Reply to Is Sligo Creek French immersion open to all MC residents? and other questions

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi - We live in France and are considering a return to DC area. Have 2 children, currently in second grade and pre-k. After first grade isn't admittance based on language proficiency (and space if a student leaves?) and for those who had children who went through this program, other than learning to speak French, what did you think about the quality of the teaching? thanks!![/quote]

Our kid entered Sligo french immersion in an upper grade, coming from a local private school.  For entrance after K or 1st grade, Sligo will have somebody sit down with your child for a french conversation to evaluate his or her french language skills. I remember the evaluator was particularly interested in whether our child could handle a math class that is conducted in french.  I think our kid was asked to describe how to do division in french, or maybe it was to solve a simple math problem in french.  The evaluation was not fantastically difficult -- our kid was accepted -- but it does involve expressing basic math concepts in french.

There are two immersion classrooms, so a total of maybe 40 or 50 spots (the same kid is now about to enter high school, so it's been a while and I can't remember). It's true there are hundreds of applicants for the K and 1st grade lottery slots.  I think chances may be a little better in the upper grades, because a few spots will open due to normal attrition (families move, some kids leave for the highly gifted magnets) and only a few kids who have the language skills to fill these spots.

As for the quality of the program - it's the MoCo curriculum but in French.  Coming from a private school, we noticed that the MoCo curriculum is shy on science and social studies relative to the private school, however our kid who will enter high school next year has basically caught up in those areas during middle school.  MoCo did let our kid do math 2 years ahead, in French, so in this respect DC was ahead of the private school. And regarding languages, there's just no comparison between immersion and 3-5 hours of language a week.  MoCo immersion isn't really big on grammar and spelling, and as a fluent french speaker I'd see my kid get A's on papers with obvious grammatical faults, but then again DC is now fluent and was able to charm the French when we visited France. There was an excessive emphasis on the MSAs but it only sucked about a week out of the school year. The immersion program has a "small school" feel like the private school. In the end, we don't have any regrets, at all, about moving from a local private school to the Sligo immersion program.[/quote]

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