Anonymous wrote:How good are the center schools? I am in oakton pyramid, so assumption is sunrise valley is a center school , oakton elementary is local. For all intense and purposes, looking at ratings etc. OElem is supposed to be a better school, so why would anyone go to the center school?

In certain neighborhoods where people feel the base is better than the center, rarely anyone goes to the center.

Anonymous wrote:Dp here--what about social impacts from academic competition/pressure? Are kids allowed to be kids still?

I don't think the AAP curriculum is crazy or stressful - they are still 3rd graders or whatever. It depends on whether your own kid for personality reasons does better being a big fish in small pond or not or gets stressed out being around some smarter kids or not.

Anonymous wrote:BFF in FFX chose not to move her DD to Lake Braddock for AAP, and sent her to Robinson instead, for social reasons.

A lot of people make this decision at the MS level.

I have 3 kids and two went to the center. If our base school had offered local level IV, I would have never sent them to the center, but at the time they were eligible for level IV, our local base school did not offer it.

For both of them (now in 9th and 6th grades), a lot of their friends also went to the center so it made the decision easier. We are also socially involved in our neighborhood with sports, summer swim, etc. so that also helped keep ties with our immediate neighborhood. They'll be with kids from our neighborhood in MS and HS.

My 3rd grader is not eligible for level IV, and she has stayed at the base. She has 3 friends who left for the center and I guess their parents are happy with their decision but I feel like my daughter has a lot of friends at the base school and wouldn't have wanted to leave, even if eligible. Now that they offer LLIV at our base, it's about half and half with who stays and who goes. When my older boys went to the center, since there was no option at our base, most went to center.

Anonymous wrote:How good are the center schools? I am in oakton pyramid, so assumption is sunrise valley is a center school , oakton elementary is local. For all intense and purposes, looking at ratings etc. OElem is supposed to be a better school, so why would anyone go to the center school?

There are some Center schools that don’t have a lot of people move to the Center because the base school is solid, even without a LLIV class. People tend to move to the Center when they are unhappy at their base school for some reason.

How good are the center schools? I am in oakton pyramid, so assumption is sunrise valley is a center school , oakton elementary is local. For all intense and purposes, looking at ratings etc. OElem is supposed to be a better school, so why would anyone go to the center school?

Dp here--what about social impacts from academic competition/pressure? Are kids allowed to be kids still?

BFF in FFX chose not to move her DD to Lake Braddock for AAP, and sent her to Robinson instead, for social reasons.

Meeting up with friends who are also in the Center will be the easy part.

He will lose his neighborhood friends who are not attending the Center .. though you didn't ask

Depends on the kid. I was happy and well-adjusted at my base school in the 90s but the GT center was full of kids I didn’t relate to - a real Island of Misfit Toys. I was so relieved when middle school came around.

It is kid dependent. I know a good number of kids who went to the Center from our school only to return to the base because the social scene was not a good fit at the base. I know a kid who moved from the base to the Center because of bullying at the base and loved the Center. I know a kid who moved to the Center and said the first year was awful but the second year was better because he made one friend. The last kid did not have many friends at the base and I can’t say I was surprised he was struggling at the Center.

Most of the people at our base school choose to stay at the base for a variety of reasons. I know only a small number of kids who went to the Center. The ones I know who liked it and stayed there had moved into the neighborhood after being accepted into LIV and never attended the base school.

We choose to stay at the base and have been happy with that decision.

My child was a bit of an outsider at his school and moved to a the center school. It was the BEST thing for him. He was a kid that always had his nose in a book. Others thought he was a bit weird because of it. At the center school he has a friend that they are happy to just sit close to each other a read. He feels like he finally figured out how to make friends.
*But my daughter would have harmed me if I moved her to the center school

If my child was already an outsider in current school I would try the center. If my child was a man outsider that has friends at current school that were hard to obtain then I would not witch schools.

No one can answer this. It depends on the child, the center you’d be leaving for, the base school friendships they have etc etc. there are too many variables to answer these questions

Looking ahead a bit here, but can anyone speak to the social-emotional side of moving to a center school? Was the adjustment period difficult? Do friends still meet up outside of school despite not being in the same neighborhood?

If your kid is a bit of a quirky outsider, did the move help or hurt with finding their people?

Thank you!