GDS and Sidwell comparison?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sfs more academic lower school with more student feedback, skills taught and structure. Didn’t feel as if my kid was missing things or context. Librarian helped kids try out a variety of genres and writing styles.

GDS quite play based, no homework until 3rd grade (not graded or corrections made then anyhow), no language until grade 3, very lengthy social justice social studies/ reading units. Was worried my kid wasn’t taught phonics or math well: did a ton of whole language approach (aka teach yourself to read by reading to yourself). Librarian lets kids do whatever they want pk onward, no guidance unless student asks.

We consolidated the three kids over time to the school we felt most confident in.

FWIW, our DS started at GDS in K till we moved out of state. The whole language approach probably integral in him crushing every standardized test he took for college.

“Whole language approach”??? In practice it means do nothing, it’s lazy. It involves zero teaching or instructing. As does undisciplined classrooms with kids bouncing around, walking around, interrupting, not paying attention, not learning anything. It’s lazy teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were going to apply for 9th to GDS and the admission officer pretty much told us there are 7 spots for new 9th grade boys. We crossed it off our list...

Are you serious? How is this possible? Don't they accept roughly 35 new students for 9th grade?

The only explanation is that 20 of those admits were athletic recruits or something, which is possible. I don’t think GDS has strong sibling preference though.

GDS has crazy strong sibling preference. They have a separate application for siblings. It's due in December.
Last year something like all but five 9th grade boy spots went to siblings. You can ask admissions about it--they were quite forthcoming.
I'm not sure if the poster above (the one saying there are 7 spots) is talking about this year or not.
If it's this year, it's a repeat of last year.

Aha. Well that explains it. Thanks!

Don’t most siblings enter well before 9th grade? Seems unbelievable they took 20 sibling boys last year for 9th. I mean, come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were going to apply for 9th to GDS and the admission officer pretty much told us there are 7 spots for new 9th grade boys. We crossed it off our list...

Are you serious? How is this possible? Don't they accept roughly 35 new students for 9th grade?

The only explanation is that 20 of those admits were athletic recruits or something, which is possible. I don’t think GDS has strong sibling preference though.

GDS has crazy strong sibling preference. They have a separate application for siblings. It's due in December.
Last year something like all but five 9th grade boy spots went to siblings. You can ask admissions about it--they were quite forthcoming.
I'm not sure if the poster above (the one saying there are 7 spots) is talking about this year or not.
If it's this year, it's a repeat of last year.

Aha. Well that explains it. Thanks!

Don’t most siblings enter well before 9th grade? Seems unbelievable they took 20 sibling boys last year for 9th. I mean, come on.

30% of the graduating class starts in 9th so it’s believable that a lot of siblings would start 9th too. Once you take out the siblings and any athletic recruits, how many open spots do they really have?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were going to apply for 9th to GDS and the admission officer pretty much told us there are 7 spots for new 9th grade boys. We crossed it off our list...

Are you serious? How is this possible? Don't they accept roughly 35 new students for 9th grade?

The only explanation is that 20 of those admits were athletic recruits or something, which is possible. I don’t think GDS has strong sibling preference though.

GDS has crazy strong sibling preference. They have a separate application for siblings. It's due in December.
Last year something like all but five 9th grade boy spots went to siblings. You can ask admissions about it--they were quite forthcoming.
I'm not sure if the poster above (the one saying there are 7 spots) is talking about this year or not.
If it's this year, it's a repeat of last year.

Aha. Well that explains it. Thanks!

Don’t most siblings enter well before 9th grade? Seems unbelievable they took 20 sibling boys last year for 9th. I mean, come on.

If families experience how weak Pk-8 is maybe that’s exactly what happens with younger siblings; they enter way later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were going to apply for 9th to GDS and the admission officer pretty much told us there are 7 spots for new 9th grade boys. We crossed it off our list...

Are you serious? How is this possible? Don't they accept roughly 35 new students for 9th grade?

The only explanation is that 20 of those admits were athletic recruits or something, which is possible. I don’t think GDS has strong sibling preference though.

GDS has crazy strong sibling preference. They have a separate application for siblings. It's due in December.
Last year something like all but five 9th grade boy spots went to siblings. You can ask admissions about it--they were quite forthcoming.
I'm not sure if the poster above (the one saying there are 7 spots) is talking about this year or not.
If it's this year, it's a repeat of last year.

Aha. Well that explains it. Thanks!

Don’t most siblings enter well before 9th grade? Seems unbelievable they took 20 sibling boys last year for 9th. I mean, come on.

30% of the graduating class starts in 9th so it’s believable that a lot of siblings would start 9th too. Once you take out the siblings and any athletic recruits, how many open spots do they really have?

I'm the PP who originally said GDS has seven 9th grade boy spots. The admissions person told us that this year they will have about 30 9th grade openings. Half will go to siblings and they will split the remaining half evenly between boys and girls. Oh, and last year they had about 400 applications for 9th grade and she was expecting similar this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

This aggregate stat of 6:1 is Bs.

With the new building they went from 20-22 kids and 2 teachers to 16-22 students and 1 teacher and maybe bring in one subject specialists to help those very behind in math or reading. Some classes early on maybe half to Special A and half go to Special B, but that split class stuff may have ended as well.

Whoa, is this true??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

Did something change? When my child was in lower school at Sidwell, there were 2 teachers per class.

Yes. It has changed. It might revert after covid, but it's been like this for awhile

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sfs more academic lower school with more student feedback, skills taught and structure. Didn’t feel as if my kid was missing things or context. Librarian helped kids try out a variety of genres and writing styles.

GDS quite play based, no homework until 3rd grade (not graded or corrections made then anyhow), no language until grade 3, very lengthy social justice social studies/ reading units. Was worried my kid wasn’t taught phonics or math well: did a ton of whole language approach (aka teach yourself to read by reading to yourself). Librarian lets kids do whatever they want pk onward, no guidance unless student asks.

We consolidated the three kids over time to the school we felt most confident in.

FWIW, our DS started at GDS in K till we moved out of state. The whole language approach probably integral in him crushing every standardized test he took for college.

“Whole language approach”??? In practice it means do nothing, it’s lazy. It involves zero teaching or instructing. As does undisciplined classrooms with kids bouncing around, walking around, interrupting, not paying attention, not learning anything. It’s lazy teaching.

That may be your perception, but certainly wasn't my kids' experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

Did something change? When my child was in lower school at Sidwell, there were 2 teachers per class.

Yes. It has changed. It might revert after covid, but it's been like this for awhile

22 kids in a class is the same as public school. One of the reasons we want to make the switch (and I'd wager a lot of parents want to) is so DC has a smaller class size with more teacher engagement. 22 kids, really??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

Did something change? When my child was in lower school at Sidwell, there were 2 teachers per class.

Yes. It has changed. It might revert after covid, but it's been like this for awhile

So you're saying they're outright lying on their website?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were going to apply for 9th to GDS and the admission officer pretty much told us there are 7 spots for new 9th grade boys. We crossed it off our list...

Are you serious? How is this possible? Don't they accept roughly 35 new students for 9th grade?

The only explanation is that 20 of those admits were athletic recruits or something, which is possible. I don’t think GDS has strong sibling preference though.

GDS has crazy strong sibling preference. They have a separate application for siblings. It's due in December.
Last year something like all but five 9th grade boy spots went to siblings. You can ask admissions about it--they were quite forthcoming.
I'm not sure if the poster above (the one saying there are 7 spots) is talking about this year or not.
If it's this year, it's a repeat of last year.

Aha. Well that explains it. Thanks!

Don’t most siblings enter well before 9th grade? Seems unbelievable they took 20 sibling boys last year for 9th. I mean, come on.

30% of the graduating class starts in 9th so it’s believable that a lot of siblings would start 9th too. Once you take out the siblings and any athletic recruits, how many open spots do they really have?

I'm the PP who originally said GDS has seven 9th grade boy spots. The admissions person told us that this year they will have about 30 9th grade openings. Half will go to siblings and they will split the remaining half evenly between boys and girls. Oh, and last year they had about 400 applications for 9th grade and she was expecting similar this year.

I knew it. I haven't heard this exact number yet from admissions but i never asked. I knew about 20 kids who applied and none got in and there were at least 400-500 high school interview spots filled on Ravenna. That is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

Did something change? When my child was in lower school at Sidwell, there were 2 teachers per class.

Yes. It has changed. It might revert after covid, but it's been like this for awhile

So you're saying they're outright lying on their website?

If you need to resolve the issue of who is lying between what SFS says on their website and some anon rando on DCUM, I think the answer is clear who you should resolve in favor of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

Did something change? When my child was in lower school at Sidwell, there were 2 teachers per class.

Yes. It has changed. It might revert after covid, but it's been like this for awhile

So you're saying they're outright lying on their website?

If you need to resolve the issue of who is lying between what SFS says on their website and some anon rando on DCUM, I think the answer is clear who you should resolve in favor of.

I’m referring to GDS. But your point is taken.

[Anonymous]

The number of responses to this, in such a short amount of time, shows how many parents from these schools are posters. I would shy away from schools like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

Did something change? When my child was in lower school at Sidwell, there were 2 teachers per class.

Yes. It has changed. It might revert after covid, but it's been like this for awhile

22 kids in a class is the same as public school. One of the reasons we want to make the switch (and I'd wager a lot of parents want to) is so DC has a smaller class size with more teacher engagement. 22 kids, really??

It’s not the same as public b/c even though there is 1 main teacher, there are plenty of other staff (reading specialist, math specialist, counselor, just to name a few) so that 1 teacher doesn’t have to be all things to all kids. In addition there are separate teachers/classrooms for science, art, language, and PE. The kids are often in smaller groups. E.g., group A goes to art, group B stays in the classroom for math, and a couple of kids in group B go to the math specialist.