Reply to Staying at Laurel Ridge vs White Oaks for AAP

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Staying at Laurel Ridge vs White Oaks for AAP"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We've been generally happy (with a few hiccups) with White Oaks  AAP from Laurel Ridge, but I get what you are saying--Laurel Ridge is a lovely neighborhood school and it was hard to give it up.  But we found the challenge of AAP to be good --and there is not overwhelming homework by any stretch of the imagination. [/quote]
Can you speak more about this? Following [/quote]

Sure.  We've had two kids do the LR/WO  to Robinson route (one currently in upper elementary at WO, one now in MS at Robinson).

Great: Some really good teachers, and I like the AAP curriculum.  It's both faster paced and more in-depth learning.  When I have volunteered, the class discussions are impressive. There is designated time in school to do homework and both our kids were able to get most of it done then.  The projects have very clear timelines with most of the work done in school though some is out of school.   The friendship groups are strong and yet flexible.  I think the experience of everyone switching schools in 3rd grade creates this new group sense which has been good for both our kids. Child at Robinson has kept all the WO friends --many went to Robinson, reconnected with Laurel Ridge friends (some were friends all along from neighborhood), and made new friends.

Hiccups: This current year the school is being renovated which has limited the number of community events that can be held at the school.  It lessens the sense of community--which is already can be lessened when you're not at your neighborhood school.  Laurel Ridge has a particularly strong sense of community with families and I haven't found that to be as true at WO (even before the renovation).

One piece that is both an advantage and disadvantage is that on days that our child rides the bus, it makes our child's day a little long--but also just long enough that we don't need SACC, just do a little flexible scheduling where one parent goes in a little earlier so is available when gets home from the bus (and the stop is right on our street so on the odd day we don't make it home in time, they can be home on their own for just a little bit). Our child also really likes the bus ride--lots of friends from multiple years of the AAP program--complains on the days of the week we do kiss & ride for classes.  So oddly it has streamlined our life with two working parents--no more aftercare![/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