Friend of mine was new to FCPS, his kid went to TJ band and made many friends quickly, esp. during the week-long band summer camp.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in 7th APS and has dreams of going to TJ for high school. He will apply next year but he also loves band is excited about our neighborhood high school band program (since his middle school works so closely with the high school band)

Does anyone have experience with marching band at TJ? Is it a big program?

Also, he is interested in a summer science program next summer and it's only available to rising 9th so this is the only year he can do it. But it will likely overlap with the first week of band practice. It's this absolutely non negotiable re missing?

Obviously no idea for sure he will get into TJ or the science program but just curious.

My kid is in another fall sport and marching band seems like a significant time commitment. It really seems well run. I understand they also have a lot of success, not sure what success looks like for a marching band but for a lot of kids in that program, that is their tribe.

My kid is a rising 9th grader and will be doing marching band at TJ.

I get the impression the band director will make exceptions for rising freshmen with pre-planned conflicts. It may impact his role in the show since as PP mentioned he'd miss a decent amount of the training. But the band director knows that families may have made plans before they even knew they were coming to TJ... he told me he's not so forgiving with non-Freshmen who should know the drill.

Great! Thank you so much.

^ oops. Wrong link.

Use this one - this year.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y84U3OHVECnOKaDijCD9BeO8gW7YSvEv/view

Here is last year’s calendar as an example.
https://tjhsst.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/inline-files/TJ%202024-25%20Calendar%20with%20Colors.pdf

It is very doable. My DD also does a year round sport and is able to do about 3 practices of that still too in the fall.

For freshman year managing it would be fine. They kind of ease the 9th graders into the TJ workload and band ends by about the end of Oct or super early Nov.

Many that live farther away carpool. Band routes a list of families (on an opt in basis to share your info at signup) so they can connect to create carpools.

Thank you so much! That sounds great. What is the practice schedule like during the year? Being in a different district i was concerned about logistics with transportation (growing up we always practiced before school)..thanks!

DD has been in TJ’s marching band for 3 years now. It is an amazing experience and has been a highlight of her time at TJ.

- great group of kids
- like fall sports, you get to start TJ having a group of friends already which is great if your kid is not super extroverted.
- band director is really good and expects a lot of the kids
- band had over 100 members with the color guard last year so yes it’s a pretty big and consistent program and they score well at competitions usually
- it’s 100% optional so for the most part, kids that want to do it can and those that don’t just do curricular (even the top levels)

Missing that first week would be pretty difficult to pull off unless your kid would be in the front ensemble / pit (because the first week they start to learn their formations and having a kid missing from the marching groups throws the formations practice off). That said, no harm in asking the band director if your kid gets in and see what he says - I have heard of some other very limited exceptions made.

My kid is in 7th APS and has dreams of going to TJ for high school. He will apply next year but he also loves band is excited about our neighborhood high school band program (since his middle school works so closely with the high school band)

Does anyone have experience with marching band at TJ? Is it a big program?

Also, he is interested in a summer science program next summer and it's only available to rising 9th so this is the only year he can do it. But it will likely overlap with the first week of band practice. It's this absolutely non negotiable re missing?

Obviously no idea for sure he will get into TJ or the science program but just curious.