Reply to Hard choice about buying near Spring Hill or Franklin Sherman

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm stymied, confused, and desperate for advice.  Can someone please advise me about buying in Spring Hill Elementary district or Franklin Sherman district?

We've narrowed our home search to two houses, one in each district.  DC tests as having a 140 IQ, and has been in private school with lots of individualized attention up to this point (1st grade).  In order to afford a house in these districts, we're giving up private school.   DC shows a strong interest in science, and has been taking French for 2 years.  We prefer to live in FS district because that house is a much a shorter commute to our DC offices.

That's the background.  Which house/school should we choose?

Other questions:

1.  The house near Franklin Sherman says that its school are:  Sherman, Cooper, Langley.  I understand that the majority of students attending FS go to Longfellow/Mclean.  Is it possible that DC's path would be altered to go to those schools (which look to be a longer drive in the opposite direction of my commute).

2.  What's up with all this GT center stuff? It seems to be in flux and I can't tell what's current informatioin.  Should a gifted child who lives near FS be at Churchill.  Is it even an option to apply to transfer there after being tested?

Thanks so much in advance!

[/quote]

I can see why you are stymied and confused.  You're working yourself up into a lather trying to compare what is really apples to apples.

The first thing is that your child will/may be in a state of shock once he/she gets to public school because gone will be all the individualized attention and pampering that he/she received in private school.  The class sizes could easily be double or triple what you are used to.  Also, why are you so concerned about the drive distance for you to the school and how it relates to your commute?  There is bus service.

If the house says that you are in the Langley district, why are you preoccupied with the possibility that your child may be redistricted to Longfellow/McLean?  For your information, Longfellow is an AAP (GT) school and Cooper is not.  Longfellow sends 50-60 kids to TJ every year, while you usually count on one hand the number that Cooper sends to TJ.  TJ is NoVA's science and technology magnet only school.

Also, Longfellow has a partial French immersion program while Cooper has partial Japanese immersion.  If your child gets into AAP, Franklin Sherman feeds into Haycock ES, not Churchill Road.  If you want your kid to go to Churchill Road, you'll probably need to transfer, and drive your child and pick up every day.  Traditionally, both Haycock ES and Longfellow ES have been the two highest performing GT schools in Fairfax County.

There's not a huge difference between Langley HS and McLean HS except that Langley's SAT scores are slightly higher and there's more wealth at that school and less diversity.

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