Reply to German education at school, how did you manage?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I talked to the Realator about this and you are likely right, I won’t be able to meet the teachers before we enroll. But I hope I can at least tour the school before we make our decision. Thanks for your input. [/quote]

It's highly unlikely you can tour the school either.  These schools are massive - OHES has around 900 kids.  It would be disruptive to give that many tours, so schools don't give any.  If you want that kind of experience, you need to look at private schools, not public.  Or maybe at a much smaller public district elsewhere in the country.

You can probably talk to someone in the Immersion office about that program.  I'd start there.

Fwiw, OHES is a very run-of-the-mill FCPS school, except that the principal really leans into the German and military kids identity.  Some people we know like the immersion program, some didn't.  It's definitely a school within the school situation, with most people I've talked to seeing it as a way to access a better peer group (or at least more dedicated parental peers).  The program tends to narrow considerably by the upper grades, in part because OHES is one of the few schools that still doesn't offer local full time advanced placement.[/quote]

This.  Pros: involved parents- many families with at least SAHM, sometimes two SAHP due to early military retirement; great school for community if you are military connected or active duty; a few great teachers particularly in upper grades and specials. Lovely, active PTA.  Cons: not great for academics.  no AAP IV, level 3 pullout is very sub par compared to programs across the county; high teacher turnover and some others who are passing time to hit 30; principal is very uninvolved and disconnected, seems to be checking the box for a paycheck. If your kid is not military they will undoubtedly feel like second class citizens at some point - something like 60-70 percent of school is military connected and celebrating the military is a big part of the school’s identity and target culture.  One big complaint of native German speaking family in the program- German “special” is required, even of fluent German speaking students. This means spending one hour a week doing very basic German work, essentially a waste of time. My kids dreaded this “special”.

Maybe a pro, maybe a con: due to the high number of military families, OHES does not have to deal with many of the socioeconomic challenges in other public schools. Perhaps this is what PP meant by people attending for peer group.  But, also much less diversity.

If OHES is your base school and you want German, okay, but personally wouldn’t seek it out.  
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