Reply to Sidwell vs. Georgetown Day School -- pros and cons

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Two differences we experiences:

1) Parent conferences - parent communication.

At Sidwell - parent conferences occurred in Fall  9th grade and then never again.  And parents do not meet with all teachers at that time. Parents are asked to rank preferences and eventually are assigned 3 teachers to meet with (I think we got our top 3?)

At GDS - parent conferences are every Fall 9-12th grade - and there is time to meet with every teacher.

We much prefer the GDS model. We knew the teachers, they clearly knew our child.

Disclaimer that maybe Sidwell will change conference structure with new HS principal (who we loved through their prior role) - so current parents can speak up if an adjustment has been made this year.

The difference between conferences also reflects a difference in whether/how Sidwell and GDS handles parental conversation with the admin or teachers. GDS has been far more open to engagement.

New HS parents reading this should note that parent engagement in HS is (appropriately) far less than in MS/LS for any school.

2) Day to day student campus life

GDS has an open campus from day one. Kids are free to come and go and are trusted to act accordingly.

Sidwell is more structured and has more rules regarding being on campus. They are tracked and required to be on campus more often.  Students get LOP points if they are caught (for this and missing meeting for worship and other thing). It's far more structured and more punitory overall (but often for campus rules)

Kids going to GDS need to have the maturity to handle this sort of freedom for sure. Note that Sidwell kids do still go out for lunch. Mine went out equally often. As a parent, the GDS model is another feature that leads to the school feeling lighter and happier and Sidwell feeling more restrictive.

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But to each their own - my Sidwell child chose it over GDS (and would do so again) and my GDS child the opposite.  We do think the GDS path is a happier one (and college outcomes and preparedness the same).

If a kid has a choice between both - let them choose.

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Same pp as above  - one other difference

GDS's schedule allows for a wider variety of choices and choice begins at earlier stages than Sidwell. GDS also allows for more courses to be taken over time.

One of the ways we have seen this play out is that students take a wider variety of pathways at GDS based on their interests. At Sidwell, especially for the go-getter group - they all seemed to be racing in the same lane when it came to college applications.  At GDS - kids could distinguish themselves by course selection over time and they felt like there were more lanes (and less head to head college competition where the only distinguishing feature was a grade or a test score).

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This sounds like a key distinction but looking at the curricula I can’t see the difference. Both schools have identical minimum requirements for high school, except that Sidwell only requires 2 years of science and GDS requires 3. How have you seen this play out differently?[/quote]

Most kids entering Sidwell/GDS at HA are not taking the minimum requirements - they are taking 4 years of all 5 academic subjects because this is what colleges want.  At Sidwell, some will choose to drop something senior year so they can double up in something they love. (for example -  drop language in order to take two math, or two science ). At GDS you wouldn't have to drop language to double up in math or science (although at GDS the high level are double courses) - although (anywhere) you would want to be balanced enough in which level of science/math you chose to handle the work.

The differences I am speaking to are choices and number of classes.  It helps to look at the flow charts of coursework by school and look at the number of periods the school has provided.

GDS has 8 blocks and allows you to take a 6th or even a 7th class as you wish (having a healthy balance is always stressed).  Sidwell has 7 blocks - they only allow a 6th class if it is NOT an academic one - it can only be art/music or computer science.  We knew kids that were having to forgo art/music (which has a 2 year requirement but some kids want 4) to give computer science a try while still taking the 5 academic classes.

GDS also starts allowing more choice and more options in 11th grade (for example, english electives in 11/12) vs Sidwell offering more choice in 12th (for example english 9/10/11 is same for all, 12th electives). There would be no way for someone at Sidwell taking 5 academic classes to take both music and art in a semester.  At GDS, a student could do this in 11th/12th grade if they wanted to (because PE is gone by then) and still have a free period. Or they could take art and computer science and still take 5 academic core.  Both schools offer a range of history electives but they are only available in 12th graders at Sidwell, but offered to 11th and 12th graders at GDS.

In the end - the Sidwell path was very structured with little choice (but my student ended up liking the courses) and many students took the exact same course sequence as my kid. GDS provided more choice (and my student liked those courses) and as a result - fewer students chose the exact same path as my kid.

That said - whether a student can get into the courses they "want" at GDS in 11th depends on space and demand.  And at Sidwell there are several math and computer science courses (typically ones taken by seniors) that the school will end up not running if not enough students want it that year....which can be a bummer if you had looked forward to taking that class since you arrived in 9th grade.

But these both can happen at any school - so be wary - a school catalog (anywhere)typically includes a large list of courses - but being in the catalog doesn't always mean your kid will get into the class (space limited) or that the class will be offered (not enough demand).

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