Fairfax City Schools?
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Anonymous
| Thinking of buying a townhome in FFX city proper (so not FFX county) - what can you tell me about the elementary and middle schools? Probably not there long enough to worry about high school. |
Anonymous
| The schools are owned by Fairfax City but operated by Fairfax County - two elementary schools (Daniels Run and Providence) and one middle school (Lanier). Ironically, the demographics are those schools come about as close to mirroring the demographics of Fairfax County as a whole as any other schools. |
Anonymous
| The middle school, Lanier, is now an 8 on great schools! It used to be a 7, so that's good. Daniels run and providence are rated 5 and 4, so I'd definitely be concerned about that. Willow Springs elementary feeds into Lanier and Fairfax high school and that school is wonderful! They have a much higher score on great schools too. Willow Springs is not located in Fairfax City though, it's in Clifton. |
Anonymous
| I wouldn't judge a school by a greatschools score. |
Anonymous
| It's been a good district for us. |
Anonymous
We know, but most people do. 
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Anonymous
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The Fairfax City elementary schools are much better than the GreatSchools scores suggest. I can't speak for Daniels Run, but Providence has great teachers and facilities. They have an advanced math class starting in 1st grade, and they fully differentiate for reading groups, writing, math, and spelling. Class sizes are around 20 students/class. For science and math-oriented kids, they have a STEAM lab, participate in Science Olympiad, participate in Math Olympiad, and have a gardening/botany club.
Your best bet is to visit the schools, meet with the principals, and form your own opinions. |
Anonymous
| FHS has the syllabus on the website so we don't have to wait till the first week of school to see it. |
Anonymous
Only people with a greatparents school of 5 or less. |
Anonymous
Uh what? |
Anonymous
| Fairfax has a trailer park |
Anonymous
Those kids attend Fairfax Vila, Frost and Woodson high |
Anonymous
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That's interesting that Lanier is rated so much higher than Daniels Run and Providence (I guess this goes into why you have to take these with a grain of salt). My understanding was the the elementary schools (especially Daniels Run and FFX Villa) were generally viewed more favorably than Lanier. Not that any of them were viewed that poorly.
The families I know at each of those schools are happy with them. They're not rated as highly as the schools in Vienna or McLean, but that's due to a higher percentage of kids who are from lower income families or families where English isn't the first language spoken. But at the same time, they don't constitute so high of a percentage that they overwhelm the school. Also, Lanier will probably become an AAP center soon. Currently, many high-performing kids go to Rocky Run for AAP so that brings down the test scores for Providence. |
Anonymous
Sorry, that last sentence about AAP is regarding Lanier, not Providence. I believe all the AAP kids at FFX city schools go to Mosby Woods. |
Anonymous
No Lanier? That's odd since it is in walking distance of the trailer park. |