K orientation was a big let down.

[Anonymous]

And luckily the OP has dodged the bullet and can still register her child for private school. Crisis averted!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then email the principal and express your concern. Live and learn I guess. It's public school so they don't have to put on a show for you. They don't care if your child goes to their school or not. Now, if this was an expensive private school, yeah, I would be pissed off. But it isn't.

Your comment just shows how sad and low the expectations are. EVERY school should welcome and orient everyone. Another reason private and parochial schools are so popular.

I disagree . I don't expect every school function to be a big deal. Personally, our orientation was similarly low key but the school has been fantastic. We had talked to parents and done some research and felt fairly confident that was the school for us. A low key did not deter us. Guess we are just not that high maintenance when it comes that stuff. Plus, we did not look at kindergarten as make or break. It was our enthusiasm as we prepared our kid for the new adventure. The lack if a dog and pony show was in no way off putting.
To each his own .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And luckily the OP has dodged the bullet and can still register her child for private school. Crisis averted!

No chance. I have one in private and those schools are all full with waiting lists by March. She is SOL

[Anonymous]

Plenty of Catholic schools have space. They would love another family dissatisfied with public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Not OP but orientation is supposed to orient a child and parent to a school in advance. Tours, meeting teachers, staff, seeing classrooms. If preschools can do it, so can Kindergarten. If they are having all the current kids not come to school for 1-2 days, there should be something. Anyone can hand in forms. Hearing K teachers say at a table and talked to each other and not the students or parents speaks volumes if you ask me. I would be ticked off too. A little effort on initial impressions can go along way. I truly wish every school cost money instead of free state-wide funding via taxes and your child could decide where to go. Make these schools accountable. Hearing such huge discrepancies in these K orientations is pretty sad when you don't have an option.

"What is Kindergarten orientation?
Kindergarten orientation is designed to help parents enroll their children, including the completion of health forms, and to assist students in becoming acquainted with future friends and the school environment."

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/enroll/orientation.aspx#what

Works for me.

[Anonymous]

Looking for something substantive isn't looking for a dog and pony show. Its rude and incompetent to ask parents to take a day off from work and bring their kid into an "orientation" when the only thing done is collecting forms for the front office. This is bureaucrats with no accountability for performance being bureaucrats with no accountability for performance.

An orientation can be a tour of the school, sharing the weekly schedule, meeting the teachers, seeing the centers, getting to sit on a school bus, listening to a story, doing a small project together, visiting the library, sharing relevant information with parents.

Our school shared how the fifth graders walk the Ks onto the bus, went over field trips for the upcoming year, talked about the playground, and the kids all got to do things. The PTA provided cookies and drinks afterwards and the kids walked around with their parents looking at things. It wasn't that hard to make it more than turn in the forms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking for something substantive isn't looking for a dog and pony show. Its rude and incompetent to ask parents to take a day off from work and bring their kid into an "orientation" when the only thing done is collecting forms for the front office. This is bureaucrats with no accountability for performance being bureaucrats with no accountability for performance.

An orientation can be a tour of the school, sharing the weekly schedule, meeting the teachers, seeing the centers, getting to sit on a school bus, listening to a story, doing a small project together, visiting the library, sharing relevant information with parents.

Our school shared how the fifth graders walk the Ks onto the bus, went over field trips for the upcoming year, talked about the playground, and the kids all got to do things. The PTA provided cookies and drinks afterwards and the kids walked around with their parents looking at things. It wasn't that hard to make it more than turn in the forms.

Guess it depends on what is going at the school, staffing, etc. Bottom line, big whoop.

[Anonymous]

Guess it depends on what is going at the school, staffing, etc. Bottom line, big whoop.

The examples given above don't require large amounts of staff. It only requires staff that don't sit around on their behinds. Seriously, why do county employees think poor performance is a right?

If a principal doesn't care about giving a bad orientation and bad first impression to the entering class then he or she should be removed.

Bottom line, stop accepting bad performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Guess it depends on what is going at the school, staffing, etc. Bottom line, big whoop.

The examples given above don't require large amounts of staff. It only requires staff that don't sit around on their behinds. Seriously, why do county employees think poor performance is a right?

If a principal doesn't care about giving a bad orientation and bad first impression to the entering class then he or she should be removed.

Bottom line, stop accepting bad performance.

This is not a matter of accepting bad performance, it's a matter of interpretation, perspective and expectations. Some people expect more from an orientation, others don't. Purely subjective. I expected to fill out and hand in forms.

[Anonymous]

Please say the name of the school

[Anonymous]

Aren't the open houses, held a couple of times in the year for that very purpose? To tour the school, see the facilities, see classroom in action? Our school gave families appointments in order to be efficient and not waste the valuable time of families who might otherwise need to return to work.

[Anonymous]

My son's school has one Open House during the daytime and one at night sometime in November (it's a magnet school). If you don't go to that, there is nothing else. They have kindergarten registration in late April/May where all you do is come in at a certain time to register. A kindergarten teacher does a quick screening and that's it. I don't see why there needs to be a special orientation in the spring before the student starts school. The week before school starts, the students can visit their classroom and meet their teacher and there is also a picnic. Back to School Night is the 2nd week of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son's school has one Open House during the daytime and one at night sometime in November (it's a magnet school). If you don't go to that, there is nothing else. They have kindergarten registration in late April/May where all you do is come in at a certain time to register. A kindergarten teacher does a quick screening and that's it. I don't see why there needs to be a special orientation in the spring before the student starts school. The week before school starts, the students can visit their classroom and meet their teacher and there is also a picnic. Back to School Night is the 2nd week of school.

because snowflake Larla deserves it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Guess it depends on what is going at the school, staffing, etc. Bottom line, big whoop.

The examples given above don't require large amounts of staff. It only requires staff that don't sit around on their behinds. Seriously, why do county employees think poor performance is a right?

If a principal doesn't care about giving a bad orientation and bad first impression to the entering class then he or she should be removed.

Bottom line, stop accepting bad performance.

I agree 100%. It is amazing how people are actually defending the laziness of K teachers all sitting at a reading table and putting on a video and calling that "orientation"

[Anonymous]

If the kindergarten teachers don't do what you think they should do, that means they're lazy?