Reply to GDS vs. Maret - cultural and curricular differences?

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "GDS vs. Maret - cultural and curricular differences?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Maret family here. Agree with both 16:19 and 23:03.

There is a lot of personal attention for each student, and report cards are detailed, with an "effort grade" and a letter grade. There is some talk of changing/eliminating the effort grade in the near future.  Parent conferences are disorganized with parents assigned blocks to go visit each teacher.

I agree with 23:03 - specifically about the sciences and math. Having multiple kids going through/having gone through Maret, we noticed the material covered did vary slightly year to year in the same class with the same teacher. For example, one DC's year, the class was very focused and everyone seemed to be similar so the class moved quickly. Another DC's class was a little more varied, and it took them longer to get through some topics and in the end,  they didn't cover quite as much- eventually the students that continued on the path did catch up, the following year.

We have family who went to GDS (US) as well, and when the kids and us parents compare notes, we find the biggest differences to be advanced course offerings ( there seem to be more at GDS) and nurturing ( Maret teachers seem to be more nurturing than GDS).  Both schools are progressive and to the left of the spectrum. Interestingly our oldest Maret grad went to a smaller college, and the GDS grad cousin went to a larger university.

[b]IMHO, if your DC is a motivated kid who would benefit from a very small school and lots of personalized attention/tailored learning, then Maret will be a great fit. If your DC is someone who might benefit from a bigger pond and doesn't need a lot of personalized attention, GDS may be a better fit.
[/b]
These are both good choices and OP I don't think you can go wrong with either. Good luck! 
[/quote]

Not a PP on this thread, but this is a very informative post.  Thank you.

Going off of the bolded statement, either of these two schools is going to be more supportive than a much larger private, or especially public that may have more students in the freshman class than the entire student bodies of Maret and GDS combined.  However, it does seem like there may be a difference between GDS and Maret regarding support.  Could you expand or know of different examples from both?  Much appreciated.[/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