Current McLean School and Siena school parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To OP - if you are thinking of only one year, have you considered remaining where you are and doing extensive tutoring? We are the ones that left McLean, went to FCPS, and poured the money that we would have spent at McLean (well, much less, really, but a lot) into extensive tutoring at an off-site tutoring center. It worked very well. DC was mainstreamed from middle school all through high school but the tutors kept her organized and on-task. For us it worked and DC is now in college. ADHD/Anxiety/Executive function.

Where did you find the tutors and how much time did this take per week? Did your DD find the extra time outside school to be onerous?

[Anonymous]

McLean parent here. This is not a promotion of McLean but a general comment about tutoring. We used tutors for years for our DCs, who both have ADHD. And, the one thing I noticed that was a big negative was that it took so much time away from the precious down time all kids, especially SN, need. At one point, the tutor was coming three times a week, twice during the school week and once on the weekend. It interfered with sports during the week and weekends, which I had a big problem with because my DCs are sports centered and the physical activity is critical. Now that they are at McLean I feel that they are getting all the support they need obviating the need for a tutor. And, they get all their homework done at school. I get constant feedback from the school team and I provide feedback to them on my observations at home and where I think they need reinforcement. I know it is a lot of money but it is a one stop shop and I don't have to take precious time out of their non-school hours for tutoring, which is not always in sync with what is going on at school and the tutors and teachers may not always communicate or have a good rapport.

[Anonymous]

I am posting this link for a PP who had a question about the new head of school at McLean. It talks about his background and what he brings to McLean. http://connectionarchives.com/PDF/2013/100213/Potomac.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McLean parent here. This is not a promotion of McLean but a general comment about tutoring. We used tutors for years for our DCs, who both have ADHD. And, the one thing I noticed that was a big negative was that it took so much time away from the precious down time all kids, especially SN, need. At one point, the tutor was coming three times a week, twice during the school week and once on the weekend. It interfered with sports during the week and weekends, which I had a big problem with because my DCs are sports centered and the physical activity is critical. Now that they are at McLean I feel that they are getting all the support they need obviating the need for a tutor. And, they get all their homework done at school. I get constant feedback from the school team and I provide feedback to them on my observations at home and where I think they need reinforcement. I know it is a lot of money but it is a one stop shop and I don't have to take precious time out of their non-school hours for tutoring, which is not always in sync with what is going on at school and the tutors and teachers may not always communicate or have a good rapport.

Past McLean parent here. We used the "pull-out" tutors at McLean but had to pay for them (the ones in the trailers). Is that system still in place? The only time we had to go to outside tutors was for Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To OP - if you are thinking of only one year, have you considered remaining where you are and doing extensive tutoring? We are the ones that left McLean, went to FCPS, and poured the money that we would have spent at McLean (well, much less, really, but a lot) into extensive tutoring at an off-site tutoring center. It worked very well. DC was mainstreamed from middle school all through high school but the tutors kept her organized and on-task. For us it worked and DC is now in college. ADHD/Anxiety/Executive function.

Where did you find the tutors and how much time did this take per week? Did your DD find the extra time outside school to be onerous?

No, it wasn't onerous because the same time would have been spent at home struggling through the homework. We used Mary Lou Sullivan tutoring in McLean. She had a cadre of specialist tutors working out of a townhouse in downtown McLean (she does have tutors who will come to your home but we have never used those but we have referred parents to her for that type of tutoring and it worked well). Our pattern was to pick up DC at Langley at 2:10 and go directly to tutoring. Most tutoring was organizational and group. MLS tutors worked right from the FCPS blackboard and set up organizational charts and got everyone started on homework. For special projects it was one-on-one. I would usually pick up DC @ 6:00 so we could still have family dinner. If it was a good night, homework would be done, DC could have dinner, rest, shower, bed (FCPS starts at 7:10). Depending on how well DC was doing we might do the group tutoring twice a week. The week before finals, however, we would do it daily. The tutors did not do the work for DC but showed DC how. Group tutoring was much less expensive than the one-on-one.

We did have to hire a special home tutor for Russian

MLS tutors also offer private prep for the SAT and ACT. Because of learning issues, we were advised to focus on ACT only which we did. DC did ten private sessions and scored a composite of 34, so we will do the same with next two kids. The cost was equivalent to a group SAT prep course (and taught by a former group teacher). 703 356-0780. Ask for Krista.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean parent here. This is not a promotion of McLean but a general comment about tutoring. We used tutors for years for our DCs, who both have ADHD. And, the one thing I noticed that was a big negative was that it took so much time away from the precious down time all kids, especially SN, need. At one point, the tutor was coming three times a week, twice during the school week and once on the weekend. It interfered with sports during the week and weekends, which I had a big problem with because my DCs are sports centered and the physical activity is critical. Now that they are at McLean I feel that they are getting all the support they need obviating the need for a tutor. And, they get all their homework done at school. I get constant feedback from the school team and I provide feedback to them on my observations at home and where I think they need reinforcement. I know it is a lot of money but it is a one stop shop and I don't have to take precious time out of their non-school hours for tutoring, which is not always in sync with what is going on at school and the tutors and teachers may not always communicate or have a good rapport.

Past McLean parent here. We used the "pull-out" tutors at McLean but had to pay for them (the ones in the trailers). Is that system still in place? The only time we had to go to outside tutors was for Spanish.

My DD said the trailer is used for music and a resource period. I am not sure about the tutoring at school. We are new and I have not heard about pull out tutors. We have not needed extra tutoring.

[Anonymous]

We used the pull-out tutoring but it just didn't work out for DC. Too erratic. Aides changing. And DC was anxious just because he had been pulled-out so was worried about what he was missing in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McLean parent here. This is not a promotion of McLean but a general comment about tutoring. We used tutors for years for our DCs, who both have ADHD. And, the one thing I noticed that was a big negative was that it took so much time away from the precious down time all kids, especially SN, need. At one point, the tutor was coming three times a week, twice during the school week and once on the weekend. It interfered with sports during the week and weekends, which I had a big problem with because my DCs are sports centered and the physical activity is critical. Now that they are at McLean I feel that they are getting all the support they need obviating the need for a tutor. And, they get all their homework done at school. I get constant feedback from the school team and I provide feedback to them on my observations at home and where I think they need reinforcement. I know it is a lot of money but it is a one stop shop and I don't have to take precious time out of their non-school hours for tutoring, which is not always in sync with what is going on at school and the tutors and teachers may not always communicate or have a good rapport.

Siena parent here. We had the same concerns when considering whether to keep our child in public school with outside tutoring support or whether to place our child in a private special needs school. I agree with PPs points about the importance of downtime and other activities after school and on weekends. For our child, we felt that at least 3x a week of outside tutoring was necessary (plus 2x a week speech therapy), if he were to stay in public school. That would have been a lot to do outside school. Also, since our child's primary problem is a language-learning difference, we were concerned that an outside tutor together with a (public) school that didn't reinforce any of the tutor's techniques during the day would not really be beneficial.

The thing that has really worked for us at Siena is that every time DC writes or reads or self-organizes, special instruction is reinforcing what he is doing. As a result, he is making great progress. Also, having a cap on homework time has made a huge difference at Siena. No matter what is going on, DC knows he only has to work on something for 20 minutes. If the HW is unfinished then teachers at school will adjust and if it's important they will re-teach it and allow time to complete at school in a non-punitive way. At public school, DC would have been forced to work for hours on an assignment w/ or w/o a tutor until it was finished. Even with a tutor, what was a 1/2 hour assignment for other students, would turn into a 2 hour assignment for DC. Often when the tutor came was not in sync with when the homework was assigned for which he really needed the tutor's help. For us, relying on an outside tutor was not a viable plan.