K orientation was a big let down.

[Anonymous]

Back to the OP... that does sound underwhelming. Are other parents happy with the school? That does not sound like the norm for MoCo. Most schools here have no school for K during orientation so the new kids can meet the teachers.

[Anonymous]

I am not PP but our orientation was exactly the same (a total waste of time) so we may be at the same school. You'd be surprised if I told you what school we were at as it's considered one of the best and feeds into Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we are not at a title i school. in fact the community our school pulls from is probably the opposite. the parents are obsessed with school and the attendance secretary said people start calling the fall of the year before to figure out how to register.
during our k orientation, every single family i saw walk in there had their paperwork in order and it would have saved everyone (including the current k students) a lot of trouble if we had been allowed to mail the forms in!

Or you could have done what I did and print all the forms from the website, fill them out, then show up one day during school with my child's passport, our property tax bill, and whatever else in hand.

[Anonymous]

At our FCPS elementary we have registration (Spring) and then orientation is separate. Registration is just paperwork but orientation is for the kids to go to the K classrooms and do activities while the parents listen to teachers and principal give a presentation. We also got to sign up for various things, including a date in August to come back and have an assessment with a K teacher (which they use to create classes) and ride the bus together. I thought our orientation was worthwhile, although DD was NOT happy to go to a classroom without me. Every other kid seemed fine and that's her personality so it wasn't surprising.

I would be very off-put by OP's orientation, unless that was really just registration - maybe there's something else coming up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I forget how behind some schools are. Starting in kindergarten seems insanely late. By then our kids have been oriented at the school for two years and are generally fully fluent in another language. DC Charter parent.

The Finns start at age 7. So DC charters must be WAY above them. Oh, wait...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the OP... that does sound underwhelming. Are other parents happy with the school? That does not sound like the norm for MoCo. Most schools here have no school for K during orientation so the new kids can meet the teachers.

OP here. I am not sure how parents feel. I just know that I have a bad taste in my mouth about it. Hearing from friends at my daughter's preschool about what other schools did annoys me even more. Some planted plants, had a "getting to know you" ice-cream party, others did art projects, and ALL of them met at least one if not all kindergarten teachers. Our school keeps their K kids home for 2 days to do this nonsense. Stick us in one K room for paperwork and the kids in another to another K room watch a video on TV with 4 K teachers sitting at a table talking to each other in the back of the class. Not one of them leaving to come say hi or talk to parents. I was very disappointed. It would have been easier for my husband and I to just hand in the paperwork to the office one day. To require us to make an appointment and take off of work to do it? Awful.

And they do a K orientation night in late August at our school but the kids are not allowed to come. So this was it for my daughter and her K experience until the 1st day of school.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I am not sure how parents feel. I just know that I have a bad taste in my mouth about it. Hearing from friends at my daughter's preschool about what other schools did annoys me even more. Some planted plants, had a "getting to know you" ice-cream party, others did art projects, and ALL of them met at least one if not all kindergarten teachers. Our school keeps their K kids home for 2 days to do this nonsense. Stick us in one K room for paperwork and the kids in another to another K room watch a video on TV with 4 K teachers sitting at a table talking to each other in the back of the class. Not one of them leaving to come say hi or talk to parents. I was very disappointed. It would have been easier for my husband and I to just hand in the paperwork to the office one day. To require us to make an appointment and take off of work to do it? Awful.

And they do a K orientation night in late August at our school but the kids are not allowed to come. So this was it for my daughter and her K experience until the 1st day of school.

So complain to your principal. Sorry your school sucks. Make sure he or she knows that you're unhappy.

[Anonymous]

Wow, they don't even have an open house the Friday before school starts for the kids to meet their teacher and know where to go?!??! That's ridiculous!

[Anonymous]

I was also disappointed in our K orientation. They separated the parents and students, and all the parents did in their room was wait in line to give the forms to the nurse and administrator. We didn't get any introduction to the school and never met the principal. Thankfully there were a few PTA parents there who could answer any questions that we had.

I found out at the Spring orientation that there will be an orientation for the parents and an open house for the students the Friday before school starts which we unfortunately will have to miss because we will be coming back fom vacation that day. I wish they had told us when we got the paperwork mailed to us that this was an important day. That is the day the kindergartners find out their teachers and classes. The school won't have that information to give me before we leave for vacation and now I'm really stressed that my twins won't have the preparation they need to get in the mindset for the first day of school.

[Anonymous]

To PP: i wonder if you can ask whether you can visit the K classrooms before the school year ends or during the summer when the front office staff is working?

I bet if you plead your case they will let you do this and it would at least give your children a chance to see the classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To PP: i wonder if you can ask whether you can visit the K classrooms before the school year ends or during the summer when the front office staff is working?

I bet if you plead your case they will let you do this and it would at least give your children a chance to see the classrooms.

No. Visiting a classroom in the summer is not appropriate. It is being cleaned. Furniture is stacked everywhere. Do not do this.

[Anonymous]

OP- This is called registration. I don't know why you were unimpressed but you were just there to register your child.

[Anonymous]

Huh? There are summer programs at some of these schools and we were actually allowed to visit. What do you mean by inappropriate

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To PP: i wonder if you can ask whether you can visit the K classrooms before the school year ends or during the summer when the front office staff is working?

I bet if you plead your case they will let you do this and it would at least give your children a chance to see the classrooms.

No. Visiting a classroom in the summer is not appropriate. It is being cleaned. Furniture is stacked everywhere. Do not do this.

[Anonymous]

I'm the pp who wrote about missing the orientation and parents meeting the Friday before school starts (as an aside, why wouldn't they mention this important date on their calendar and in the packet they send prior to registration). I'm going to ask whether there will be summer programs going on for us to at the very least take our own tour of the school and K classrooms. Thank you for this suggestion.

[Anonymous]

"Anonymous
OP- This is called registration. I don't know why you were unimpressed but you were just there to register your child."

Because the county calls it "orientation" not registration. The former suggests it is an event aimed at getting you and your kid introduced to the school and ready for next year. That is wrong and it is primarily just registration. The use of the wrong term and the fact that the school makes you schedule slots to come in in-person wrongfully suggests it is a different type of event.