Bethesda/South Kensington Public Schools: Need a Lay of the Land!

[Chhandasi]

Our family recently moved to Bethesda from California and are looking to buy a house and enroll our 5 year old in Kindergarten in September. On first blush, most of the MoCo elementary schools look good, particularly in Bethesda and South Kensington. But what am I missing about the differences in the elementary schools? How can I take a crash course in this stuff as we look to buy and enroll in school?

[Anonymous]

One significant difference to know is that there are some paired elementaries. If you live in this area:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/RosemaryHillsNorthChevyChaseES.pdf

your kids would go to Rosemary Hills for K-2 and North Chevy Chase for 3-5.

Or in this area:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/RosemaryHillsChevyChaseES.pdf

your kids would go to Rosemary Hills for K-2 and Chevy Chase for 3-5.

The rest of the elementary schools in the area have K-5 in the same school.

[Anonymous]

Those are not in South Kensington and CC are they?

[Anonymous]

I meant South Kensington or Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I meant South Kensington or Bethesda.

The area zoned to RH/NCC has homes with Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Kensington, and Silver Spring addresses.

[Anonymous]

There's a lot of variability in size of the school which can be pretty important. Wood Acres in Bethesda is large which means more choices for activities and friends. Bannockburn and Carderock have more of a small town feel where everyone knows everyone, and the older kids take care of the younger kids.
Some schools are more diverse than others in different ways. Bethesda Elementary by virtue of being downtown and near a lot of apartments can have more transient families (including many diplomats) than nearby schools. It also get raves for its inclusive special needs programs. Some kids bus there from other home schools for that.
Really you can't go wrong in Bethesda in terms of schools. Many of the Bethesda schools give tours. You can call and find out when.

Bethesda can feel like a big place during rush hour and there is really a divide between the schools that feed into WJ (Ashburton, etc.) and those that feed into Whitman or BCC. I feel like the WJ families tend to center there lives more around N. Bethesda/Rockville while the Whitman/BCC families do more stuff around the D.C. border. If you're in one of the schools further out, maybe Potomac too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I meant South Kensington or Bethesda.

The area zoned to RH/NCC has homes with Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Kensington, and Silver Spring addresses.

I had no idea! IME the RH/NCC articulation pattern is terrible for community. I would rather my child go to one K-5 school the whole time.

OP, the way it works is that they go to RH and then RH splits into 2 groups. Some kids go to NCC for 3-5 and some to CC for 3-5. At CC there's a magnet program so in 4th grade many kids bus there for 2 years and leave again to go back to their neighborhood middle schools. It makes things lively but can be disruptive too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of variability in size of the school which can be pretty important. Wood Acres in Bethesda is large which means more choices for activities and friends. Bannockburn and Carderock have more of a small town feel where everyone knows everyone, and the older kids take care of the younger kids.
Some schools are more diverse than others in different ways. Bethesda Elementary by virtue of being downtown and near a lot of apartments can have more transient families (including many diplomats) than nearby schools. It also get raves for its inclusive special needs programs. Some kids bus there from other home schools for that.
Really you can't go wrong in Bethesda in terms of schools. Many of the Bethesda schools give tours. You can call and find out when.

Bethesda can feel like a big place during rush hour and there is really a divide between the schools that feed into WJ (Ashburton, etc.) and those that feed into Whitman or BCC. I feel like the WJ families tend to center there lives more around N. Bethesda/Rockville while the Whitman/BCC families do more stuff around the D.C. border. If you're in one of the schools further out, maybe Potomac too.

I've been a Bethesda realtor for almost 30 years and while my kids went to Churchill, I definitely have a lot of experience with the families of Bethesda.

I'd agree with this PP, you can't go wrong with any of the schools in Bethesda.
In my opinion, I'd say that the schools that feed into WJ (Ashburton & Wyngate) are very, very family friendly neighborhoods. Folks are always out walking their dogs, walking, jogging, playing at the park, shooting hoops, stopping and talking to their neighbors, much, much more family friendly than Whitman.

That is NOT a knock on Whitman, whatsoever.
Whitman's houses tend to be much more farther apart, like 2 house lengths and it's much harder to get to know your neighbors that way (not ALL neighborhoods, think Burning Tree).

I see a lot more of the kids from WJ lifeguarding, babysitting, tutoring, offering lawn work, etc.

Again, this isn't an insult to Whitman.
In my opinion though, I just find that the families in WJ neighborhoods are very, very close knit with their families and their neighbors and I see them out and about together, much more than I see Whitman families (and I'm not only shopping, going to restaurants, working, etc in Bethesda & Rockville, I'm in DC a lot too).

As this pp said, you can't go wrong with any of the elementary's that feed into Wj or Whitman.

Just my 2 cents, good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of variability in size of the school which can be pretty important. Wood Acres in Bethesda is large which means more choices for activities and friends. Bannockburn and Carderock have more of a small town feel where everyone knows everyone, and the older kids take care of the younger kids.
Some schools are more diverse than others in different ways. Bethesda Elementary by virtue of being downtown and near a lot of apartments can have more transient families (including many diplomats) than nearby schools. It also get raves for its inclusive special needs programs. Some kids bus there from other home schools for that.
Really you can't go wrong in Bethesda in terms of schools. Many of the Bethesda schools give tours. You can call and find out when.

Bethesda can feel like a big place during rush hour and there is really a divide between the schools that feed into WJ (Ashburton, etc.) and those that feed into Whitman or BCC. I feel like the WJ families tend to center there lives more around N. Bethesda/Rockville while the Whitman/BCC families do more stuff around the D.C. border. If you're in one of the schools further out, maybe Potomac too.

I've been a Bethesda realtor for almost 30 years and while my kids went to Churchill, I definitely have a lot of experience with the families of Bethesda.

I'd agree with this PP, you can't go wrong with any of the schools in Bethesda.
In my opinion, I'd say that the schools that feed into WJ (Ashburton & Wyngate) are very, very family friendly neighborhoods. Folks are always out walking their dogs, walking, jogging, playing at the park, shooting hoops, stopping and talking to their neighbors, much, much more family friendly than Whitman.

That is NOT a knock on Whitman, whatsoever.
Whitman's houses tend to be much more farther apart, like 2 house lengths and it's much harder to get to know your neighbors that way (not ALL neighborhoods, think Burning Tree).

I see a lot more of the kids from WJ lifeguarding, babysitting, tutoring, offering lawn work, etc.

Again, this isn't an insult to Whitman.
In my opinion though, I just find that the families in WJ neighborhoods are very, very close knit with their families and their neighbors and I see them out and about together, much more than I see Whitman families (and I'm not only shopping, going to restaurants, working, etc in Bethesda & Rockville, I'm in DC a lot too).

As this pp said, you can't go wrong with any of the elementary's that feed into Wj or Whitman.

Just my 2 cents, good luck.

I don't know, when my DD had an after school soccer practice at Bradley Hills ES there were TONS of kids around after school, not all of them obviously tied to a parent or caregiver (as in, some might have been biking around the neighborhood/from home to the park/school on their own!). My area of Kensington rarely has kids hanging out after school other than in an aftercare program. Most ES kids are in structured activities because both parents work and they don't have nannies/au pairs. Our neighbors and neighborhood are friendly at the bus stop and on the weekend, but not a lot of kids outside during the week IME. This may be neighborhood dependent and even different block to block within a neighborhood. It only takes 2 or 3 other families with kids of similar ages and schedules on the same block/couple blocks to make it feel that way.

[Anonymous]

Is South Kensington like North Bethesda or North Potomac to make it sound richer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is South Kensington like North Bethesda or North Potomac to make it sound richer?

It's a thing on Google maps. According to google I live in "South Kensington." I've never heard anyone actually say it out loud. Everyone in my area just calls it Kensington. But it's not Town of Kensington so it's confusing. People think they live in the Town of Kensington and they don't.

[Anonymous]

In response to PP, bradley hills abuts wyngate and the demographics are pretty similar. And some of the kids you see at the BH playground are Wyngate kids, as the school is very close to the wyngate catch area and has a bigger playgrpund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In response to PP, bradley hills abuts wyngate and the demographics are pretty similar. And some of the kids you see at the BH playground are Wyngate kids, as the school is very close to the wyngate catch area and has a bigger playgrpund.

It seems like Bradley Hills is co-located with a park so it feels like it has much more play/field space but some is officially park rather than school. There are tennis courts, fields, and I think 2 playgrounds. It's a very nice park/school from the outside at least. I am the PP that went there for soccer, never had a kid attend the school.

[Anonymous]

Most of the kids who live in Chevy chase view and Byeforde (basically west of Connecticut Ave) who are zoned to rosemary hills go to Holy Redeemer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is South Kensington like North Bethesda or North Potomac to make it sound richer?

It just means the part that doesn’t go to Einstein.