Elementary schools in fcps to avoid and why

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Haycock is toxic. Shrevewood is very down to earth and diverse. Lemon Road is incredibly welcoming to everyone.

Shrevewood parents did everything they could to try and keep their AAP kids at Haycock rather than move to Lemon Road. When that effort failed, as Haycock was full (it was shortly before Haycock’s renovation), they started attacking Haycock, and some have yet to move on.

If any of these schools is toxic, it’s Shrevewood.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Haycock - weak administration, horrible special ed department, parent community (trickles down to kids)

& can't keep a principal.

I suspect because the parents are who essentially picks the principal. They inevitably pick one they know they manipulate who burns out quick.

Yeah, no. A principal is picked by FCPS administration at the regional level. Sometimes parents and School Board members have some limited input.

Principal J was drummed out mostly due to his proposed changes to AAP.

. . .

He wanted to water it down, with (I strongly suspect) an eventual goal of eliminating it.

- because: “equity.”

No, he was actually trying to protect the students. But parents didn't want that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Olde Creek- too small, bad with special Ed services, lackluster administration but really too small.

We love Olde creek. It’s a great community and we have had good experiences with the teachers. There is a poster who comes on here and bad mouths Olde Creek on here. Not saying it’s perfect and everyone’s experience may be different but beware that the negative comments seem to be from the same one or two people. I would agree that it’s a small school. I didn’t find that to be a problem from an academic perspective but my kids were sick of such a small social circle by 6th grade.

they are rated a 5 in a top pyramid so there has to be some truth in the bad reviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Olde Creek- too small, bad with special Ed services, lackluster administration but really too small.

We love Olde creek. It’s a great community and we have had good experiences with the teachers. There is a poster who comes on here and bad mouths Olde Creek on here. Not saying it’s perfect and everyone’s experience may be different but beware that the negative comments seem to be from the same one or two people. I would agree that it’s a small school. I didn’t find that to be a problem from an academic perspective but my kids were sick of such a small social circle by 6th grade.

they are rated a 5 in a top pyramid so there has to be some truth in the bad reviews.

The low scoring students are either in the special education program or continue on to Robinson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haycock is toxic. Shrevewood is very down to earth and diverse. Lemon Road is incredibly welcoming to everyone.

Shrevewood parents did everything they could to try and keep their AAP kids at Haycock rather than move to Lemon Road. When that effort failed, as Haycock was full (it was shortly before Haycock’s renovation), they started attacking Haycock, and some have yet to move on.

If any of these schools is toxic, it’s Shrevewood.

How is Shrevewood toxic? We are zoned for the school, but our kids entered the pyramid in middle, so we don’t have experience with it. Many of our neighbors with elementary age kids attend private, which I have always wondered about… the school seems to have a good mix of students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Olde Creek- too small, bad with special Ed services, lackluster administration but really too small.

We love Olde creek. It’s a great community and we have had good experiences with the teachers. There is a poster who comes on here and bad mouths Olde Creek on here. Not saying it’s perfect and everyone’s experience may be different but beware that the negative comments seem to be from the same one or two people. I would agree that it’s a small school. I didn’t find that to be a problem from an academic perspective but my kids were sick of such a small social circle by 6th grade.

they are rated a 5 in a top pyramid so there has to be some truth in the bad reviews.

The low scoring students are either in the special education program or continue on to Robinson.

Robinson is also highly rated pyramid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haycock is toxic. Shrevewood is very down to earth and diverse. Lemon Road is incredibly welcoming to everyone.

Shrevewood parents did everything they could to try and keep their AAP kids at Haycock rather than move to Lemon Road. When that effort failed, as Haycock was full (it was shortly before Haycock’s renovation), they started attacking Haycock, and some have yet to move on.

If any of these schools is toxic, it’s Shrevewood.

How is Shrevewood toxic? We are zoned for the school, but our kids entered the pyramid in middle, so we don’t have experience with it. Many of our neighbors with elementary age kids attend private, which I have always wondered about… the school seems to have a good mix of students?

I don't think Shrevewood is toxic - at least not anymore. The Haycock issue parents have almost all aged out at this point, and the new Administration has lots of positive energy. As for private schools, a lot of zoned kids attend St. James, which is right down 7 from the school. I know some families switched to St. James during the pandemic (hence some relief from the past overcrowding), but there were always lots of families in the neighborhoods which started with St. James given the proximity to the school and lower home prices than other adjacent areas (City of Falls Church and McLean pyramid).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Belvedere Elementary. Lackluster academics. IB is a joke. Untrustworthy admin.

Belvedere's test scores are spectacular given the large Hispanic population and large FARMs population. It is extremely rare to see a school have such high scores with that type of diverse population. We have people here on DCUM claiming that schools like Sangster ES are closing the achievement gap

Belvedere staff are truly working miracles because no other low-SES, high-FARMs school shows such results. Something great must be happening in the classroom despite the untrustworthy admin you've encountered.

When I was an FCPS student, many, many years ago, Belvedere was where they sent FCPS's most brilliant elementary students, not what is considered advanced/gifted today, but the truly gifted, the students with uncoached and raw ability who scored in the 140+ on school-administered IQ tests. I know I scored in the high 120s and qualified for tracked/advanced classes, but, not GT pullouts, and was nowhere near the Belvedere cut. There was actually only one kid that year, pulled from the entire group selected to test, who was pulled out for Belvedere.

Not sure what happened, or what it eventually evolved into, but perhaps some of the teaching methods, and practices of yore are still in use today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wolftrap - management decisions are heavily influenced by the PTA. Good or bad depending on whether you’re on it. PTA members fill up all the volunteering slots for every activity before they send the signupgenius to others.

I have heard this too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haycock is toxic. Shrevewood is very down to earth and diverse. Lemon Road is incredibly welcoming to everyone.

Shrevewood parents did everything they could to try and keep their AAP kids at Haycock rather than move to Lemon Road. When that effort failed, as Haycock was full (it was shortly before Haycock’s renovation), they started attacking Haycock, and some have yet to move on.

If any of these schools is toxic, it’s Shrevewood.

I have kids at Shrevewood but I guess we haven’t been there long enough to know about the Haycock/Lemon Road thing. I would guess all the parents you’re talking about are long gone. Everyone I’ve met has been super nice and I love that the community is so diverse. We did have a few families leave for Lemon Rd. This year due to AAP changes but most people are willing to stay and give it a try. I agree with the assessment of everyone being down to earth nice heard the same thing about LemonRoad btw. Everyone we know there really likes it (the principal was the AP at Shrevewood several years ago but that was before we started).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wolftrap - management decisions are heavily influenced by the PTA. Good or bad depending on whether you’re on it. PTA members fill up all the volunteering slots for every activity before they send the signupgenius to others.

I have heard this too.

Several other elementary schools are like that in Vienna. Sometimes the PTA is so involved with the everyday operation of the school that they find out confidential information about other children. That's the part that bothered me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wolftrap - management decisions are heavily influenced by the PTA. Good or bad depending on whether you’re on it. PTA members fill up all the volunteering slots for every activity before they send the signupgenius to others.

I have heard this too.

Several other elementary schools are like that in Vienna. Sometimes the PTA is so involved with the everyday operation of the school that they find out confidential information about other children. That's the part that bothered me.

This is how Vienna is from K-12. Cliqueish and not very welcoming, in these ways and others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Louise Archer. Woe to the parents and students of non-AAP students. Great for students in the AAP program.

Cliques abound between parents and students: AAP v. base.
Heartbreaking and sad to see the students forever separate out to AAP in third grade.

So to the parents of neighborhood-assigned students, I’m telling you now to get ready to supplement reading, handwriting, spelling, math facts and writing to name just a few off of the top of my head. Opt out of the SOLs.

The only time my DC got offers of extra help and tutoring before and after school was after he failed the online math SOL. VP called to discuss remediation and a re-take. Declined.

Unfortunately, needing to supplement all basic skills is universal to FCPS, including for kids in AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Louise Archer. Woe to the parents and students of non-AAP students. Great for students in the AAP program.

Cliques abound between parents and students: AAP v. base.
Heartbreaking and sad to see the students forever separate out to AAP in third grade.

So to the parents of neighborhood-assigned students, I’m telling you now to get ready to supplement reading, handwriting, spelling, math facts and writing to name just a few off of the top of my head. Opt out of the SOLs.

The only time my DC got offers of extra help and tutoring before and after school was after he failed the online math SOL. VP called to discuss remediation and a re-take. Declined.

Unfortunately, needing to supplement all basic skills is universal to FCPS, including for kids in AAP.

Agree with this. My rising 4th grader is on grade level and passed her SOLs and she's barely able to read and write. Have now added a math tutor to our reading tutor because she's just not going to learn the way FCPS teaches. And we're in a good ES with perfectly competent teachers. Not a fan of the curriculum and how they tell teachers what they have to teach every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Louise Archer. Woe to the parents and students of non-AAP students. Great for students in the AAP program.

Cliques abound between parents and students: AAP v. base.
Heartbreaking and sad to see the students forever separate out to AAP in third grade.

So to the parents of neighborhood-assigned students, I’m telling you now to get ready to supplement reading, handwriting, spelling, math facts and writing to name just a few off of the top of my head. Opt out of the SOLs.

The only time my DC got offers of extra help and tutoring before and after school was after he failed the online math SOL. VP called to discuss remediation and a re-take. Declined.

Unfortunately, needing to supplement all basic skills is universal to FCPS, including for kids in AAP.

This hasn't been my experience for my kids. They did fine without supplementation and eldest is doing well at a T20 university and younger ones seem on a similar strong track.