Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not even apply to Beauvoir because we were not interested in single sex schools afterwards.

And this is relevant to OP's post exactly how?

Reread OP's post and you will understand.

We are a current BVR family. We are not the clubby set and we have made a lot of friends. There are tons of normal, down to earth families who just want the best for their kids. The clubby set is small. I wouldn't say they are snobby but they aren't looking to diversify their social circle. If anything, they are kind of cartoonish.

Anonymous wrote:We did not even apply to Beauvoir because we were not interested in single sex schools afterwards.

And this is relevant to OP's post exactly how?

How's the current pre-k at beauvoir?

Anonymous wrote:We have narrowed our options to 2. We are so lucky to be in this position and are truly torn. The school admission events this week reminded us what we thought was special and unique about each school. NPS feels so warm and sincere (I teared up at the admissions event this week when the Malcolm spoke). Beauvoir was less warm but the presentation was more informative. NPS parents were more chatty and backgrounds were broadly more diverse. Beauvoir felt more clubby with kids from feeder preschools (which we are not) although people were still nice. Beauvoir appeared more racially diverse.

Our concerns are primarily outplacement- we are interested in the Cathedral schools but aren’t sure about single sex. We have two more kids so a strong sibling policy is a must. Secondarily, concerned about the community vibe- are there enough non clubby parents are Beauvoir that we could fit in? No so much for us but for our son’s benefit (are people open to new friends for their kids?).

Thoughts?

Some of the grades at NPS are also extremely clubby. It depends on the grade.

Anonymous wrote:We had the choice and went to Beauvoir. No regrets. We didn’t know one way or the other about single sex for our individual children, but we weren’t close to it. Socially, Beauvoir being a little bigger is a plus. Lots of personalities and interests among the kids, and they mix everyone up each year, so there’s good fluidity. Our grades’ parent community has been largely very positive. One pp is right that there is a club subset (but that same subset is at nps and st pats), a subset of that subset does tend to keep closer to themselves. Not the whole subset, though, and later it tends to translate more into a set of hockey families. At least for our grades, it’s not a meaningful dynamic, and we’ve found the parents mix for school stuff.

Way more importantly, our children adored Beauvoir, loved going to school every single day, and wish they could do it all over again. As do we.

This was our experience at BVR as well. Now in US at a cathedral school and some of that subset of a subset are still quite insular. That said, we didn’t come from one of the feeder preschools and made plenty of friends as did our DC. The majority of families are great. And it’s also very grade dependent, some are better than others and that’s just luck. fwiw the cathedral schools were not on our radar when DC started at BVR but it’s been a great fit.

We did the 7th transition after NPS and we do often say that we’d have been looking at a different set of schools if outplacement was in 4th. Our child ended up at a very rigorous school that his 3rd grade self wouldn’t have seemed in track for.

We had the choice and went to Beauvoir. No regrets. We didn’t know one way or the other about single sex for our individual children, but we weren’t close to it. Socially, Beauvoir being a little bigger is a plus. Lots of personalities and interests among the kids, and they mix everyone up each year, so there’s good fluidity. Our grades’ parent community has been largely very positive. One pp is right that there is a club subset (but that same subset is at nps and st pats), a subset of that subset does tend to keep closer to themselves. Not the whole subset, though, and later it tends to translate more into a set of hockey families. At least for our grades, it’s not a meaningful dynamic, and we’ve found the parents mix for school stuff.

Way more importantly, our children adored Beauvoir, loved going to school every single day, and wish they could do it all over again. As do we.

We had the same decision to make a couple of years ago and went with NPS. We were not sold on single sex education and also preferred the transition at 7th.

I like the idea of placement at 7th v. 4th because it’s a more natural transition point for kids and you will have a better idea of the type of student they are and their learning needs. However if you want to go to the Cathedral schools, the transition at 4th is not a big deal bc your kids will transition with friends. But even at 7th, your kid is likely going to transition to a school where they may not be with a lot of their friends.

As for Malcolm, he is a really nice person and very likable. However, please realize that both the lower and upper school at NPS has their own “head.” He doesn’t have as much influence as we would have liked with day to day issues with teachers and kids. We had a challenging experience there. He was aware of the issues but was fairly removed from dealing with it because it was someone else’s job to do that.

Some people have a lovely experience at NPS. On paper, I thought the program was excellent. But the actual experience is highly dependent on what kids your child ends up with in class. Social dynamics may make or break the experience. Beauvoir has more kids in each grade so it may not be as much of an issue.

The facilities and playground at Beauvoir is much better.
There are trade offs to both.

Good luck.

As a parent with older kids, I would say that having kids at multiple elementary schools seems harder than having kids at multiple upper schools. My older kids are more independent, we don’t go to the school for as many events during the day, no chaperoning field trips, etc. They also have narrowed down their activities and we have good carpool groups in place. My kids went to a K-8 and then on the different upper schools. This kept things less crazy when they were younger and needed more of my help to do things.

My kids joined STA and NCS in middle and high school (3 kids).
My observation is that the clubby Beauvoir parents stick together long-term and to some degree it's how the lines of friendship are still drawn at the Cathedral high schools. The kids welcome news kids along the way (two of my kids are now friends in these groups and we are decidedly not clubby) but we will only ever know the parents in passing. They are very much not open to new friends.

I think if you enter Beauvoir you're either in this set or you're not. If not, you have to hope that you click with other parents who are not or it might be a lonely time. That said, it could possibly be the case at any DC school--NPS included. They are small communities--some parents are open to new friends, some are snobby.

We did not even apply to Beauvoir because we were not interested in single sex schools afterwards.

Both great schools. I would focus on ending age. There are upsides and downsides to both 3rd and 6th. Transitioning at 3rd grade is transitioning right in the middle of childhood. If you are sure you want to go to the Cathedral schools, that is not such a big deal because your child will go with a larger community. If not, you are asking them to start over in 4th grade, which is right when kids become tween socially-oriented beings. But, 7th grade is also transitioning as an older tween, which is no picnic. If you have two younger children, a school that ends at 3rd grade also means that all your children will not be at the same school at the same time or not for long. I speak from experience that splitting your energy between more than one school with different calendars and schedules is a pain. However, it might mean that you can transition all your kids to the same upper school earlier and save the split school situation on the back end.

Then focus on commute, although those schools are pretty close together so it might not matter.

If all else fails, go where you think your kid and your family will be happiest now and deal with the future in the future. Kids change, families change, priorities change. You can only decide about now and what feels right now.

We have narrowed our options to 2. We are so lucky to be in this position and are truly torn. The school admission events this week reminded us what we thought was special and unique about each school. NPS feels so warm and sincere (I teared up at the admissions event this week when the Malcolm spoke). Beauvoir was less warm but the presentation was more informative. NPS parents were more chatty and backgrounds were broadly more diverse. Beauvoir felt more clubby with kids from feeder preschools (which we are not) although people were still nice. Beauvoir appeared more racially diverse.

Our concerns are primarily outplacement- we are interested in the Cathedral schools but aren’t sure about single sex. We have two more kids so a strong sibling policy is a must. Secondarily, concerned about the community vibe- are there enough non clubby parents are Beauvoir that we could fit in? No so much for us but for our son’s benefit (are people open to new friends for their kids?).

Thoughts?