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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Whether your son gets into either school will depend on how bright he is and whether you as a family and he as a kid fit into said school's culture. Apply, but don't set your heart on being admitted.  There are a lot of quirky factors on whether you'll be admitted to either school.  At GDS, it helps if you're Jewish or URM.  At Sidwell, it helps if you're a wealthy, influential democrat or an URM.

I grew up in Quaker schools (Philly), but believe me Sidwell is NOT A QUAKER SCHOOL.  Maybe it was once upon a time, but it's now a school for the wealthy elite of DC.  The headmaster is sleazy and into schmoozing with prominent Democrats whose kids are treated with special kid gloves. Lest people say this is sour grapes, I have a child enrolled, and she loves her teachers and classmates, but I am not fond of the school administration, especially the headmaster, who needs to go. Sidwell's COVID response was pathetic. Probably the worse of the Big 3.

You use progressive education and liberal politics as though they're interchangeable. They're not. Progressive education is a specific pedagogy. GDS is somewhat progressive. Sidwell is not.

WIS is NOT well-respected in the area except by WIS parents and their gullible friends. 
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We're not Jewish, URM or wealthy democrats, yet our kid got into both GDS and Sidwell. So don't be discouraged from applying if your kid doesn't fall into one of those categories. [/quote]

Us too and we landed at Sidwell.

On the above, GDS's COVID response was worse than Sidwell for sure (at least for HS, according to our many friends who have GDS HS students)

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I'm curious what Sidwell did for HS last year? I have a GDS HS student and they were back in person 2 days per week in November and 4 days a week in late spring. That seemed to work okay given the circumstances.[/quote]

Sidwell was generally the same. I don't get the comparison fail.[/quote]

+2. And GDS lower and middle schools met 4 days/week starting last November. The biggest complaint among GDS parents in the fall was that the school wasted the nice weather in September and Octobber by not setting up outdoor tents and having instruction outdoors. I found the weekly in-school testing incredibly convenient and well-run. Also because the LMS building is brand new, GDS was able to upgrade the air filtration system very easily. No complaints here, given the circumstances, and very grateful that our kids were actually to go to school in person.[/quote]

Let’s get real. Gds was a disaster
Pk-5 was HALF DAYS in December onward for FOUR days a week.
Didn’t go full days until late March for FOUR days. 
Upper school did A group and B group and B group never got in the building except one say in 2020.
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What would you propose doing differently? Especially compared to other DC independents? I don't have a lower school student but was around for HS. Group A, admittedly, was in the building more in 2020. But 2021 winter/spring worked well, with few outbreaks or need to pull back. Athletic practices were also pretty regular. [/quote]

Is this a joke? Schools could have done what BVR did. In-person and remote options. Students in pods. Masks required at all times. Outdoor education in-person once a week for remote families. Hepa filters in every classroom. No shared supplies. Teachers got vaxxed as early as they could. Socially distant desks. Bi-weekly testing (and now weekly testing for this year). I would have proposed all of those things. [/quote]

BVR is only PK-3, and fewer numbers overall. GDS lower school went back 4 days in November and had all those mitigation measures. GDS lower school spent substantial time outdoors as well. And the original discussion was about HS, which didn't differ from Sidwell. [/quote]

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