Reply to Westland - Please share your experience

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here.  Thank you for the feedback.  Here's are some specific questions.

How separate is the 6th grade from the older grades?   
How does that 10:02 lunch actually work?  Does it affect their ability to focus in the afternoon? 
Who are these "fantastic teachers" specifically?  
Is it possible for a child to really get to know their teachers in such a huge place?  And just importantly, for the teachers to know the child?

No, homeschooling isn't an option.  I'm hoping that private school is an option for high school.  But do kids actually place out of Westland to the top schools?  
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I understand your concerns -- the transition to middle school is tough and you do worry about things like mixing of grades with older kids, managing in a large group, etc.  I would gently suggest that a lot of the things you are worrying about won't turn out to be problems.  Remember that your child is getting older and more mature -- it's so hard to imagine them making the jump from ES to MS and handling such a big environment but they do!

When my daughter had the early lunch at Westland, teachers encouraged them to bring a snack like granola bars etc. to have during an afternoon period.  This really mitigated the issue of concentration in the afternoon.

The sixth graders are pretty separate -- to my recollection, except for some math classes where they were mixed with 7th graders they were all together.  And as someone else mentioned, the sixth grade class is relatively small because kids from at least one ES don't go to Westland until 7th grade.

Like any school (and my kids have attended a number of MCPS schools!), there are good teachers and not so great.  I will say that my daughter had two "bad" teachers over three years and in both instances the administration jumped right in.  In one case the teacher left and in the other, the admin did a lot of support and observation to help mitigate the problem.  We had particularly good impressions of math teachers Ms. Walstein and Mr. Katz, history teacher Ms. Sultan, and more.  These and many other teachers did develop relatipnships with my daughter and were excellent about communicating with me proactively if there was a concern.  The chorus program is great.  The administration is very warm and supportive and they all know my daughter by name.

I hope this allays some of your worries!

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