Somerset Elementary question

[Anonymous]

Can anyone comment on this school versus Rosemary Hills, Burning Tree, Westbrook? Are class sizes smaller, teachers better? Actual comparisons would be helpful as we are looking for a house. Anything else of note, good or bad?

[Anonymous]

The biggest difference is that RH is K-2 and then your child would go on to either Bethesda, NCC or CC. A primary school will have lots of differences w/full scale elem (some better, some worse imo).

I believe class size is pretty much the same across all the schools.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't Burning Tree feed into Whitman and the others BCC? I don't know if you have a preference.

[Anonymous]

OP here: We could see our family at either BCC or Whitman, pros and cons on either side. We're probably most interested in the Somerset neighborhood, and hence the question was focused on Somerset. The part of Chevy Chase, MD we're interested in is where RH would feed into CC ES. Are these elementary schools about equals? One clear diff is that RH is k-2nd. What about a comparison of Somerset vs Westbrook? Vs RH in the lower grades? Which one has the best education and why?

[Anonymous]

Westbrook has been getting more overcrowded over the past few years but still has a great reputation. Kids have been moved to "temporary" trailers as this has happened. Somerset is a newly renovated school. One non-education thing to consider is that the neighborhood surrounding Westbrook has no sidewalks. We walk there regularly and I get tired of pulling my kids to the side of the road and hope that the driver doesn't hit us. Somerset has sidewalks on one side of the road and the neighbors are fanatical (to the point of overkill in IMO) about speed bumps and other traffic calming measures to protect little walkers as they go to school. This might be important as your kids get old enough to walk/bike to school by themselves.

One last thing about neighborhoods is that the people in Somerset seem to be really cohesive b/c of their pool (which has no waiting list and is open to only residents, hence it's never crowded). A lot of kids hang out there in the summer and a lot of people seem to know each other.

[Anonymous]

Somerset neighborhood isn't the only one that feeds into Somerset. Chevy Chase West, due north, also feeds into it. CCW is also very close knit, however there are not sidewalks on the main road to school (grrr).

My kids aren't old enough for elementary yet, but our understanding is that Somerset is one of the best elementary schools in the state. Friends in other parts of Chevy Chase are looking into private schools and immersion programs for their children, and many say that if they were in the SOmerset district they wouldn't have to.

[Anonymous]

Isn't the curriculum and class-size limit the same whether you are in Somerset, Westbrook, Rosemary Hills, Bradley Hills? For that matter, isn't the student body essentially the same in most (not all) of the close-in Bethesda/CC elementary schools? (I know there is one exception).

""but our understanding is that Somerset is one of the best elementary schools in the state. Friends in other parts of Chevy Chase are looking into private schools and immersion programs for their children, and many say that if they were in the SOmerset district they wouldn't have to.""

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't the curriculum and class-size limit the same whether you are in Somerset, Westbrook, Rosemary Hills, Bradley Hills? For that matter, isn't the student body essentially the same in most (not all) of the close-in Bethesda/CC elementary schools? (I know there is one exception).

""but our understanding is that Somerset is one of the best elementary schools in the state. Friends in other parts of Chevy Chase are looking into private schools and immersion programs for their children, and many say that if they were in the SOmerset district they wouldn't have to.""

True and I was perplexed too by why so many people consider it the best until my kids started at Somerset. Key differences that give the edge to Somerset are IMHO that it is a new building with plenty of space, a fabulous front office staff (principal and counselor) and that the parent community supports it not only through the PTA but also through a foundation which raises significant funds throughout the year to offer extra training, equipment and supplies to the teachers, classrooms and outdoor play spaces. Raises so much much that it can also make small donations to other MOCO schools who do not have the same ability to raise such funds to better their own local schools.

[Anonymous]

But the curriculum is the same? Mostly reading and writing? How often do kids have music/art/PE/science/social studies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the curriculum is the same? Mostly reading and writing? How often do kids have music/art/PE/science/social studies?

Yes, curriculum is the same. They have the "specials" above once a week each.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for both of your replies.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Westbrook parent and have a close friend who works at Somerset, and she and I have had the comparison talk before. In a nutshell, the two schools are virtually identical in terms of achievement, socio-economic status, curriculum, parent involvement, etc. Somerset gets the edge on nicer facilities, and Westbrook is slightly more crowded. HTH. On all meaningful rubrics, though, they are the same, so I would decide based on the house you like.

[Anonymous]

The Somerset "best in the state" reputation is, I believe, based on test scores from about 10 years ago. They did earn some of the highest scores in the state, but it was at least partly because the teachers were "teaching to the test" more than at comparable elementaries. More recently there is less of a test score differential, and less teaching focused on how to give MSA-perfect answers.

[Anonymous]

I went to Somerset, still live in Chevy Chase although in another ES district, and work in a field where I deal with people choosing neighborhoods and schools a lot. Somerset has the best reputation by far and the facility is fabulous (it's all new, not a renovation as a previous poster said). That said, I heard a couple months ago that Somerset has to add another kindergarten this fall due to an unanticipated increase in enrollment, so that may make it more crowded than its reputation purports and therefore on par with Westbrook if that is Westbrook's perceived issue.

[Anonymous]

Somerset has a great reputation - compared to Rosemary Hills. on the surface, RH very, very large - many sections of K. Seems like there are other issues going on there as well. So while technically curriculum may be the same there are many differences. yes we also know of so many people who considered moving to somerset to get in or doing the private route. . . . or end up doing the private route after frustration at rh. we also have teacher friends in moco who swear by sommerset.