Nysmith School

[Anonymous]

Has anyone heard anything about Nysmith, good or bad?

[Anonymous]

Do a search. Google "DCUM Nysmith."

[Anonymous]

You forgot the "for the Gifted" tag. This is very important.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Has anyone heard anything about Nysmith School for the Gifted, good or bad?

[Anonymous]

There's a rather nice puff piece on it in the Washington Post mag from few years back.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-a-small-school-for-gifted-kids-in-the-dc-exurbs-gets-big-results/2016/02/24/0af4a2a8-b889-11e5-b682-4bb4dd403c7d_story.html

A friend in Loudoun has periodically considered it for her extremely bright children, but the price tag is formidable for just one kid, let alone two.

[Anonymous]

I suggest that you take the tour. We did, and spent some time talking to teachers as well as admissions and administration. We liked the school more than we expected to, even though we ultimately decided not to apply (we may reconsider at a later date depending on how DC's needs evolve).

The school has a pretty strong STEM emphasis. Instruction in non-STEM subjects seems good, but the STEM lean is evident starting at the entry-level (preschool) and becoming more marked throughout. I would probably consider the approach to be more traditional than progressive, but some progressive elements are present. Kids are allowed to move around the classrooms quite a bit, from the looks of it. Tables rather than desks in the classrooms. Some individualization of instruction. There is use of pre-existing curriculum, including worksheets.

It seems, based on the level of the work samples being displayed, that there are many kids who are bright rather than "gifted" per se. The kids seem active, happy, engaged, sociable, and polite, even though the school has a quirky, geeky reputation. There are a lot of South Asians (i.e. Indian), and the racial diversity otherwise mirrors the Loudoun County location (so don't expect the kind of diversity you'd see at a DC school that heavily emphasizes diverse recruiting, like GDS). Tuition is pretty modest compared to top DC privates.

[Anonymous]

People we know that go there LOVE to talk about how gifted and brilliant their DCs are. If you can put up with that all day without vomiting, or you think your DC falls into this category, you'll be just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People we know that go there LOVE to talk about how gifted and brilliant their DCs are. If you can put up with that all day without vomiting, or you think your DC falls into this category, you'll be just fine.

I’m guessing that most privates in the area have their share of obnoxious parents. Your anecdotal experience is not the day-to-day experience at Nysmith. Most of the parents are quite kind and down to earth.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, most parents I know love to talk about their kids's achievements. As a society, we are far more comfortable talking about Larlo's awesome batting average or their record-setting lap time than about their prowess at chess or math-competition trophies, though.

[Anonymous]

My kids go to Nysmith - happy to answer any questions. the longer post above is pretty accurate. Their whole schtick is differentiation up to four grade levels in math and language arts. They do push the kids ahead, but none of them seem stressed in the lower grades, but do seem stressed in the middle school grades. It's definitely a different model in that starting in kindergarten there are specialty teachers for every class, so your kids have 16 teachers during the course of the day (a lead and a co-teacher). They move classrooms from class to class. Just like with all schools there are great things and things we'd change, but for my kids it's been a good fit. The school definitely attracts nerdier/quirkier kids, so the social stress so far has been very low especially in comparison to the preschool we went to . .. I hear it does ramp up as the kids hit middle school.

[Anonymous]

We have two children at Nysmith as well. Please ask us anything you would like.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure how “gifted” all the kids are. As a for profit school they seem to admit quite a range in order for the school to work financially. Sometimes the kids who end up at our private school after Nysmith are very strong students and sometimes they aren’t strong enough to be admitted.

In the process of applying to schools for my kids i noticed that at the smaller schools that advertise themselves as being for “gifted” students there is quite a range of parents. Many are smart and nerdy (perfect) but some trend toward overly impressed by their children almost to the point of awe and some are as impressed with themselves as their children. The children of parent types 2&3 can be as insufferable as their parents and it seems like this is more of a “gifted” school issue because of who responds to that marketing.

[Anonymous]

I don't know where my response from last night went, but I will post again. Yes, the name of the school is a bit offputting to many people, but I really appreciate the school tries hard to meet the needs of individual child with meaningful differentiation and attention. My kids just told me two days ago that Nysmith is really fun even if they are learning more advanced materials. Just now in car ride to school, kids told me that Nysmith's kids have the reputation of "angels", because they are more innocent and have less behavior problems. When we met with admission directors from top private high schools, we were told how much they welcome Nysmith's students because they are very well prepared. Schedule the school tour and see it yourself. Check out the past years statistics for high school admission. Don't fall for the name, but look for substance.

[Anonymous]

I had my kids at Nysmith from kindergarten to all the way through 8th grade. They got a very strong foundation and it was worth writing those checks. I haven't met a single parent who thought their kids were gifted or superior to kids in other schools. Everyone I met was there for one and only one reason,they thought the school provided the best education and support their kids needed. And yes, we complained about writing those tuition checks but never thought any one kid was smarter than the others. They are all smart, some did well in math, some in languages and some in sciences. Nysmith does a good job in bringing out kids’ strength and put work on their weaknesses. In every class there are one or two exceptional kids and there are just your regular kids. The great thing is they all got along really well and helped each other out. My kids were never stressed and not once in the 9+ years complained about the school or didn’t want to go to school.

[Anonymous]

I interviewed for & was offered a teaching job there, but declined (chose FCPS instead) due to extremely low teaching salaries and no benefits. They also do not require their teachers to have a teaching license. It’s crazy to me that parents pay that much money for unlicensed teachers who get paid crap. I also privately worked with a Nysmith student several years later who was definitely not ‘gifted.’