Reply to If you had to choose between private school for elementary or high school, which would you choose?

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "If you had to choose between private school for elementary or high school, which would you choose?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are also in MoCo and are sending our child to a private K-8. MoCo schools are having over-crowding issues (26-28 in a K class with one teacher and one aid in our IB school), and the curriculum is guided too much by standardized test results.  Our progressive K-8 is a whole different world, and our child is thriving.

We specifically chose a K-8 because we are hoping to send our child to public for high school (IB school or one of the magnets).  We are also open to sending him private for HS, but we wanted to keep our options open, and a K-8 makes for a natural exit point.

As others have mentioned, it really does depend on your specific school choices.  If your MoCo elementary school is like ours, I would recommend you take a look at private starting at K.  If not, give it a try for a few years and look to enter private later.

Good luck. [/quote]

OP here.  Please tell me which K-8 private school your kid goes to.  The issues you mention with MoCo public schools are EXACTLY what I'm concerned about.  The classes seem large, and the curriculum seems overly standardized and a bit too technology-focused at the expense of other learning.  I'd be very interested in which private school you felt met your needs, given that you seem to have similar desires from the school as we have.

For the others -- my concern with starting in public and switching is that if we start in public K and find that we want to switch to private before grades 6 or 9, won't there be significantly fewer spots available at the private schools and much less opportunity to get in?  It seems like most schools take a whole new class in K but might only have a handful of openings in 1st or 2nd grade because the only openings come from people moving or leaving.[/quote]

Hi OP.  I am the PP that you quoted above.  Our child ended up at Sheridan, largely because we were interested in the progressive education model, and it felt like a really good match for our child when we toured.  We have friends who left MoCo public schools over similar concerns and they ended up at a variety of places: Maret, GDS, Lowell, Grace Episcopal, St. Andrews, Sandy Spring Friends, and Aidan Montessori.  You have lots of options, and the one that will work best depends on your family and your child.

Another thought.  You mentioned in your initial post that K-12 in private was not financially possible for your family.  I don't know if you are open to a religiously affiliated school, but Episcopal schools tend to be less expensive than independent schools.  Perhaps this is a way to make more years in private school possible.

Also, MoCo has some good language immersion programs starting in K.  Placement is by lottery, so you never know, but it may be worth a try.  It gives you a good exit point to apply to private a few years down the road.

Best of luck to you.

[/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