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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was expecting the wow-effect by vising the NW private middle schools last year in preparation for our son (currently in 5th grade, Ward 3) graduation from his elementary DCPS school.

None of the schools we visited (GDS, St Albans, St Patrick, Holy Trinity) impressed us, at all. We found several aspects which would have not worked for him or did not convince us (in addition to the $$$ tuition). We then went to take a look at Basis as some parents from our ES had great words about it, but almost immediately ran away (office style building, long commuting, no outdoor space, no creativity).

At the end of this process, we are unexpectedly but firmly convinced that the best available option for him is our feeder DCPS middle school, Hardy. We are trying to convince as many parents we can from our current 5th grade. I can see that there's still some prejudice around the school, albeit decreasing. All the families who went to visit and talked to Principal & teachers came back very impressed by it. I believe that more than 50% of families form our 5th grade class will attend Hardy.

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This is great about Hardy, as one of my kids my end up there, but I feel compelled to defend Basis a bit - not on the long commute, or the outdoor space (for PE etc they use the mall), but they have two fantastic art teachers now (one recruited the other, both Corcoran graduates), a good music program where my kid is learning to play the recorder, and in the end, for highly motivated STEM oriented kids, I think they offer the best education.  When we made our decision the school had not yet opened and what attracted us was the education (which is unique to DC).

Having gone to high school in an extremely crowded converted office building where the stairs were unbelievable sometimes at class changes, with no regulation size gym and no sports teams to speak of (we played tennis at Palisades, and did our cross country running in Battery Kemble) I guess I was used to not looking at the building but looking at the inside.  This was the former GDS on Macarthur Blvd, and my parents kept on harping on the building and urging me to take a more serious look at Sidwell.  We had no cafeteria and ate outside and got food from the safeway.  Hard to imagine, I know, because GDS now has all this money and lush playing fields and I don't keep in touch with any parents whose kids go there, but just wanted to say that sometimes you have to look at the education and ignore the building........

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