Catholic Parish Schools: Bethesda/Ch Ch/DC/Potomac/Rockville and others

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Our Lady of Mercy got a Blue Ribbon award this year. They don't have to update the scores year after year. It's a one-time award, not a continuing status.

Actually,(according to their web site) they won it 10 years ago. A LOT can (and does) change in 10 years. Not to say Mercy wouldn't get it again if it applied (I have no idea) but now knowing that its a one time thing with no ongoing quality checks...the Blue Ribbon award has lost its luster for me. What a disappointment. And what a waste of effort for the school to work so hard for something where the credibility "wears off" over time.

[Anonymous]

Well, according to the Department of Education, Our Lady of Mercy won the Blue Ribbon award this year. Here's a list of the winners.

http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/2009/applications/index.html

So give them an "F" in "website updating" but you can't knock them for not having "luster"-- if a recent Blue Ribbon award is how you define "luster."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, according to the Department of Education, Our Lady of Mercy won the Blue Ribbon award this year. Here's a list of the winners.

http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/2009/applications/index.html

So give them an "F" in "website updating" but you can't knock them for not having "luster"-- if a recent Blue Ribbon award is how you define "luster."

Mercy won Blue Ribbon in '99 and again this year. Given that it was just announce mere days ago, I'm willing to cut them some slack for not updating their website
Other recent winners I see from the Beth/CC/Potomac area are Little Flower and Victory. It doesn't mention if others applied and didn't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Little Group at OLOL is great. The summer camp is supposed to be good, too, from what I have heard.

Our Lady of Lourdes is a terrible school. The principal is totally obnoxious and makes a point of hiring family members, most who do not have any teaching experience. There is a member of the staff who is unbelievably unprofessional and should not be allowed near any school. The summer camp is horrendous and is a great place to send your kids if you want them to be basically unsupervised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Little Group at OLOL is great. The summer camp is supposed to be good, too, from what I have heard.

Our Lady of Lourdes is a terrible school. The principal is totally obnoxious and makes a point of hiring family members, most who do not have any teaching experience. There is a member of the staff who is unbelievably unprofessional and should not be allowed near any school. The summer camp is horrendous and is a great place to send your kids if you want them to be basically unsupervised.

Wow. Can the above (and previous) posters elaborate? We go to OLOL and I am surprised at many of the posts on this thread about the negative aspects. Do I just have my head in the sand?

[Anonymous]

OLOL sucks.

[Anonymous]

Our Lady of Lourdes is in Bethesda and I have heard terrible things about the school from someone who used to send her daughter there. I have heard wonderful things about Little Flower and Blessed Sacrament, though.

[Anonymous]

Has Blessed Sacrament had an unusually bad time with student bullying/teasing each other? I noticed quite a bit of info about their policy is posted on their website. If so, does this indicate a "cliqueish" parent community also? Also, I noticed that BS's class sizes seem to be smaller than some others (i.e De Chantal, Mercy). Does this translate into better academics? Right now we are looking to buy into either Blessed Sacrament, De Chantal or St. Barts parishes, so I would appreciate insights. Our older child is exceptionally strong academically (working about 2 years ahead of grade), creative, works well on collaborative projects and loves a challenge. Our second child is working on grade level and works best with lots of structure and attention. I would prefer a school with a lot of religious instruction/participation and we tend to be 'conservative' Catholics. Any advice anyone? We are open to considering other parishes.

[Anonymous]

Maybe 5 years ago before we were in the school, there were bad incidences of bullying especially in one grade level (like 4th or 5th?) and after that the school did take a hard look at bullying. There is lots of education on bullying, there is a school counselor that is great on educating kids on bullying, and any minor incident is treated very seriously. In my kid's classroom there is a photo picture story done by the kids on how to deal with bullying. So far we haven't had any issues with our kids.

As far as academics it is challenging - they do group children by ability - but they keep that very quiet and don't really acknowledge the grouping to the kids or parents. I can't really compare with other schools but i would imagine the small class size helps. There are several excellent teachers and we have yet to have a problem with a teacher. They have some religious education every day and they go to church about once a month. I would not describe the school or church as conservative catholic though.

[Anonymous]

My guess is that Little Flower is the most religious of all the schools I've seen in that area (though I haven't been to DeChantal yet) I think they have something like 6 nuns in the school and 6 priests. I've heard they are somewhat conservative but didn't seem too much so when I visited. Their classes are bigger but when I asked my parent guide about it she didn't seem to mind and said they were broken into groups often. Mercy had a bigger facility which may mean more openings. That could be a factor. I'm going to go back to St. Barts because I only did a quick in-and-out visit there but I didn't care much for the Masses I've attended there (nearly empty) I hate the idea of church shopping but I guess that's the way things are now for admissions.

[Anonymous]

That sucks you can buy your way into a parish school. I hope it doesn't bump my kid's cance of getting into our own parish. I know, that's how life works.

[Anonymous]

23:03 here. I will say that every place I visited told me that parishioners have priority. Some even insist you need to be in the parish for a year or more. We are very new to the area so I know our chances might be slim at some schools since we're looking to enroll twins for next year. I'd just like to find a nice church even if it takes a few years to get in. (We have time becuase we're only looking at PK now)

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any more specific info about St. E's? I heard they had some teacher turn over a while back. Have they remedied this? How do the acedemics compare to Mont. Co. schools. We are currently at Wyngate, which is great but lacks the emphasis on values, and community.

[Anonymous]

What about Holy Trinity School in Georgetown? I know that they are doing away with their Nursery class, so next year they will have a Pre-K thru 8 program. I've heard good things about the school, but I've also heard that there is a heavy reliance on tutors which is an additional cost above and beyond the tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any more specific info about St. E's? I heard they had some teacher turn over a while back. Have they remedied this? How do the acedemics compare to Mont. Co. schools. We are currently at Wyngate, which is great but lacks the emphasis on values, and community.

Is Wyngate near DeChantal? To me, DeChantal has always seemed to be one of the stronger Catholic schools for academics.