Gifted). I don’t know much about it—and we can’t afford private anyway—but it looks interesting.

[Anonymous]

*previously

[Anonymous]

Someone resurrected a 2012 thread to advertise Ideaventions.

I have a kid in PK3 who is achieving at the 3rd grade level for reading and 2nd grade for math (formally tested) without formal academic instruction. My DC has access to an iPad with various educational games, though.

I can tell you from more current experience touring preschools that every private preschool we toured (including GDS) told us that they almost never have a student enter PK4 reading, and rarely have a student entering K who reads fluently. This puts lie to the "it happens all the time" claims of the previous posters, although it's possible that all such kids go to public.

Still looking for good educational options. We like an SEL emphasis but that's pretty much gone to hell with the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

I imagine there are educational placement services that could advise you, and I would think there are probably local support groups for parents such as yourself. Wherever you go, I would suggest meeting with the principal and the child’s prospective teachers to be sure you are on the same page about the needs of the child and the available program.

[Anonymous]

I hate when people revive old threads.