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moving to DC
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Anonymous
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Can Anyone guide regarding good public schools in the MD area? We'll be working at Children's Hospital in DC, I don't know too much about MD, but I guess Chevy Chase, Silver Spring would be places to look at ? Any guidance would be great. I got a fair idea about DC form the forum but not MD. My son will be 5, on Oct 29th.
Also if there are no good public schools in MD, what would be good private schools to look at? Thank you. |
Anonymous
| If your son will be 5 in October, he'll need to wait another year before kindergarten. There is a September age cut-off. For public elementary schools in MD Somerset, Bethesda Elementary, Burning Tree, Woodacres and Westbrook are all excellent. For private schools Sidwell is the mostly highly regarded in Montgomery County (and arguably the country). If you're looking for private schools in DC, Beauvoir, National Presbyterian, St. Patrick's, Georgetown Day, and Maret are all excellent. |
Anonymous
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You might also look at Kensington, MD. The Kensington elementary school, Kensington Parkwood, is well-loved by parents and has a new facility built in the last 2 or 3 years or so.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/parkwoodes/ |
Anonymous
| Thank you. Since we're moving I'd like to move to a good school district area ofcourse but its' great to finally know about MD private school options. |
Anonymous
| if you don't mind me asking - are you financially in the "Chevy Chase arena" or are you more in a "public school arena"? That might help with some suggested neighborhoods. By the way, Congratulations on working at such a fantastic hospital. Unfortunately (or fortunately - depends on how you look at it) I am all too familiar with CNMC...Absolutely WONDERFUL |
Anonymous
We are in both I guess. My husband is all for public school and I am all for private  however he spent ONLY half a day with the real estate while interviewing and mostly looked at Chevy Chase area. We're open to DC as well. Looking at tution fees, beleive it or not, they're higher than Los angeles for private schools in general. And we will have three kids by the time we move. So I am getting more flexible about public school if it is very good. I know this is a big debate but we both have our good reasons
I hope your experience at Children's was a successful one! |
Anonymous
| Oh and financially we are more in the "chevy chase arena". |
Anonymous
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As someone mentioned your son won't make the cutoff for kindergarten this fall. I am not sure if you planned to send him to a Pre-K program this fall but as you can see from all the pre-school frenzy, most places are sending out acceptance letters now. Some Montessori places may have spots for a 4 year old but they would want you to stay for 2 years (thru kindergarten) and some won't take a child over a certain age without previous Montessori experience. Pre-schools that are first come first serve I would imagine would also be filling the class for the fall.
Some of the MD private schools I see mentioned on the message board (and I didn't really investigate any of them since we are going public school) are The Woods Academy (Bethesda), Norwood School (Bethesda), Green Acres School (Rockville, MD). There are lots of great public schools in the Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Kensington area. I am only familiar with Wyngate (Bethesda) and I remember when I was house hunting how much the parents raved about the school and the principal. My neighbors with children at Wyngate all think they do a great job there. I also have heard people say great things about schools a PP mentioned like Burning Tree. With the whole private school/public school debate, there was an article in the Post last year that has both sides of the debate http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/magazine/features/2007/education2_fall2007/index.html |
bai
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I think we are going to go the public school route. he is already in Pre-K here, and so I will try my best to atleast keep him in pre-K. We may just have to compromise this year, but for next year I will be searching now, so that we can reside in the school district we want to send him to.
I am so glad for this forum and have gotten so much information. Atleast now we can concentrate on the right areas for public schools. I will look at Wyngate for sure. Unfortunately I am expecting and not able to move to DC earlier than July. It's making me very nervous for my son, but I am hoping a miracle will happen and we'll find a spot for him somewhere for a year. Thank you for the article too. |
Anonymous
| Most of the public schools mentioned start at kindergarten (versus pre-K). You'll probably need to find a private pre-K for your son. Most of the preschools have completed the admission process for the fall. However, it's worth calling around to see if there are any openings. There very well might be, as many children are moving on to an independent school for pre-K such that the oldest classes in the preschools may have a slot or two. |
bai
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| Should I look at the preschool forum for names of preschools that I can call. The only one I know of right now is chevy chase montessori. Thanx. |
Anonymous
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Poster 13:25 here. Are you looking for full-time or part-time Pre-K? If you are looking for PT, there may be a co-op type school. Also someone on one of the message boards mentioned the Audubon nature pre-school. The program is 5 days a week from 9-12. http://www.audubonnaturalist.org/default.asp?page=548
If you are looking for a full-time option, quite a few of the Montessori programs include an observation/interview as part of the application process so I am not sure how they would handle the situation if you are out of town. You would also probably want to visit before sending in a deposit and possibly signing a contract to pay the tuition for a year. Another option is a daycare that has a good pre-school room - this way if you were looking at getting care for a child under 2 (not easy to find in this area), many places have a sibling preference. There will be children leaving for Montessori and private schools with PK or K thru whatever grade so there may be more openings in the older rooms at an infant-Pre-K center. There are also pre-schools that also have an after-care for school age children like some of the ones associated with Montgomery Child Care Association http://www.mccaedu.org/ and Kenwood Park Children's Center http://www.2kpcc.com/ I didn't get to the point that I visited MCCA or KPCC schools but they were on my list of places to look at for pre-schools and I will look at them more closely when I am ready to look for aftercare. |
bai
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| Thank you this was very helpful. |