Getting ready for Deal MS after HRCS

[Anonymous]

Our 5th grader currently attends a HRCS but will be moving to Deal MS for 6th in the fall of 2019. What advice would all of you offer to help our kid transition, particularly in terms of making friends at a new school? We aren't coming from a Deal feeder, and worry whether that will make it harder for our kid to make friends with kids arriving with a cohort from their previous elementary schools. We are active and social with other families at our current school, and are more than willing to get involved, meet other families, and build relationships at Deal too.

How have others found Deal and other families there at helping kids integrate from different feeder, charter, and other elementary school backgrounds?

Are there things others would recommend that we can do this year or next summer to help this process? Maybe such as attending Deal school events, orientation, tours, and so on? Are there ways others have found helpful to meet and build relationships with other Deal families, either before or after 6th grade starts, even if you don't live in the same neighborhood as they do?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Anonymous]

IME: The parent to parent relationships at Deal are mostly based on previous connections as opposed to interactions at Deal. Many of the students at Deal get themselves to and from school by either bus or walking so you are not going to run into parents and chat like you might for elementary school.

The 6th grade will have a few events for parents to get to know each other - but it is pretty quick so it is hard to establish a relationship unless you run into the parent somewhere else.

Deal is always looking for parents to help so if you feel the need to get connected, take a look at deal website at the volunteer tab and mark something that you want to get engaged with next year.

[Anonymous]

We are in similar situation and have found that DS has made lots of future Deal friends through citywide sports. Capitol City Little League, Northwest Little League, Jelleff Rec basketball, or another DPR basketball league that is WOTP (Stoddert, Hearst Rec). Also, have you tried reaching out to listservs in your neighborhood to try to connect kids in your neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

Prepare your child to have no friends for the first couple of months of school. The kids are very cliquey with their elementary school friends. Also if your child is in a higher reading and math group, she/he will have to wait 3 weeks before they track by ability. Depending on your child, this might be upsetting to be in with the slower kids.

Try to get your child into Rise summer camp so they won’t be as overwhelmed by the size.

[Anonymous]

Another rec for Rise. It is a week long half-day intro to the school for rising sixth graders In the summer.

Are you coming in as an IB family? If so, then there will be other kids in your neighborhood going to Deal as well. Try connecting with them this year through other neighbors. If you are close enough to walk, you could try to get to know a few kids your child could walk with for the first few weeks.

The principal at Deal sends out a bulletin each week with info on what is happening. Anyone can get it. It might help you ID opportunities during the coming year to attend games or concerts, etc. that might help you feel more connected.

[Anonymous]

They mix all the kids up so many kids are not with any of heir preexisitng friends. My 8th grader has made new friends each year because she never had many friends in her classses. She was anxious about this in 6th and 7th, this year not many good friends in class but o have not seen the same level of anxiety.

The clubs are great, havevyour child look at the list of clubs and think about what to join.

I am assuming you are in bounds, I would look for ways to meet kids in the neighborhood this year.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks so much for your quick and very helpful replies so far!

Yes, we are in-bounds, just east of Rock Creek Park. Similar to a prior poster, we also know a few Deal-bound families through other activities like scouts and various summer camps. It's encouraging to hear the kids sort of get shuffled anyway. We also will be interested in clubs like theatre and cross country -- hopefully that might help find some new buddies.

The idea of reaching out to other families in our neighborhood such as with listservs is a good idea too.

We signed up for the Deal Principal's bulletin and saw a reference to the RISE summer camp that a couple other posters mentioned. It says they held it three different times -- does anyone know which dates they offered?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks so much for your quick and very helpful replies so far!

Yes, we are in-bounds, just east of Rock Creek Park. Similar to a prior poster, we also know a few Deal-bound families through other activities like scouts and various summer camps. It's encouraging to hear the kids sort of get shuffled anyway. We also will be interested in clubs like theatre and cross country -- hopefully that might help find some new buddies.

The idea of reaching out to other families in our neighborhood such as with listservs is a good idea too.

We signed up for the Deal Principal's bulletin and saw a reference to the RISE summer camp that a couple other posters mentioned. It says they held it three different times -- does anyone know which dates they offered?

It offered over the summer in July. Registration notice goes out towards the end of the school year. They are very interested in getting new to DCPS kids into it. Put a note on your calendar to call the school in May.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks so much for your quick and very helpful replies so far!

Yes, we are in-bounds, just east of Rock Creek Park. Similar to a prior poster, we also know a few Deal-bound families through other activities like scouts and various summer camps. It's encouraging to hear the kids sort of get shuffled anyway. We also will be interested in clubs like theatre and cross country -- hopefully that might help find some new buddies.

The idea of reaching out to other families in our neighborhood such as with listservs is a good idea too.

We signed up for the Deal Principal's bulletin and saw a reference to the RISE summer camp that a couple other posters mentioned. It says they held it three different times -- does anyone know which dates they offered?

If you live in 16th street heights - there is a community google list serv you can join to connect with other Deal bound families who might be in same situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks so much for your quick and very helpful replies so far!

Yes, we are in-bounds, just east of Rock Creek Park. Similar to a prior poster, we also know a few Deal-bound families through other activities like scouts and various summer camps. It's encouraging to hear the kids sort of get shuffled anyway. We also will be interested in clubs like theatre and cross country -- hopefully that might help find some new buddies.

The idea of reaching out to other families in our neighborhood such as with listservs is a good idea too.

We signed up for the Deal Principal's bulletin and saw a reference to the RISE summer camp that a couple other posters mentioned. It says they held it three different times -- does anyone know which dates they offered?

This year they offered it July 9, 16, 23. HIGHLY recommend it. My son thought it was boring (it's school in the summer after all) but it was invaluable in giving him confidence. He walked in on day 1 like he had been going there for years.
We come from a feeder elementary and he walks with his friends each morning and most afternoons. However, he's not in class with any of them. He's already made 2 friends from other schools and eats lunch with them (and his old buddies) each day.
It's been great to see him branch out a bit from the kids he's known since PK.
As a previous poster mentioned he also knows kids from little league, travel baseball, scouts, camps, the pool, preschool, etc. It's been a melting pot of all of our DC worlds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks so much for your quick and very helpful replies so far!

Yes, we are in-bounds, just east of Rock Creek Park. Similar to a prior poster, we also know a few Deal-bound families through other activities like scouts and various summer camps. It's encouraging to hear the kids sort of get shuffled anyway. We also will be interested in clubs like theatre and cross country -- hopefully that might help find some new buddies.

The idea of reaching out to other families in our neighborhood such as with listservs is a good idea too.

We signed up for the Deal Principal's bulletin and saw a reference to the RISE summer camp that a couple other posters mentioned. It says they held it three different times -- does anyone know which dates they offered?

If you live in 16th street heights - there is a community google list serv you can join to connect with other Deal bound families who might be in same situation.

+1 If you are in Mt. P., there are surely lots of similarly situated families you can try to connect with. Lots of them walk to the bus and ride it together, but it would be good to use this year to build relationships ahead of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prepare your child to have no friends for the first couple of months of school. The kids are very cliquey with their elementary school friends. Also if your child is in a higher reading and math group, she/he will have to wait 3 weeks before they track by ability. Depending on your child, this might be upsetting to be in with the slower kids.

Try to get your child into Rise summer camp so they won’t be as overwhelmed by the size.

The school is focused on teaching kids a growth mindset. I think the kids can learn to handle this truly minor "inconvenience" with grace.

[Anonymous]

Everyone is in the same boat for math tracking with 6th. I did not think they did ELA tracking (clearly I missed that memo / my child was not selected).

I would not try to orchestrate too much. Let your child enjoy the year with their friends they will be leaving next year. Also - watch your conversations. Does your child know now that they are going to Deal next year? Do they know why you think Deal is a better choice than the HRCS? In the mind of a 5th grader it can be seen as current school is not good. You do not want them giving these messages to their friends who are staying.

You know your child - some of the academics as demonstrated by PARCC at HRCS are not as strong as at some of the schools that feed Deal. If you think there are gaps, get a tutor this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prepare your child to have no friends for the first couple of months of school. The kids are very cliquey with their elementary school friends. Also if your child is in a higher reading and math group, she/he will have to wait 3 weeks before they track by ability. Depending on your child, this might be upsetting to be in with the slower kids.

Try to get your child into Rise summer camp so they won’t be as overwhelmed by the size.

The school is focused on teaching kids a growth mindset. I think the kids can learn to handle this truly minor "inconvenience" with grace.

You can roll your eyes all you want and feed me the latest academic buzzwords, you clearly are coming from a DCPS feeder. Other schools differentiate earlier. If a student is coming from a school that has had differentiation for a couple of years and is placed in a math class with a student who isn't strong in math, for example struggles with 0 x 2, it will be a shock. If said student is placed in a class were another student scores a 350 on a reading inventory when DC scores 1400, it will be a shock. I say this because it has been a shock for my child. I had to convince DC to hang in until they tracked students. This may not apply to you but it might to others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prepare your child to have no friends for the first couple of months of school. The kids are very cliquey with their elementary school friends. Also if your child is in a higher reading and math group, she/he will have to wait 3 weeks before they track by ability. Depending on your child, this might be upsetting to be in with the slower kids.

Try to get your child into Rise summer camp so they won’t be as overwhelmed by the size.

The school is focused on teaching kids a growth mindset. I think the kids can learn to handle this truly minor "inconvenience" with grace.

You can roll your eyes all you want and feed me the latest academic buzzwords, you clearly are coming from a DCPS feeder. Other schools differentiate earlier. If a student is coming from a school that has had differentiation for a couple of years and is placed in a math class with a student who isn't strong in math, for example struggles with 0 x 2, it will be a shock. If said student is placed in a class were another student scores a 350 on a reading inventory when DC scores 1400, it will be a shock. I say this because it has been a shock for my child. I had to convince DC to hang in until they tracked students. This may not apply to you but it might to others.

I think you are approaching this in an unhelpful way with your child, especially since Deal only tracks for math.