Reply to House/FCPS location complex situation

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow.

That is a lot of somewhat off the mark information.

I believe you are too late to apply for AAP, unless you are military coming from a different district already placed in a gifted program.

There are only 2 more years left in AAP.  At this point, it is not worth it to just apply for 8th grade.

The majority of the middle schools will have solid to great academics for most kids who are not AAP level 4.  They kids move classes and levels in middle school, mixing AAP and non AAP in classes like Algebra and Geometry (if your kid qualifies) plus all electives, PE and foreign languages.  Middle school AAP level 4 is only English, history and science.  Honestly, having an AAP level 4 kid in the middle school program, and not in the middle school program, my preference in hindsight is that it is better to mix with non AAP kids as much as possible in middle school to make more friends for high school, except for math.  Get in the best level for their ability for your kid's math class.

AAP ends in 8th grade.

High school is general enrollment.  Most, if not all of the highly desired schools ar AP (not AAP) run by the college board.  The lower ranked schools are almost all IB, except for Robinson, which is a fantastic school, and Marshall, which is fine.  Between the two options,  the AP program is a far better choice.

Fairfax HS is a great school.  It is its own district, but attached to FCPS, so it will not get rezoned as long as you live in the City of Fairfax.  Definitely put that school back on your list.

If you are a military family, put all of the Burke, West Springfield,  Lorton corridor schools back on your list: WSHS, Lake Braddock, Robinson and South County.  All are good options.

You can only transfer to schools with space, and the AP/IB/foreign language transfer option is only for high school.  Since you don't have a permanent home, that doesn't really affect you now.[/quote]

Everything this person said.[/quote]

Except for Robinson/Marshall, but it seems like OP is anti-IB.[/quote]

You don't think Robinson is a fantastic school, and that Marshall is just fine too?

Or that the rest of the IB schools besides those two are lower performing?

[/quote]

The implication is that Robinson is better than Marshall, which it isn’t.[/quote]

Robinson is a good school but not better than Marshall, I agree. But there a few very low rated IB schools. Doesn’t matter which one OP is referring to, her predicament is the same.

Middle is tough enough, it will be a tougher transition for your DC who is new in every way. That doesn’t bode well from a bullying perspective. Maybe go private.

[/quote]

Private school is WAY more difficult to start in middle school than a public middle school. Those kids at private schools have known each other for ages, and if the 7th grader doesn't click with the kids or the leader kids don't like him, there is no where to land and find your people.

Public schools have so many groups and kids, plus everyone is starting fresh in 7th grade, from a half dozen different elementary schools.  All the kids are newish, so it is easier to find a group.

[/quote]

I am the PP recommending private. OP’s kid has been in a private it seems so should be fine. Navigating a public school in middle is no walk in the park. I would stay away from, the big leagues for this reason (Langley, Mclean, Oakton). Or the big schools like Chantilly or Lake Braddock for sure. If you must do public, move away from FCPS.[/quote]

I moved a kid to private school in middle school.  It is really hard because the kids are very cliquey at that age, the grades are very small, and if one popular kid decides they don't like you then no one will talk to you.  It can be very lonely moving to private school for middle school.

My kid, who can make friends anywhere and is usually very well liked everywhere, from "geeks" to "popular: kids, made no friends in their grade at that school except for one sweet kid who decided to start welcoming my kid 2nd semester, and was not invited anywhere all year or included in anything fun.  One popular kid decided that they could not remember my kid's name and made up a new name for my kid, which every other kid used for the rest of the year.  The kids always did it with a smile so it looked friendly to the teachers, but it was mean and exclusionary.  With only 40 kids in the entire grade, there was no one for my kid.  There was one other family who we knew through sports who also moved their kid into a small private school during 7th grade, and they had a similar experience of being excluded by the kids who had been gere for years.  Their younger siblings, who started in younger grades, had the complete opposite experience and were very welcomed.

That doesn't happen in the larger public middle schools where you have different kids in every class, and there are 20-30x more students where each kid csn find their people.  My kid had a younger sibling, very geeky, who started a new fcps middle school not knowing anyone.  She was able to find a nice group of similarly quirky friends within a couple weeks, that she is still friends with in college.

The public midfle school was large enough for every kid to find their people, in spite of the typical 13 year old angst and clique behavior.  The private school was too small to find even one friend when the 13 year old mean clique behavior kicked in.[/quote]

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