Mosby Woods Elementary

[Anonymous]

Considering a house assigned to Mosby Woods, and wanted to check on feedback from current families at the school? It’s a large school, assume because of AP but are classes super large? Any other feedback would be very welcome.

[Anonymous]

My child attended K-1 and then we pulled out for 2nd because of covid closures. It's a great school with school spirit and community. I was on high alert for bullying and never heard of any incidents. The principal is excellent, as were all the teachers we had. Even remote instruction in spring 2020 was good, i.e., real instruction for the full time allotted plus out of class projects.

Class size in K and 1 was 22 kids, not sure if they get bigger later. Many of the surrounding neighborhoods are home to diplomats, military, and State Dept which leads to an incredibly diverse school but also turnover. PTA participation is weak, I assume because most families do not have a SAHP.

[Anonymous]

For 3rd-6th, most classes are 28-30 students. 5th and 6th (possibly some 4th) are stuck in trailers or the modular building. The cafeteria is tiny relative to the total number of students, so lunchtimes can be very early or very late in the day.

My kid was in for AAP 3rd and 4th, and I was not impressed with the school or academics. Teachers spent tons of time teaching to and reviewing for the SOLs. My kid was ignored while the teacher spent all of her time with the kids who didn't belong in AAP but were struggling through it anyway.

[Anonymous]

It’s an excellent school , very dedicated teachers and Principal , diverse community, had one DC in AAP there last year, even in the spring transition teachers got them ready for middle school , got a second grader there, all teachers are working hard on teaching them and creatively keeping them engaged throughout the school day. Class size were between 25-29 for my older one and 22-24 for my younger one. I think the PTA does well with the few parents that are active in it.

[Anonymous]

Don't choose a school that is an AAP center unless you're pretty certain that your child will be admitted to AAP. There's a pretty strong AAP vs. everyone else divide. PE is the token class where AAP and regular kids are mixed, but otherwise, they're completely separated.

Mosby Woods doesn't start gen ed advanced math until 5th grade, and even then, it isn't a true advanced math class. The class is half advanced math and half regular, and the teacher tries to teach both together, which means that the advanced kids aren't getting the curriculum and attention that they need.

If I were buying a house, I'd look for house zoned to a LLIV school. That's the best way to maximize your school choices in the future and provide the best opportunities for your child if the child is smart but not admitted to AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't choose a school that is an AAP center unless you're pretty certain that your child will be admitted to AAP. There's a pretty strong AAP vs. everyone else divide. PE is the token class where AAP and regular kids are mixed, but otherwise, they're completely separated.

Mosby Woods doesn't start gen ed advanced math until 5th grade, and even then, it isn't a true advanced math class. The class is half advanced math and half regular, and the teacher tries to teach both together, which means that the advanced kids aren't getting the curriculum and attention that they need.

If I were buying a house, I'd look for house zoned to a LLIV school. That's the best way to maximize your school choices in the future and provide the best opportunities for your child if the child is smart but not admitted to AAP.

+1 - under current structure, picking an ES with Local Level IV that is zoned for Mosby Woods center gives you the most options going forward. Unless AAP changes and they eliminate centers....

[Anonymous]

It's overcrowded, but so are most FCPS schools. Large classes, trailers, etc. Our experience is with AAP. The quality of the teachers varied. 3rd grade was terrific, 4th grade kind of meh, and 5th grade really good.

However, my DD had a terrible experience with bullying at Mosby. At the risk of revealing real life details, she made the mistake of telling some "friends" in 4th grade that she is gay, and she was bullied relentlessly until the winter of 5th grade.

She has a severe peanut and tree nut allergy, and a group of girls terrorized her by purposely sitting near the nut free table. Rather than deal with the girls, the administration lectured each class about the right of kids with food allergies to feel safe at school. We frequently were in contact with the counselors and Vice Principal, to no avail.

Finally, in 5th grade, one of the girls sent DD a note telling her that everyone hated her and she should jump off a building and commit suicide. Because there was documentation, the school finally intervened. However, the bullying investigation was ham-handed and inept, and the administrator conducting it outed my daughter to one of the classmates he spoke to. I was never informed of the result, apparently in violation of FCPS procedures.

I was not sad when we switched to DL. We have switched schools, and my daughter is in counseling. She says that the years at Mosby were the worst of her life.

So, if your kid is the kind who fits in easily, not a quirky outsider with something different about him or her, Mosby should be fine.

[Anonymous]

That should say terrorized her by purposely sitting near the nut free table with Nutella and peanut butter.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry to hear about your DD's experience. I'm honestly not surprised, though. I'm not going to get into details, but my experience is that the administration is very avoidant and not good at handling any real issues. My kid was picked on a lot in AAP 3rd and 4th. The 4th grade teacher had zero control over her classroom and was honestly a bit dim, so nothing was resolved.

If your kid has IEP/special needs, is quirky, is at the very high end of AAP, or has something else that makes the kid abnormal, Mosby is not a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That should say terrorized her by purposely sitting near the nut free table with Nutella and peanut butter.

I'm so sorry that happened, OP. I'm the first PP with the younger kid. We had better experiences that I want to share, though they don't change your experience.

The first was that in K, one classmate had a serious nut allergy. We were of course asked not to send nut products. What I liked, though, was that the teacher allowed the student to choose a friend to join him at the allergy table for lunch, which made it a special thing that everybody wanted to do, instead of an exclusionary experience for him. No child wanted nuts in their lunch because then they weren't eligible to join their friend. I saw something similar happen in 1st grade with a classmate who had a disability; he had an aide, but the teacher got the other students involved in a positive way.

Separately, in 1st grade my child was being shoved off the bus seat by some same-aged kids -- they sit 3 to a bus seat and the 2 kids didn't want to share. I asked the classroom teacher for help and it was resolved that day. The teacher asked my child whether my child wanted to be present when the teacher talked to the offending kids, or not (my child did). There was an apology, some kind of consequence like sitting out a game, and the shoving stopped.

Again, I don't doubt your child had an awful experience. I would be furious, as I'm sure you are.

[Anonymous]

11:18 PP here. I'm glad you had a good experience. I've found that the teachers are going to have varying ability to handle issues that crop up among their students. Some teachers, like yours, are excellent at handling the issues. The problem I've found is that if the teacher is one of the ones who is inept at handling problems, the higher administration is also unlikely to do much of anything to fix the issue. So, your child ends up being completely stuck in a bad situation with no recourse.

I think this is especially true for AAP. The upper administration is very hands-off toward AAP and the AAP teachers, so they're unlikely to help if you need them to intervene. Other than 6th grade, the AAP teachers are all doing their own things (sometimes building hours of "unstructured free time" into their schedules) with no oversight at all from the administration.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, there's no perfect elementary school within FCPS and FCPS is very large. Usually the best option is to go for a smaller school because it's more manageable in many ways. The teaching is hit or miss anywhere, whether you're in a Center, LLIV or regular school. Sometimes you get good teachers; mostly, the teacher quality at FCPS is meh (at best) because the general philosophy to education at FCPS is meh (at best). The District is too large to really focus on education quality. Teacher development is weak, though they schedule many days within the school year for it. It starts to get better in certain middle schools. If you're going to focus on anything, try for a smaller-ish elementary school pegged to a good middle/high school pyramid. That's where you'll get the most benefit.

Lastly, FCPS's AAP LIV program is nothing to write home about. You'll do a better job with your child if you try and spend 1/2 hour with them during the day on education supplementation--free or paid. It's a load of bs sold by the District. Whether they get rid of it or keep it really does not matter. Outside of "PBL" the kids learn very little.

[Anonymous]

+1 to everything the PP said. Mosby Woods is too large for the administration to manage effectively. I found the academics in AAP to be very weak there, but PP nailed it. In general, FCPS elementary school has weak academics and somewhat meh teachers. Most schools will have the same problems.

Mosby is zoned to Thoreau and then Oakton, which are reasonably strong. If you accept that the ES will be weak, but the middle and high will be decent, then a house zoned to Mosby wouldn't be a bad choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 to everything the PP said. Mosby Woods is too large for the administration to manage effectively. I found the academics in AAP to be very weak there, but PP nailed it. In general, FCPS elementary school has weak academics and somewhat meh teachers. Most schools will have the same problems.

Mosby is zoned to Thoreau and then Oakton, which are reasonably strong. If you accept that the ES will be weak, but the middle and high will be decent, then a house zoned to Mosby wouldn't be a bad choice.

Well, your School Board member wants to spend the money that might otherwise relieve overcrowding at Mosby Woods on an unnecessary renovation and reopening of a former elementary school on the other side of Vienna near Tysons. If you think that's problematic, you might want to let Karl Frisch know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't choose a school that is an AAP center unless you're pretty certain that your child will be admitted to AAP. There's a pretty strong AAP vs. everyone else divide. PE is the token class where AAP and regular kids are mixed, but otherwise, they're completely separated.

Mosby Woods doesn't start gen ed advanced math until 5th grade, and even then, it isn't a true advanced math class. The class is half advanced math and half regular, and the teacher tries to teach both together, which means that the advanced kids aren't getting the curriculum and attention that they need.

If I were buying a house, I'd look for house zoned to a LLIV school. That's the best way to maximize your school choices in the future and provide the best opportunities for your child if the child is smart but not admitted to AAP.

That's every AAP center and a very common complaint.

My kid went to an AAP center school in Western Fairfax. DC was not AAP. She did no advanced work (even though she was capable of it). She's now in all honors and getting all A's (and has been since leaving ES).