Tween going from private to public for middle school - what does she need to know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what is wrong with using the bathroom?

Some publics, especially large ones lock them due to drugs, sex, vaping, rapes, violence.

Um. Which ones do that?

Our middle school does close some bathrooms because of vandalism. The rest of that story sounds like urban legend.

Well, Loudon didn't close them but perhaps should have. Also, you just admitted closing bathrooms happens due to crime, so I'm not sure what your point is.

Okay you just lost all credibility.

If you can’t see the difference between vandalism and “rapes” “sex,” and “drugs,” you should not be giving advice to someone about public school.

Why did I lose credibility? And what's wrong with taken vandalism seriously? Yeah, maybe I shouldn't be talking about public school if brushing off that kind of thing is the norm.

You clearly know nothing about public school. Or the real world.

Most people see a big difference between paper towels strewn on the floor, writing on a mirror, or a broken sink handle, on the one hand, and tweens getting raped, on the other.

what school is under constant rape scenario?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn the late work/retest policy early. Kids who master this really use it to their advantage.

How so? To earn an 80? That’s the highest grade allowed on retests and late assignments.

Depends on the school, and sometimes teachers. DD's teachers only allow retests on summatives, not formatives. No one allows grades higher than an 89. Some require getting permission to retest, which requires showing that they have in fact, put in effort to learn the material. Late work turned in within a week or two seem to have no penalties.

Wow. Would never send mine to a school that permitted retests and late work. No wonder kids think they can away with anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop by Lululemon and get her a gray Swiftly Tech and neutral leggings. My daughters enjoy shopping at Hollister, American Eagle/Aerie, Brandy Melville, and Marshall’s/TJ Maxx. I also recommend a Stanley and a North Face backpack that will last a long time.

oh please. My kid doesn't have anything from Lulu or a Stanley, and they're fine. Doesn't get made fun of.

DC has bought clothes from Old Navy, even Target. Some of the kids go to Goodwill and consignment shops.

You people are crazy.

Exactly. My kid is mainly adidas, levis, gap (or what ever I get on clearance) with a bunch of no name stuff, including Walmart and no one cares or says anything. Sneakers are usually $30, sometimes less for adidas.

They don't want any of that non-sense.

+1 being materialistic is more of an issue with pricey privates, not large publics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop by Lululemon and get her a gray Swiftly Tech and neutral leggings. My daughters enjoy shopping at Hollister, American Eagle/Aerie, Brandy Melville, and Marshall’s/TJ Maxx. I also recommend a Stanley and a North Face backpack that will last a long time.

oh please. My kid doesn't have anything from Lulu or a Stanley, and they're fine. Doesn't get made fun of.

DC has bought clothes from Old Navy, even Target. Some of the kids go to Goodwill and consignment shops.

You people are crazy.

Exactly. My kid is mainly adidas, levis, gap (or what ever I get on clearance) with a bunch of no name stuff, including Walmart and no one cares or says anything. Sneakers are usually $30, sometimes less for adidas.

They don't want any of that non-sense.

+1 being materialistic is more of an issue with pricey privates, not large publics.

Not true. We have dress codes and uniforms.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the jungle, baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn the late work/retest policy early. Kids who master this really use it to their advantage.

How so? To earn an 80? That’s the highest grade allowed on retests and late assignments.

Depends on the school, and sometimes teachers. DD's teachers only allow retests on summatives, not formatives. No one allows grades higher than an 89. Some require getting permission to retest, which requires showing that they have in fact, put in effort to learn the material. Late work turned in within a week or two seem to have no penalties.

Wow. Would never send mine to a school that permitted retests and late work. No wonder kids think they can away with anything.

It's not really "Wow". That's fine, but please don't come back when your kids are applying to college and then cry on the DCUM college thread that your kid isn't getting as strong college acceptances as the kids attending schools with permitted retests and late work. There are too many of those on those threads already.

It's funny how when grades don't count you get lots of high-and-mighty folks, but then they go ballistic when it matters for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn the late work/retest policy early. Kids who master this really use it to their advantage.

How so? To earn an 80? That’s the highest grade allowed on retests and late assignments.

Depends on the school, and sometimes teachers. DD's teachers only allow retests on summatives, not formatives. No one allows grades higher than an 89. Some require getting permission to retest, which requires showing that they have in fact, put in effort to learn the material. Late work turned in within a week or two seem to have no penalties.

Wow. Would never send mine to a school that permitted retests and late work. No wonder kids think they can away with anything.

It's the school system's policy, so the teachers have to implement it in some form. The one with the extra hoops warned both students and parents that they will be doing 3x the work, will likely fall behind, and never catch up, if they get into a retake scenario. So it need not be as simple as just turning in corrections (as happens in DD's friend's school), or taking a new test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn the late work/retest policy early. Kids who master this really use it to their advantage.

How so? To earn an 80? That’s the highest grade allowed on retests and late assignments.

Depends on the school, and sometimes teachers. DD's teachers only allow retests on summatives, not formatives. No one allows grades higher than an 89. Some require getting permission to retest, which requires showing that they have in fact, put in effort to learn the material. Late work turned in within a week or two seem to have no penalties.

Wow. Would never send mine to a school that permitted retests and late work. No wonder kids think they can away with anything.

You mean private? My kids were in private and there were no retests but tons and tons of busy work homework and extra credit assignments to bring up grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn the late work/retest policy early. Kids who master this really use it to their advantage.

How so? To earn an 80? That’s the highest grade allowed on retests and late assignments.

Depends on the school, and sometimes teachers. DD's teachers only allow retests on summatives, not formatives. No one allows grades higher than an 89. Some require getting permission to retest, which requires showing that they have in fact, put in effort to learn the material. Late work turned in within a week or two seem to have no penalties.

Wow. Would never send mine to a school that permitted retests and late work. No wonder kids think they can away with anything.

It's not really "Wow". That's fine, but please don't come back when your kids are applying to college and then cry on the DCUM college thread that your kid isn't getting as strong college acceptances as the kids attending schools with permitted retests and late work. There are too many of those on those threads already.

It's funny how when grades don't count you get lots of high-and-mighty folks, but then they go ballistic when it matters for college.

My senior didn't need it. No crying here!

I do wonder why you're bragging about allowing your children to be mediocre, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn the late work/retest policy early. Kids who master this really use it to their advantage.

How so? To earn an 80? That’s the highest grade allowed on retests and late assignments.

Depends on the school, and sometimes teachers. DD's teachers only allow retests on summatives, not formatives. No one allows grades higher than an 89. Some require getting permission to retest, which requires showing that they have in fact, put in effort to learn the material. Late work turned in within a week or two seem to have no penalties.

Wow. Would never send mine to a school that permitted retests and late work. No wonder kids think they can away with anything.

It's not really "Wow". That's fine, but please don't come back when your kids are applying to college and then cry on the DCUM college thread that your kid isn't getting as strong college acceptances as the kids attending schools with permitted retests and late work. There are too many of those on those threads already.

It's funny how when grades don't count you get lots of high-and-mighty folks, but then they go ballistic when it matters for college.

My senior didn't need it. No crying here!

I do wonder why you're bragging about allowing your children to be mediocre, though.

I am not bragging about anything. I am just pointing out that there are way too many parents on the college boards complaining about their kids' friends getting accepted into colleges they deem superior to their kids' options.

As long as you don't turn out to be one of those complainers...we are all good.

BTW, considering literally every public school district in the DMV has these policies (DCPS, MCPS, believe FCPS) and schools like Whitman, Churchill, Langley, etc. have plenty of impressive kids...why is it allowing your children to be mediocre just because their school district allows these policies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn the late work/retest policy early. Kids who master this really use it to their advantage.

How so? To earn an 80? That’s the highest grade allowed on retests and late assignments.

Depends on the school, and sometimes teachers. DD's teachers only allow retests on summatives, not formatives. No one allows grades higher than an 89. Some require getting permission to retest, which requires showing that they have in fact, put in effort to learn the material. Late work turned in within a week or two seem to have no penalties.

Wow. Would never send mine to a school that permitted retests and late work. No wonder kids think they can away with anything.

It's not really "Wow". That's fine, but please don't come back when your kids are applying to college and then cry on the DCUM college thread that your kid isn't getting as strong college acceptances as the kids attending schools with permitted retests and late work. There are too many of those on those threads already.

It's funny how when grades don't count you get lots of high-and-mighty folks, but then they go ballistic when it matters for college.

My senior didn't need it. No crying here!

I do wonder why you're bragging about allowing your children to be mediocre, though.

So what college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Math make sure those skills are top-notch.
Ie tutor the summer before if not. Grab the previous year's curriculum and whichever class your child is scheduled for ask a tutor to assess whether the child is ready and if not fill in the holes.
This would be for any private. Usually not more than a couple of sessions. And you need to know what level of math your child is ready for.

OP if you are coming from a religious private then just keep on top of Science as 6th grade rolls around you should be fine with where these schools lack besides math.

Otherwise, the transition should be easy 6th grade all the kids are new so they all learn how to change classes etc together and public schools do a good job with this.

Please ignore the trolls on this board. You are doing a great thing. My youngest did this from a small private to MCPS large MS they graduated from HS off to MIT, just a few years ago.

Socially they will have to navigate on their own. Be prepared for girls to be obnoxious but that is not exclusive to private. Confidence is key keep working on that.

So many kids do this and people move your child will not be the only one entering 6th grade that went to private before.

It is a good time to do this. For one of mine I waiting til 8th grade and honestly what a waste of money. Public was beyond better. My kids lean math and science hence for us it was a huge win.

DCUM is going to flame me for this but if you can afford it just make sure she has a few outfits that are current style. Nothing expensive just not babyish that kids can get away with in elementary school. Nike, Adidas, Lulu, I'm not up on that set for my kids it was Pac Sun Abercrombie, Hollister, Nike, etc... Again does not have to be expensive, and not crop tops either just teen bopper LOL

Review your school's website make sure you look at the calendar and understand how the grading report system works.

Again I am in MCPS.

Please do not worry believe me you are doing the right thing your child will be better than fine.

Then your information is wildly out of date.

Yep. If your kid is in college they were in MS pre covid. It's an entirely different world now in public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Math make sure those skills are top-notch.
Ie tutor the summer before if not. Grab the previous year's curriculum and whichever class your child is scheduled for ask a tutor to assess whether the child is ready and if not fill in the holes.
This would be for any private. Usually not more than a couple of sessions. And you need to know what level of math your child is ready for.

OP if you are coming from a religious private then just keep on top of Science as 6th grade rolls around you should be fine with where these schools lack besides math.

Otherwise, the transition should be easy 6th grade all the kids are new so they all learn how to change classes etc together and public schools do a good job with this.

Please ignore the trolls on this board. You are doing a great thing. My youngest did this from a small private to MCPS large MS they graduated from HS off to MIT, just a few years ago.

Socially they will have to navigate on their own. Be prepared for girls to be obnoxious but that is not exclusive to private. Confidence is key keep working on that.

So many kids do this and people move your child will not be the only one entering 6th grade that went to private before.

It is a good time to do this. For one of mine I waiting til 8th grade and honestly what a waste of money. Public was beyond better. My kids lean math and science hence for us it was a huge win.

DCUM is going to flame me for this but if you can afford it just make sure she has a few outfits that are current style. Nothing expensive just not babyish that kids can get away with in elementary school. Nike, Adidas, Lulu, I'm not up on that set for my kids it was Pac Sun Abercrombie, Hollister, Nike, etc... Again does not have to be expensive, and not crop tops either just teen bopper LOL

Review your school's website make sure you look at the calendar and understand how the grading report system works.

Again I am in MCPS.

Please do not worry believe me you are doing the right thing your child will be better than fine.

Then your information is wildly out of date.

Yep. If your kid is in college they were in MS pre covid. It's an entirely different world now in public schools.

What is different post COVID? Any specific examples?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Math make sure those skills are top-notch.
Ie tutor the summer before if not. Grab the previous year's curriculum and whichever class your child is scheduled for ask a tutor to assess whether the child is ready and if not fill in the holes.
This would be for any private. Usually not more than a couple of sessions. And you need to know what level of math your child is ready for.

OP if you are coming from a religious private then just keep on top of Science as 6th grade rolls around you should be fine with where these schools lack besides math.

Otherwise, the transition should be easy 6th grade all the kids are new so they all learn how to change classes etc together and public schools do a good job with this.

Please ignore the trolls on this board. You are doing a great thing. My youngest did this from a small private to MCPS large MS they graduated from HS off to MIT, just a few years ago.

Socially they will have to navigate on their own. Be prepared for girls to be obnoxious but that is not exclusive to private. Confidence is key keep working on that.

So many kids do this and people move your child will not be the only one entering 6th grade that went to private before.

It is a good time to do this. For one of mine I waiting til 8th grade and honestly what a waste of money. Public was beyond better. My kids lean math and science hence for us it was a huge win.

DCUM is going to flame me for this but if you can afford it just make sure she has a few outfits that are current style. Nothing expensive just not babyish that kids can get away with in elementary school. Nike, Adidas, Lulu, I'm not up on that set for my kids it was Pac Sun Abercrombie, Hollister, Nike, etc... Again does not have to be expensive, and not crop tops either just teen bopper LOL

Review your school's website make sure you look at the calendar and understand how the grading report system works.

Again I am in MCPS.

Please do not worry believe me you are doing the right thing your child will be better than fine.

Then your information is wildly out of date.

Yep. If your kid is in college they were in MS pre covid. It's an entirely different world now in public schools.

What is different post COVID? Any specific examples?

+1

Wondering what pre and post covid middle school looks like

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn the late work/retest policy early. Kids who master this really use it to their advantage.

How so? To earn an 80? That’s the highest grade allowed on retests and late assignments.

Depends on the school, and sometimes teachers. DD's teachers only allow retests on summatives, not formatives. No one allows grades higher than an 89. Some require getting permission to retest, which requires showing that they have in fact, put in effort to learn the material. Late work turned in within a week or two seem to have no penalties.

Wow. Would never send mine to a school that permitted retests and late work. No wonder kids think they can away with anything.

It's not really "Wow". That's fine, but please don't come back when your kids are applying to college and then cry on the DCUM college thread that your kid isn't getting as strong college acceptances as the kids attending schools with permitted retests and late work. There are too many of those on those threads already.

It's funny how when grades don't count you get lots of high-and-mighty folks, but then they go ballistic when it matters for college.

My senior didn't need it. No crying here!

I do wonder why you're bragging about allowing your children to be mediocre, though.

I am not bragging about anything. I am just pointing out that there are way too many parents on the college boards complaining about their kids' friends getting accepted into colleges they deem superior to their kids' options.

As long as you don't turn out to be one of those complainers...we are all good.

BTW, considering literally every public school district in the DMV has these policies (DCPS, MCPS, believe FCPS) and schools like Whitman, Churchill, Langley, etc. have plenty of impressive kids...why is it allowing your children to be mediocre just because their school district allows these policies?

You do not have to encourage or even allow your children to make use of these policies. I'm sorry they're such poor students that you need to. Maybe tutoring or a remedial class would be a better option?