Reply to Catholic Parish Schools: Bethesda/Ch Ch/DC/Potomac/Rockville and others

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are moving from out-of-state and don't belong to any parish in the MoCo area yet. I have been doing my research from a distance and need to narrow down choices as to which places to visit as we cannot be driving to MD every Sunday to hear mass at a different parish.

There are time constraints involved that do not allow us to "study" the area as carefully and personally as we'd like. Hence, the fallback on reading websites.[/quote]

I guess the first question is logistics, where will you live, where will you work, and is aftercare important? When we were deciding on a school, we had to find ones with a decent commute and they had to have aftercare available as well as after school activities. One of the things that made it tough is my public school didn't have aftercare available at the school so unless we could pickup at 4:15, it was difficult to have the kids participate in any after-school enrichment.  For where I live and work, DeChantal, St.Bart's, and Holy Cross School (Garett Park) were on the list.  At one point I considered Brookewood but I wasn't ready to make a commitment beyond 8th grade.  I like the idea or re-evaluating what high school and knowing that there is a natural progression for all the kids to make new friends in 9th grade and move to a bigger environment without feeling like they are leaving friends that are staying together.  If you go the route of K-12, is the lower, middle, and upper grades equally strong?  Are they strong in math and science, areas that have a general reputation of being weaker at Catholic schools compared to MCPS schools, are you confident in the outplacement to college?

Between DeChantal, St. Bart's, and Holy Cross School, I was really looking for a school that would make newcomers, both parents and children, feel welcome and you wouldn't be able to tell the kids that came in K from the kids that joined in later grades aka that cozy, small, welcoming atmosphere. I also looked at outplacement to high schools.  I wanted a school that not only has a reputation for strong academics but a reputation for getting children to work to their potential and providing the support needed to get there.  That narrowed my list to St. Bart's and Holy Cross School.  Quite honestly at that point it made sense to go where people we knew had kids in the school so St. Bart's is where we ended up.  I called up, we went on a tour and asked questions about any areas of concern and put in an application.  We also had our children do a shadow morning where they got to meet the teacher and other kids before we enrolled. FWIW, there are some families that belong to this parish and others that belong to different parishes but selected the school for different reasons.  If there are things that draw you to Avalon/Brookewood, I would encourage you to ask about them if you tour other schools I.e. If you worry about leadership opportunities for girls in a co-ed school or transition to an all-girls high-school, drawing kids from the parish or not drawing most of the kids from the parish, strength of religious instruction etc, this is the time to ask the questions and make sure you are comfortable with the answers.

Good luck and welcome to the area.[/quote]

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