Feedback on Bridges PCS?
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Anonymous
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I would love to hear any feedback on Bridges PK programs--we were lottery losers last year, and trying again to get my 4yo into PK4 next year.
Any other feedback on Brookland, Bloomingdale, Eckington area PKs would also be greatly appreciated, save for the long shots and language immersion schools (not interested). TIA. |
Anonymous
| We left Bridges after a year. Liked our child's teacher for PK3 but she left, and we had some problems with the administration, especially the Director. (We liked the principal, but the decisions seemed to emanate from the Director.) Hoping things are going better this year. |
Anonymous
Very helpful information--thank you. |
Anonymous
| We are currently pre-k at Bridges. Happy, not over the moon, but good enough. Such that we will only lottery next year for one charter we think might be a better fit long term. We get special ed services, so some of my views of them are colored by that, but having been in a DCPS, I'm positive the other kids in my kids class are getting a better deal than they were at our specific DCPS. That said, I think some of the color we get from the special ed side extends to the all general ed experience as well - most of our dealings are with the regular classroom teacher and so what shes done for our kid extends to the sort of thing shes doing for all her kids. I've been impressed with how knowledgeable she's been about a range of needs in what is a diverse (needs wise) class. I ultimately like the pre-k 3/4 mix, I think it provides stronger models for younger kids, independence/the ability to lead for older kids, and makes things run more smoothly than they might in a brand new Pre K 3 class. There seems to be ongoing problem solving and adjustment - not of true "problems" but just we're tweaking our schedule this way because I want the kids to get more practice doing X, and a fair amount of small group/individualized attention, so I don't think kids who are advanced are lacking. I wish it were more play based, but I don't think there are any DC pre-k 3 programs that really are, or if there are, very few, in the way I mean. Frankly, I think our old daycare skewed even more academic than Bridges by the 4 year old year. There's plenty of play, most of the centers are "play", but it's not my ideal program. They seem to consistently get outside, for an hour, which is key, to me anyway. I assume things will be even easier next year at the new site. I'm not crazy about the facilities but that should also be a non-issue next year. Staff has been open and accessible and the school as a whole has seemed more accessible and open and much more developmentally appropriate than our prior program (which seemed to institute elementary school expectations on 3 year olds and their parents). I don't know that I feel like it's a long term option - it's really hard to judge that, since I haven't seen the upper grades, but I get the sense that there's a focus on data and ongoing assessment (like quarterly, which is standard, I don't think it's out of the realm of what other schools do) that may take a turn towards a little more test prep focused than I'd like even before the testing grades. I don't think that differs from many/most other schools in DC, and I think we'll need to leave DC or look private to really move away from it. (I do appreciate the data focus, as someone with a kid with special needs - you'd like to catch things before there is a problem, you want to have a sense of where you're starting, it helps you decide to change course if something isn't working, but it can go overboard) But again, that's perhaps not a fair assessment as we haven't fully explored what the upper grades look like. I imagine, like most places, it could come down to teacher luck of the draw - we've only had ours and I'm not in tune enough to know if there are people who are really unhappy with theirs. I've not really had dealings with the administration, so I can't comment on that, no idea what happened last year. One note that aftercare seems to continue to be a struggle. I get the sense it's much better on the whole than last year (from what I read here), but still inconsistent, and we've had to complain a few times, and then it's improved, and then slipped. It's a real weakness, and while they (school and vendor contacts) seem to care, I'm not sure whether, given they continued with the same vendor, it'll be permanently fixed. But I've heard lots of mixed things about lots of aftercares (particularly DCPS run ones) so can't judge relative to others whether ours is more problematic. I have found the parent community to be great. Overall, I think it's not perfect, but a solid option based on our experience, but we can only speak to our individual experience. |
Anonymous
| PP here, sorry, should have made some paragraphs! |
Anonymous
| This is our child's second year there and we plan to stay for K and beyond. We will not be playing the lottery this year. We're very happy with the school, including the teachers and the community of families, and we've found both the principal and the director to be responsive, friendly, and helpful. The facilities are not great right now, but the school will open in a new building near the Ft. Totten metro for the next school year and it looks like it is going to be a huge improvement. There were some problems with aftercare last year but it seems to be better this year, and my child likes it. If you want to make contact with current parents, I suggest putting a call out on your neighborhood listserv or asking the school. |
Anonymous
OP here: Thanks for your feedback. And I couldn't agree more about your comment above, in my experience. Our current preschool goes a bit overboard also with academics--for my taste. |
Anonymous
I'm the first PP, and I agree that Bridges was not as play-based as we would have liked, but thankfully we had a very good teacher who worked to implement the curriculum in developmentally-appropriate ways. I think DCPS PK3 programs are overall more play-based than what Bridges offers, which is a bit more structured. Having said that, my child did fine with the curriculum. The challenges we faced were more with the administration. |
Anonymous
Would you feel comfortable elaborating a bit on your issues with the Admin? |
Anonymous
I think the principal was hired because the school was expanding and the director (who previously had also served as the principal) was much better at dealing with finding a new property and the administrative side rather than dealing with teachers/curriculum/parents. However, ultimately, my sense was that the principal at least last year did not have the ability to make changes on her own--that she had to run it through the director. So, when we would talk to the principal, she would listen and promise changes, and those changes were slow to come or did not come at all. It was frustrating because when change didn't come and we asked to meet with the director, she referred us to the principal. But the principal didn't seem to have the authority to make changes without involving the director. We had things come up specific to our child and more generally about the school that we didn't seem to be able to get resolved. Again, this was last year, so keep in mind that that was the principal's first year so it may be that the director trusts her more and is giving her more autonomy this year. |
Anonymous
Can you elaborate on what you mean by play based and how it was at Bridges? It seems like our current DCPS either has the kids do a passive lecture/circle time, or unstructured free time with very little input from teachers. It seems kind of like the worst of both worlds for my particular kid (who is not really engaged by circle time/directed activities, but who needs more personal adult attention and guidance to do new "play based" things like play with blocks etc that he would not naturally gravitate towards. Basically my boy's preferred way of being would be to spend all his time being read to or tickled by a grown up, interspersed with going down the slide repeatedly for 20 mins.) |
Anonymous
I think of play-based as being an environment offering unstructured, child-directed play time. So in the ideal, lots of outdoor time, lots of centers time where kids can choose what they want to do and are encouraged to work out problems with their peers rather than with adults. Minimal adult intervention. Bridges definitely has an hour or so a day of outdoor time, which is great, along with some centers time. But even in centers, kids are sometimes pulled out for one-on-one or small group instruction time. (This may also be true of DCPS, not sure.) Bridges also seems to have more time with group lessons/handwriting/journals. It was a bit more teacher-directed than I would have liked--but thankfully the teacher was great and it worked out for us last year. It definitely has an early literacy component, and so relative to the DCPS-es that I'm familiar with, it seemed more focused on early reading/writing. Not as structured as Appletree, but more structured than other schools I'm familiar with. |
Anonymous
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Current Bridges parent, and we will be leaving after this year. Although I have heard about a lot of happy families at the school, our child's teachers are, at best, lackluster, and at worst very poorly equipped for their job--there was an incident in our classroom of *highly* inappropriate discipline, which was really disappointing to us. (Even the administration, when alerted, agreed that it went against DC and school policy.) Our classroom is disorganized and pretty sad-looking, although I suppose the new building will improve that. For what it's worth, our child's favorite part of the day is aftercare.
I've tried contacting the director about a couple of things and never heard back, which is also kind of a bummer. If your child has special needs, I do think it has the potential to be a great option--they have all kinds of services available in house, which makes life a lot easier. I am glad the school exists for special needs kids in the district, since I think it does a real service in the charter sector, which doesn't traditionally have a great track record in serving special ed populations. Finally, we have found there to be zero sense of community, and don't even have a list of the kids in our child's class. They tried to put together a directory this year---and kudos to the folks involved for how much work it took--but participation was pretty weak. Unless you happen to catch a parent of a child your child is friends with at pick up or drop off, you may have trouble organizing playdates or birthdays. There is definitely a small group of parents who are trying to make more of a community feel, but it seems to be an uphill battle. |
Anonymous
| Wow. Former Bridges parent here. I though we were the only ones with a bad experience. I am sad to see that there are others. Such a bummer. |
Anonymous
I agree with this (I'm the original not as play based as I would like poster). They do center rotations, kids choose among centers, but I find the centers are restricted/chosen - so one center may not be open all the time, or the blocks center only lets you play with this one type of block. And center rotations are kept short, in our room, which doesn't really allow for extended/creative play. (I have no idea if other rooms run the same) And then there is a small group instruction component where there's some direct early literacy instruction (and I assume math...I feel like I should know), which feels unnecessary (but then, my kid learned all her letters and numbers within the first few months, and points out ever letter she ever sees everywhere gleefully, so she clearly doesn't mind...) - but I think that's par for the course these days, when you're expected to start K ready to read if not reading. So I lament the lack of longer unstructured, truly free choice time, where kids could act out some dramatic play or something. BUT...my kid never would have done that anyway. She doesn't always remain engaged in circle time, but left to her own devices, well, she'd do her own thing, and she wouldn't expand, or interact with other kids etc. That's what happened at our DCPS (a tools of the mind, where it was supposed to have some structure but really felt completely unstructured- she sort of wandered around, wasn't doing what she should have been etc and some of the other kids descended into chaos - I'm nearly positive it was being implemented really poorly). So it's probably a set up that benefits her - enough adult direction she doesn't wander, but not so much she fails again - even if it's not my ideal. And the adults are more hands on, though I find it in a good way - jumping in to redirect as necessary and make sure kids are doing what they're supposed to be doing - no wandering away and looking at books in the corner alone instead of playing out the hospital related activities that were the theme (or whatever tools was supposed to do). FWIW on community, we didn't really know any of the other parents in our DCPS either. In fact, we didn't know who most of the kids were. Here I at least know the kids, I've met some parents (they do group conferences - not in place of individual ones, but as add on, which I find not terribly useful other than to chat with other parents), but we did also get a list of other kids in the room from the teacher so I know their names (though I'd have to send a note via the kid if we wanted to do playdates or invites or something, no contact info). So it sounds like that's another luck of the draw sort of thing. But we've not traditionally been recipients of playdate invites, so I've not expected or missed that. I don't know if it ever occurred to them to do a class list email or something, nor did it occur to me to ask... That's a bummer about other people's experiences with other teachers, it sounds like there may be some unevenness in the staff (that sounds slightly patronizing or something, sorry, not my intention). |