When to move to public.

[Anonymous]

I am interested in putting my dc in public school for high school. We live in MC, and I love the high schools. DC is in a very good private that goes to 8th grade. I am not sure when the best age to transition would be. We are thinking 3rd, 5th, or 9th. The advantage to 3rd is that dc would make some friends before going off to MS that should be there until HS. The drawback is that we love her school and don't want to pull out that early. The advantage to 5th is that dc will still have time to make friends before HS, but we really dislike MC middle schools. In 9th grade, I fear that dc will have trouble meeting people, and we will have limited experience with the families of these kids.

Any parents with experience in this area (either personally or your kids)?

[Anonymous]

I say HS. Avoid middle at all costs. The private school kids who switched into my MC high school were popular and made friends easily in high school.

[Anonymous]

Don't buy trouble! If you love the current school, stay the whole way. If you leave early, you'll probably always pine away for it anyway.

[Anonymous]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Switching schools at middle school would be pretty tough. HS seems like a better plan.

[Anonymous]

A fourth vote for going the whole way K-8, because of the middle school piece. Have not personally been there, but, you don't want to upset the flow during that period of physical and mental development in a child's life (IMO).

[Anonymous]

Why would you do PreK-2nd private and then go public? Those are probably the years when private makes the least difference in most cases.

In general, if my plan were to do a mix, I'd start in public and then head to private by middle school (which grade would depend on which years are entry years at the private school(s) I was interested in). But since you're already doing it the other way around, I'd stay in private through middle school, assuming you're happy with the middle school at your private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would you do PreK-2nd private and then go public? Those are probably the years when private makes the least difference in most cases.

In general, if my plan were to do a mix, I'd start in public and then head to private by middle school (which grade would depend on which years are entry years at the private school(s) I was interested in). But since you're already doing it the other way around, I'd stay in private through middle school, assuming you're happy with the middle school at your private school.

Smaller class size has been shown to make a big difference in the first three years of school.

[Anonymous]

If your child is happy, you'll have a tough time pulling them out before they complete 8th grade, especially at the 5th grade level. Our DC is about to finish 8th grade at a K-8 school, and her middle school experience has been wonderful. She would never have agreed to leave earlier.