Best Private Elementary Schools - Southern PG County

[Anonymous]

I’m moving to PG county soon and am looking at private schools for my daughter who will be going to 5th grade next year. I’m looking for a private school because my daughter does better in smaller class settings due to mild inattentive ADHD. For this reason, we can’t do public PG schools because the class sizes are way too large. Here are the privates I’m looking at:

St Mary the Assumption in Upper Marlboro
St Philip the Apostle in Camp Springs
St Mary of Piscataway in Clinton
St Matthias Academy
Excellence Christian
St Columba

What are your thoughts on these schools? Are there any others you recommend I should look at? We’re moving to Brandywine so I prefer a school somewhat close to southern PG with no more than a 30 minute commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m moving to PG county soon and am looking at private schools for my daughter who will be going to 5th grade next year. I’m looking for a private school because my daughter does better in smaller class settings due to mild inattentive ADHD. For this reason, we can’t do public PG schools because the class sizes are way too large. Here are the privates I’m looking at:

St Mary the Assumption in Upper Marlboro
St Philip the Apostle in Camp Springs
St Mary of Piscataway in Clinton
St Matthias Academy
Excellence Christian
St Columba

What are your thoughts on these schools? Are there any others you recommend I should look at? We’re moving to Brandywine so I prefer a school somewhat close to southern PG with no more than a 30 minute commute.

We are a St philip’s family. I am fairly pleased, despite the high turnover in leadership. I blame a good portion of that on ADW Schools office. They have done extremely well during covid and were one of the first in ADW to offer hybrid return.

My child is in 5th grade. We have been there since pre-K 3. Her classes have never had over 20 kids. The foundational academics without some of the extras is why we have stayed. STPA students are ready for high school. STPA students get in to the schools of their choice. They are taught studying skills and how to take tests.

That said, the school is aging. The technology needs an update and if extras are your requirement, then it’s not the school for you.

Also, based on your requirements, my experience had been that they have done well with different learning styles and disabilities. For those students, but also for the classmates. My child is more compassionate and embraces differences because of the experience she had with special needs children at school.

I have cousins at excellence. While it works for them, it wouldn’t for us. I prefer some level of diversity and excellence has none. If we were not at STPA st Mary’s assumption would be our next choice.

I either looked at all of those, have friends who attended or talked to parents at soccer games over the years. Good luck I think Catholic education is great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m moving to PG county soon and am looking at private schools for my daughter who will be going to 5th grade next year. I’m looking for a private school because my daughter does better in smaller class settings due to mild inattentive ADHD. For this reason, we can’t do public PG schools because the class sizes are way too large. Here are the privates I’m looking at:

St Mary the Assumption in Upper Marlboro
St Philip the Apostle in Camp Springs
St Mary of Piscataway in Clinton
St Matthias Academy
Excellence Christian
St Columba

What are your thoughts on these schools? Are there any others you recommend I should look at? We’re moving to Brandywine so I prefer a school somewhat close to southern PG with no more than a 30 minute commute.

.

Not sure what grade your kid is in but I can touch on a few of these. The previous poster is right, absolutely no diversity at Excellence. Also, what turned me off and I live 5 minutes from the school is the lack of Windows. The classes have no windows until I think 4th or 5th grade. Big deal breaker for me. Small classrooms with no windows?!? No thanks. St. Mary’s of assumption would be top to me from this list. Although I haven’t been to Matthias or Columba. St. Philips is ran down. They need an entire renovation. They have no space for specials. It’s one wind away from looking like an abandon building. St. Mary’s of Piscataway. Renovated some classrooms but the building as a whole is not good. The common spaces which act as auditorium, gym ad multipurpose room is ran down

That being said, the only reason I didn’t enroll in St. Mary’s of Assumption was because I really don’t want to pay for private school and still have 25 kids in a class. Also, the fact that they haven’t tried to open this year, was a turn off. I just went to a virtual open house for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m moving to PG county soon and am looking at private schools for my daughter who will be going to 5th grade next year. I’m looking for a private school because my daughter does better in smaller class settings due to mild inattentive ADHD. For this reason, we can’t do public PG schools because the class sizes are way too large. Here are the privates I’m looking at:

St Mary the Assumption in Upper Marlboro
St Philip the Apostle in Camp Springs
St Mary of Piscataway in Clinton
St Matthias Academy
Excellence Christian
St Columba

What are your thoughts on these schools? Are there any others you recommend I should look at? We’re moving to Brandywine so I prefer a school somewhat close to southern PG with no more than a 30 minute commute.

.

Not sure what grade your kid is in but I can touch on a few of these. The previous poster is right, absolutely no diversity at Excellence. Also, what turned me off and I live 5 minutes from the school is the lack of Windows. The classes have no windows until I think 4th or 5th grade. Big deal breaker for me. Small classrooms with no windows?!? No thanks. St. Mary’s of assumption would be top to me from this list. Although I haven’t been to Matthias or Columba. St. Philips is ran down. They need an entire renovation. They have no space for specials. It’s one wind away from looking like an abandon building. St. Mary’s of Piscataway. Renovated some classrooms but the building as a whole is not good. The common spaces which act as auditorium, gym ad multipurpose room is ran down

That being said, the only reason I didn’t enroll in St. Mary’s of Assumption was because I really don’t want to pay for private school and still have 25 kids in a class. Also, the fact that they haven’t tried to open this year, was a turn off. I just went to a virtual open house for them.

PP here. I agree that the building at STPA is run down and there is no room for specials. As I stated, for us, that doesn’t matter. I supplement my child’s education with specials that IMO are better than schools. I also use that as an opportunity to introduce even more diversity.

Completely agree on the class since at STMA. I believe that is an issue at STMP as well. And that is the main reason why we chose and stayed at STPA. class size.

[Anonymous]

take a boat over to Va

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:take a boat over to Va

Basically! LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:take a boat over to Va

lol you’re not the first to tell me this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m moving to PG county soon and am looking at private schools for my daughter who will be going to 5th grade next year. I’m looking for a private school because my daughter does better in smaller class settings due to mild inattentive ADHD. For this reason, we can’t do public PG schools because the class sizes are way too large. Here are the privates I’m looking at:

St Mary the Assumption in Upper Marlboro
St Philip the Apostle in Camp Springs
St Mary of Piscataway in Clinton
St Matthias Academy
Excellence Christian
St Columba

What are your thoughts on these schools? Are there any others you recommend I should look at? We’re moving to Brandywine so I prefer a school somewhat close to southern PG with no more than a 30 minute commute.

We are a St philip’s family. I am fairly pleased, despite the high turnover in leadership. I blame a good portion of that on ADW Schools office. They have done extremely well during covid and were one of the first in ADW to offer hybrid return.

My child is in 5th grade. We have been there since pre-K 3. Her classes have never had over 20 kids. The foundational academics without some of the extras is why we have stayed. STPA students are ready for high school. STPA students get in to the schools of their choice. They are taught studying skills and how to take tests.

That said, the school is aging. The technology needs an update and if extras are your requirement, then it’s not the school for you.

Also, based on your requirements, my experience had been that they have done well with different learning styles and disabilities. For those students, but also for the classmates. My child is more compassionate and embraces differences because of the experience she had with special needs children at school.

I have cousins at excellence. While it works for them, it wouldn’t for us. I prefer some level of diversity and excellence has none. If we were not at STPA st Mary’s assumption would be our next choice.

I either looked at all of those, have friends who attended or talked to parents at soccer games over the years. Good luck I think Catholic education is great!

This is so helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m moving to PG county soon and am looking at private schools for my daughter who will be going to 5th grade next year. I’m looking for a private school because my daughter does better in smaller class settings due to mild inattentive ADHD. For this reason, we can’t do public PG schools because the class sizes are way too large. Here are the privates I’m looking at:

St Mary the Assumption in Upper Marlboro
St Philip the Apostle in Camp Springs
St Mary of Piscataway in Clinton
St Matthias Academy
Excellence Christian
St Columba

What are your thoughts on these schools? Are there any others you recommend I should look at? We’re moving to Brandywine so I prefer a school somewhat close to southern PG with no more than a 30 minute commute.

.

Not sure what grade your kid is in but I can touch on a few of these. The previous poster is right, absolutely no diversity at Excellence. Also, what turned me off and I live 5 minutes from the school is the lack of Windows. The classes have no windows until I think 4th or 5th grade. Big deal breaker for me. Small classrooms with no windows?!? No thanks. St. Mary’s of assumption would be top to me from this list. Although I haven’t been to Matthias or Columba. St. Philips is ran down. They need an entire renovation. They have no space for specials. It’s one wind away from looking like an abandon building. St. Mary’s of Piscataway. Renovated some classrooms but the building as a whole is not good. The common spaces which act as auditorium, gym ad multipurpose room is ran down

That being said, the only reason I didn’t enroll in St. Mary’s of Assumption was because I really don’t want to pay for private school and still have 25 kids in a class. Also, the fact that they haven’t tried to open this year, was a turn off. I just went to a virtual open house for them.

PP here. I agree that the building at STPA is run down and there is no room for specials. As I stated, for us, that doesn’t matter. I supplement my child’s education with specials that IMO are better than schools. I also use that as an opportunity to introduce even more diversity.

Completely agree on the class since at STMA. I believe that is an issue at STMP as well. And that is the main reason why we chose and stayed at STPA. class size.

Ahhh. So I guess I can weed those two out. Large class sizes is not happening for us especially with all the money they’re asking for.

[Anonymous]

Those are literally all mediocre schools that are worse than the publics lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:take a boat over to Va

Basically! LOL

Well, the private schools in VA are not that much better except for Potomac.
If you want good privates, go to DC and/or MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those are literally all mediocre schools that are worse than the publics lol

Facts!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:take a boat over to Va

Basically! LOL

Well, the private schools in VA are not that much better except for Potomac.
If you want good privates, go to DC and/or MoCo.

I agree the VA privates are not as good as the DC privates. However, they are definitely better than PG without the commute all the way to DC and less competitive and a little less expensive. We live in Upper Marlboro and go to a DC private and trust me, it’s not for the weak as far as commute and tuition. Our kid went to a private in VA (Not Potomac) first, preschool thru 3rd that had her well prepared for the transition to the new private for 4th grade so no complaints on the VA privates here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:take a boat over to Va

Basically! LOL

Well, the private schools in VA are not that much better except for Potomac.
If you want good privates, go to DC and/or MoCo.

DC yes, MOCO not really with the exception of Holton/Landon. Maybe Bullis, depending on who you ask. I can’t recommend one private in PG County I would send my kid to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:take a boat over to Va

Basically! LOL

Well, the private schools in VA are not that much better except for Potomac.
If you want good privates, go to DC and/or MoCo.

I agree the VA privates are not as good as the DC privates. However, they are definitely better than PG without the commute all the way to DC and less competitive and a little less expensive. We live in Upper Marlboro and go to a DC private and trust me, it’s not for the weak as far as commute and tuition. Our kid went to a private in VA (Not Potomac) first, preschool thru 3rd that had her well prepared for the transition to the new private for 4th grade so no complaints on the VA privates here.

What private school in VA?