Pick schools based on elementary and high school. Westland is a good school but still the weakest of our triangle.

Are you staying for high school? I would focus on that rather than middle school. The middle schools you list are all good schools and middle school flies by in 2.9 years.

OP - thank you for your feedback!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not necessarily true - it's a PSA from time to time to remind people that DCUM is full of trolls and people who post misguided information

So far nothing has been contradictory, PP: W seems warm, tolerant and perhaps not overly ambitious academically. Which for most families might be desirable!

Yeah, this was our problem with it. So disappointing. Can't it be warm and tolerant and academically rigorous?

Anonymous wrote:not necessarily true - it's a PSA from time to time to remind people that DCUM is full of trolls and people who post misguided information

So far nothing has been contradictory, PP: W seems warm, tolerant and perhaps not overly ambitious academically. Which for most families might be desirable!

Just wanted to chime in that my DC is very quirky and gender non-conforming and has never been bullied at school, feels very safe there. Ms. Serino does a great job and is very hands on.

The principal, Ms. Serino is awesome.

She makes the miserable middle school years so much better.

Anonymous wrote:not necessarily true - it's a PSA from time to time to remind people that DCUM is full of trolls and people who post misguided information

What do you mean by "misguided"? If someone's kids have actually gone to the school, then how can their response possibly be misguided? More like not what you want the OP to hear.

not necessarily true - it's a PSA from time to time to remind people that DCUM is full of trolls and people who post misguided information

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hello,
Moving to the area soon and am looking for feedback on Westland MS. Good, bad and ugly, please don't spare me. Looking at several options, so Pyle and N. Bethesda MS might be options as well, so am curious to people's experiences. Are academics strong at Westland? How is the student body, the teachers, counselors, sports, extracurriculars, bullying, drug issues handled etc.

Thanks!

This is DCUM. Take any answers with a more than just a grain of salt.

I guess you're not seeing responses you approve of.

Anonymous wrote:hello,
Moving to the area soon and am looking for feedback on Westland MS. Good, bad and ugly, please don't spare me. Looking at several options, so Pyle and N. Bethesda MS might be options as well, so am curious to people's experiences. Are academics strong at Westland? How is the student body, the teachers, counselors, sports, extracurriculars, bullying, drug issues handled etc.

Thanks!

This is DCUM. Take any answers with a more than just a grain of salt.

My kids went to Westland. By the time my youngest went through, it was just so-so. A lot of the good teachers left. The principal has been taught the grey-rock method, so not really interested in parents. My youngest really learned just about nothing there.

I can't speak for NB but we have friends with kids in Pyle and it seems really good.

Both my kids were very happy at Westland. There's a strong sense of community, the principal Ms. Serino is great.

As for the PP complaint about reading material -- this is county wide. I agree the summer reading is pretty easy.

OTOH my 7th grader was reading Shakespeare in English class last year so it's not all "ridiculously-written, low-quality contemporary novels."

If your kids take French, there is a French exchange in either 7th or 8th where they stay with a family in France for a week. Super program.

My oldest went to NBMS (before, during and after their large addition, and had the previous Principal as well as the current one), and we really liked the school. The current Principal is lovely and caring but definitely scatterbrained, which I can't complain about because we are also an ADHD family. My oldest had a resource class and extended time accommodations and most of his teachers were aware of them and very kind and attentive in general. Two of his resource teachers and his 8th grade English teacher really went above and beyond, but nearly all his teachers had a solidly "good" baseline.

My youngest is at Westland, and so far, I've been annoyed several times. First, they didn't seem to understand the need for outdoor lunches for those who wanted them. Parents had to insist. That was before Omicron variants became so prevalent that social distancing is practically useless. Then, they didn't want to place my child in an advanced math class, despite the fact that she came from a CES and qualified for it with an ad hoc test. I got the impression, talking to other parents, that the BCC cluster tries to dissuade families from taking accelerated classes, more so than other clusters. Maybe they don't want to bus 8th graders to high school in the morning because the downtown ride gets tricky in rush hour? Maybe they're worried about academic pressure in a way the WJ and WW clusters are not? Who knows. All I got from the school was hemming and hawing, and I felt the math director really wasn't up for the job. At NBMS, they were ready to bus my kid to the high school for advanced classes, no problem. They welcomed the notion that children sought academic challenge.

I come from schools that taught a classical education, with heavy emphasis on reading classical literature, and obviously most schools in the US aren't like that. Reading lists here are full of the most ridiculously-written, low-quality contemporary novels for the most part, designed to appeal to the reluctant reader. Westland, being an IB school (middle years programme), has assigned Rick by Alex Gino as their discussion book, and on another thread, this gender-inclusive book got some people upset. I don't care one way or another, I just wish they included some more challenging books. In general, and until you get to high school and AP or IB level classes, I have found with my oldest that MCPS has a pretty disappointing level of English (reading, writing, literature selection). However the STEM offerings are consistently good (I'm a scientist, BTW).

All in all, all this area's schools are good schools. I complained in this post, but I am aware that MCPS is one of the best large public school districts in the country, and that is particularly true of the Bethesda area.

hello,
Moving to the area soon and am looking for feedback on Westland MS. Good, bad and ugly, please don't spare me. Looking at several options, so Pyle and N. Bethesda MS might be options as well, so am curious to people's experiences. Are academics strong at Westland? How is the student body, the teachers, counselors, sports, extracurriculars, bullying, drug issues handled etc.

Thanks!