Discovery elementary school

[Anonymous]

Parents - in the midst of moving to Arlington and wanted to gather some insight into the Discovery Elementary school.

If your child attends - do you like it? How has distance learning been? Are there any overcrowding issues?

And maybe most importantly- how worried are you about the proposed / possible boundary changes to come in 2021?! Any idea how it will affect this school?

TIA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents - in the midst of moving to Arlington and wanted to gather some insight into the Discovery Elementary school.

If your child attends - do you like it? How has distance learning been? Are there any overcrowding issues?

My kid has been very happy there. Distance learning has been minimal and unsatisfactory IMO, but that’s an APS problem. No overcrowding.

And maybe most importantly- how worried are you about the proposed / possible boundary changes to come in 2021?! Any idea how it will affect this school?

Personally I’m not concerned about boundary changes. If we lived on the border of another school zone that we could potentially be shifted to I would be paying close attention, but dd would be fine at any of those schools.

TIA!

[Anonymous]

Distance learning for all of Aps elem schools is TERRIBLE. beyond bad. They are not teaching new material, and we have one 30 minute check in on teams per week with the entire class.

In school learning is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents - in the midst of moving to Arlington and wanted to gather some insight into the Discovery Elementary school.

If your child attends - do you like it? How has distance learning been? Are there any overcrowding issues?

And maybe most importantly- how worried are you about the proposed / possible boundary changes to come in 2021?! Any idea how it will affect this school?

TIA!

No one knows about boundary changes. I could see seats shifting west. We have too many seats in discovery, Nottingham and tuckahoe with the opening of reed in 2021. It’s anyone’s guess, but if you are going to be new to the school, I think all of the schools are fine and it won’t matter.

[Anonymous]

It’s an outstanding school in general but distance learning has been very poor like all APS.

[Anonymous]

Op here. Thank you to those who replied. It does seem like an excellent school from all I could find online and the building itself looks amazing! Wish I had a crystal ball to know how the boundary changes would play out before we buy a house there...but it seems like we just have to roll the dice..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you to those who replied. It does seem like an excellent school from all I could find online and the building itself looks amazing! Wish I had a crystal ball to know how the boundary changes would play out before we buy a house there...but it seems like we just have to roll the dice..

All the schools you might get rezoned for share the same white, high-income privileged dynamics as Discovery. All you'd miss would be the slide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you to those who replied. It does seem like an excellent school from all I could find online and the building itself looks amazing! Wish I had a crystal ball to know how the boundary changes would play out before we buy a house there...but it seems like we just have to roll the dice..

If you have a choice of where to buy a house and you really don’t want to be rezoned, aim for as close as the school as possible. Within the walk zone you would be pretty “safe,” and in the school’s PU, safer still.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you to those who replied. It does seem like an excellent school from all I could find online and the building itself looks amazing! Wish I had a crystal ball to know how the boundary changes would play out before we buy a house there...but it seems like we just have to roll the dice..

"Roll the dice"?! On a north Arlington elementary? OMG you are out of touch withe world. Folks like this are bringing the county down with every postage stamp SFH deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you to those who replied. It does seem like an excellent school from all I could find online and the building itself looks amazing! Wish I had a crystal ball to know how the boundary changes would play out before we buy a house there...but it seems like we just have to roll the dice..

If you have a choice of where to buy a house and you really don’t want to be rezoned, aim for as close as the school as possible. Within the walk zone you would be pretty “safe,” and in the school’s PU, safer still.

Thank you - yes that’s what we’ll try our best to do!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you to those who replied. It does seem like an excellent school from all I could find online and the building itself looks amazing! Wish I had a crystal ball to know how the boundary changes would play out before we buy a house there...but it seems like we just have to roll the dice..

"Roll the dice"?! On a north Arlington elementary? OMG you are out of touch withe world. Folks like this are bringing the county down with every postage stamp SFH deal.

I’m not OP, but I assume that she’s talking about rolling the dice in regards to the possibility that her kid would have to change schools. That can be hard on a kid, and most parents prefer to avoid it. As evidenced by the fighting any time boundary changes are proposed, north and south. It’s not just a white thing.

[Anonymous]

Generally speaking Discovery is a good school. But the experience might vary based on the teacher and the kid. Many of the teachers are outstanding, but not all. Its still a new school so they are still figuring things out. IEP services are work in progress. bullying is a an issue and most of the time it happens during recess time, due to the lack of supervision. Many parents complained that kids are left out there without enough teachers to supervisor and the layout of the playground is a challenge in this regard. The leadership of the school had been brushing of parents complains regarding bullying cases, till some parents started to escalate the issues and as a result, the school did put more supervision in the recess time and improved their systems. I think you will like the school, it has a lot of things to offer. But be proactive and strong advocate if you have a child with special needs. As the case in any other school you need to make sure you talk to your child about bullying, there had been cases where new kids, kids with special needs and kids from diverse backgrounds were bullied by other kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Generally speaking Discovery is a good school. But the experience might vary based on the teacher and the kid. Many of the teachers are outstanding, but not all. Its still a new school so they are still figuring things out. IEP services are work in progress. bullying is a an issue and most of the time it happens during recess time, due to the lack of supervision. Many parents complained that kids are left out there without enough teachers to supervisor and the layout of the playground is a challenge in this regard. The leadership of the school had been brushing of parents complains regarding bullying cases, till some parents started to escalate the issues and as a result, the school did put more supervision in the recess time and improved their systems. I think you will like the school, it has a lot of things to offer. But be proactive and strong advocate if you have a child with special needs. As the case in any other school you need to make sure you talk to your child about bullying, there had been cases where new kids, kids with special needs and kids from diverse backgrounds were bullied by other kids.

+ 1. Discovery is terrible with special needs and unresponsive to the ongoing bullying problem. Lots of people left for private (in this area, people can afford it). DL really sucks. If I could homeschool, I would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally speaking Discovery is a good school. But the experience might vary based on the teacher and the kid. Many of the teachers are outstanding, but not all. Its still a new school so they are still figuring things out. IEP services are work in progress. bullying is a an issue and most of the time it happens during recess time, due to the lack of supervision. Many parents complained that kids are left out there without enough teachers to supervisor and the layout of the playground is a challenge in this regard. The leadership of the school had been brushing of parents complains regarding bullying cases, till some parents started to escalate the issues and as a result, the school did put more supervision in the recess time and improved their systems. I think you will like the school, it has a lot of things to offer. But be proactive and strong advocate if you have a child with special needs. As the case in any other school you need to make sure you talk to your child about bullying, there had been cases where new kids, kids with special needs and kids from diverse backgrounds were bullied by other kids.

+ 1. Discovery is terrible with special needs and unresponsive to the ongoing bullying problem. Lots of people left for private (in this area, people can afford it). DL really sucks. If I could homeschool, I would.

+1 Don't be dazzled by the pretty building. A lot of families have left for private over bullying, academics (kids slip through the gaping wide cracks with standards based grading), lack of support/special education services, or some combination of the above. Make sure you have a child who can handle the climate.

[Anonymous]

I think bullying happens in any school. This is not unique to Discovery. The standards based grading is the worst. But overall, great teachers, great community, good overall elementary experience. Those whose kids left for privates were already not doing well. It had nothing to do with the school.