Deal Parents Out There?

[Anonymous]

As a parent of a shy child I am concerned that Deal being such a large school might not be a good fit. My DC would really be a small fish in a big pond. I would be interested in hearing from parents at Deal who may hav had similar concerns.

[Anonymous]

I looked at Deal (we are in-boundary)--opted for Washington Latin where there is a smaller scale, our child (already there) feels 'loved' and known. Vis Deal--Principal Melissa Kim has a stellar rep. I met some very enthused teachers there. Many of my former students have attended there and none has complained about size--they divide into teams, so they make sort of smaller groups within the big group and the kids go from class to class together. Nice facilities. My only concern (and my child's) were academics. Even with the math tracking, the math program did not look as compelling as WL's. I was not concerned by size though. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

My somewhat quiet child thrived at Deal last year (I, too, had some concerns about the size before she started). She did not just end up with the same friends who had moved to Deal with her from her elementary school, but also made new ones readily (one positive about a larger school is it might increase the pool of potential kindred spirits for your child). As the PP notes, Deal divides the students into teams (about 100 students each) who all have the same 4 core teachers. This seemed to be very effective in building smaller communities in the school. Strong extracurriculars, including choir and band, help the kids to make connections within the larger school. Algebra and other classes were challenging with quite a bit of supplementing beyond the standard texts in English, Science and History.