Reply to Alexandria city middle and HS recs

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Alexandria city middle and HS recs"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP - As the poster above said, there is only one high school in the City of Alexandria - T.C. Williams (yes, of Remember the Titans fame). My daughter is there now and loves it. It is very big - not sure the exact number of students but it has to be close to 4,000. The 9th grade is housed in a separate 9th only campus, but students do go over to main campus for some things (certain electives/activities). We were a little concerned about the size and considered private for that reason, but friends and neighbors gave us comfort enough to stick with public school. We're glad we made that choice. The size really hasn't been an issue. Her classes are all surprisingly small and her teachers are really fantastic. I'm constantly amazed at the opportunities available to her at TC. The economies of scale allow for a lot of stuff- academic and otherwise - not necessarily available elsewhere.

There are two dedicated middle schools (6-8) George Washington Middle School (serves mostly the east part of the city) and Francis C. Hammond Middle School (serves mostly the west part of the city). There are also two K-8 schools - Jefferson Houston (east) and Patrick Henry (west). I only have experience with GWMS. It's fine. The building is old and in not great condition (it's a really pretty art deco style design outside, but it definitely shows its age inside). It too is a pretty large school. I'm not a fan of the administration, but both of our kids have had great teachers. It's middle school, with all of the things that come with middle school aged kids.

Be prepared for an onslaught of people (most of whom have no experience with ACPS - Alexandria City Public Schools) to post a bunch of hyperbolic things about how the schools are awful and no one in their right mind would ever send their kids to ACPS and no one sends their kids there etc etc. That happens every time someone asks a question about ACPS on this board. Take it all with a giant grain of salt. There is a lot of great stuff about ACPS and about Alexandria City. The city often seems like a small town. There is a great sense of community here generally. Lots of fun little city traditions and pride in the place. The schools are far from perfect, but we have been pleased overall. Honestly, most of the people we know with kids send them to public school (again, despite what you will likely read on this board) and about half of the people we know who had kids in private in the early years send (or sent) their kids to TC for high school.

Good luck finding a place and welcome to Alexandria![/quote]

Great perspective. Thank you so much for this detailed response. I will be looking at homes zoned for GW then! This is super helpful[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics