St. John's Episcopal Preschool and Little Folks Preschool

[Anonymous]

Can anyone compare/contrast these two preschools in terms of strengths:

- community (warmth versus elitism)
- placement ("exmissions")
- curriculum/program philosophy
- teachers

[Anonymous]

Anyone?

[Anonymous]

While I can't comment on Little Folks, St. Johns is a wonderful preschool. The philosophy is unique - Reggio Emilia, the space is beautiful, and the teachers are amazing. A daily journal with photos is posted outside the classroom and emailed to parents each day so you know exactly what was done in class. Our child has had an incredible experience there. Parents run the gamut. Outplacement is as good as if not better than many other preschools in the area, and the head of school supports the process very well. Unfortunately, it is a small school and so admission is very competitive. I would recommend this school to anyone.

[Anonymous]

I know a lot about both - but send my kids to Little Folks.
Little Folks community is great- only 40 kids, very warm and welcoming. There is no sense of elitism, though many of the kids do live in the neighborhood. St. John's is also a small and very close community - a bit more homogenous due to a high percentage of parishioners.

Curriculum / philosophy: St. John's follows reggio emilia, taking cues from the kids and doing lots of documentation, putting an emphasis on the beauty of the classroom and the materials the kids work with. They segregate their classrooms by age. The same group moves together through the school and the same teachers move with them. Little Folks is a mix, primarily play-based, with use of the Montessori materials and with a significant emphasis on art, music, and social interaction. Emphasis is placed on open-ended activities and they incorporate new research findings on how kids learn into their curriculum when appropriate. The classrooms are mixed-age, so the younger ones learn from the older and the older ones get a real sense of accomplishment- we love that. This also means that about half of each classroom is new each year- they stay with the same teachers unless you request a change. Neither school is "academic" in the traditional sense.

placement: Little Folks sends a lot of kids to Beauvoir and Sidwell, but they go all over. Gay holds two evening sessions for parents each year talking about the process of choosing a school and applying out, gives out a resource binder with information on many of the schools which might interest graduating kids, and hosts a program where parents of recent Little Folks alumni come to talk about the schools their kids attend. She then makes herself available to meet one-on-one with families to help with the process whenever requested. Don't know how Marley does it at St. John's.

teachers: Both schools have excellent teachers. Gay has been at Little Folks for 27 or 28 years. Three other teachers have also been there for over 15 years, and two are newer (I think 3-6 years). St. John's has had a lot more turnover. My child has one teacher who's been there for about 19 years and one about 3-5 years, and they make a great team.

[Anonymous]

To PP: did you have people write letters of recommendations for you for Little Folks? Did you have any other sort of thing that made your child stand out?

Thanks - we loved Little Folks and are just waiting to see if dd gets in.

[Anonymous]

22:18 - Was your child accepted at St. John's and Little Folks? How did you choose between the two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I can't comment on Little Folks, St. Johns is a wonderful preschool. The philosophy is unique - Reggio Emilia, the space is beautiful, and the teachers are amazing. A daily journal with photos is posted outside the classroom and emailed to parents each day so you know exactly what was done in class. Our child has had an incredible experience there. Parents run the gamut. Outplacement is as good as if not better than many other preschools in the area, and the head of school supports the process very well. Unfortunately, it is a small school and so admission is very competitive. I would recommend this school to anyone.

Thanks for your post. Besides being a parishioner, what tips the scales in terms of admission? Are there schools that most of the St. John's kids move on to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for your post. Besides being a parishioner, what tips the scales in terms of admission? Are there schools that most of the St. John's kids move on to?

We really prefer St. John's -- and want to know if there's anything we can do (before decisions are made) to help our case.

[Anonymous]

PP here from Little Folks who wrote the long post-

As for teacher recommendations for Little Folks, don't do it. She doesn't want them. She does want to take families who love the school, though, so do call or write and express your enthusiasm. If you have friends who are current parents at the school, you can ask them to verbally convey your enthusiasm too, but don't "pad the application" with useless paper or go overboard.

To the person who asked if we were accepted at both, it's a bit more complicated than that. Our child was offered spots at both schools but the St. John's spot was not in the format we wanted (they have options with different # days and different classrooms based on age). We also had another school to choose from. So we decided for Little Folks based on neighborhood and what we felt was best for our child. For our family, it was the right decision.

[Anonymous]

I've heard that St. John's is nearly impossible to get into unless you're a parishioner. How hard is Little Folks if you have no special "in"?

[Anonymous]

LFS is still competetive, but if you apply early and express enthusiasm your chances are better than at St. John's. I was told by an alum parent that Gay really likes families with something different about them- an unusual profession, cultural or religious background, or something like that - but have no idea if that is true. We don't fall into the "different" category at all. I do know that although it's not first-come first served like Metropolitan, applying early confers an advantage.

[Anonymous]

Is St. John's a feeder preschool for the other Episcopal schools (i.e., Beauvoir, St. Patrick's)?

[Anonymous]

re: admission, I don't know what else tips the scale other than being a member of the parish. I do know that St. John's students go on to such schools as Sidwell, Beauvoir, St. Patrick's and neighborhood public schools. I also know Marley (head of school) works on behalf of her students/families on next school placement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:re: admission, I don't know what else tips the scale other than being a member of the parish.

What percentage of families at St. John's preschool are parishioners? 30% 50% 75%?