Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BVR Family here. We will need to think about this in a few years and are also thinking NCS isn't for us. What are you excited about Holton that you're not finding in NCS?

Well I liked that it was closer to us. My daughter refused to go there, however, and parents don’t want to hear this, but it is an actual anecdote, because in Bethesda we see the almost adult girls in their strange belt skirts constantly and she called them toddlers and tiaras like. She thought it was super weird. It’s also a very suburban, isolated school. Some want that. My daughter liked how NCS was close to other schools and a boys school. To each their own. They’re really more alike than different.

It sounds like your daughter has found a place where she belongs. But daughter refused to apply to NCS because she thought all the NCS girls she had met (from her ECs) were mean.

They are very similar.
Obviously there is a religious element to NCS whereas Holton is secular (which was a big plus for us).
I would say NCS places slightly more emphasis on writing while Holton places more emphasis on science, but both are stellar educations.
I also found the music education offerings to be better at Holton, but this is looking at a very granular breakdown of the schools because I did find them to be level with each other.

We chose Holton in the end because it's slightly closer to our house (by 5-10 min), I preferred the suburban campus, and liked that it was secular.

I find Holton LS to be a very warm, nurturing environment for my daughter and she comes home excited to tell me about her day. She seems to have fun every day, but is obviously still learning a lot.

Without having a child at both schools, it's hard to know what the differences in day to day school life are, but we are very happy at Holton.

Anonymous wrote:BVR Family here. We will need to think about this in a few years and are also thinking NCS isn't for us. What are you excited about Holton that you're not finding in NCS?

Well I liked that it was closer to us. My daughter refused to go there, however, and parents don’t want to hear this, but it is an actual anecdote, because in Bethesda we see the almost adult girls in their strange belt skirts constantly and she called them toddlers and tiaras like. She thought it was super weird. It’s also a very suburban, isolated school. Some want that. My daughter liked how NCS was close to other schools and a boys school. To each their own. They’re really more alike than different.

BVR Family here. We will need to think about this in a few years and are also thinking NCS isn't for us. What are you excited about Holton that you're not finding in NCS?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a LS daughter at Holton. Girls truly come from everywhere — she has girls in her grade from multiple DCPS/MCPS/Virginia public schools, BVR, Concord Hill, PDS, WIS, St. Pats, River, NPS — the list goes on.

Her grade grew significantly in 4th and they add a bunch of girls every year through 7th grade and then again at 9th.

Holton has been great for our daughter and there are a lot of BVR families there who didn’t want to do NCS.

This is really helpful, thanks. How’s the culture? Are the kids generally pretty nice?

In our year they are super nice. But have no information about other years.

Anonymous wrote:We have a LS daughter at Holton. Girls truly come from everywhere — she has girls in her grade from multiple DCPS/MCPS/Virginia public schools, BVR, Concord Hill, PDS, WIS, St. Pats, River, NPS — the list goes on.

Her grade grew significantly in 4th and they add a bunch of girls every year through 7th grade and then again at 9th.

Holton has been great for our daughter and there are a lot of BVR families there who didn’t want to do NCS.

This is really helpful, thanks. How’s the culture? Are the kids generally pretty nice?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a really easy school to get into for 4th, likely the easiest.

Why is 4th the easiest?

Idk but we applied to all of the usual suspects along with many other friends and all of us got into Holton, with a smattering of other schools for all of us. Everyone got holton though. And I’ve heard this consistently. It’s a relatively easy school to get into.

I think it varies by year. The 3rd grade last year was very small, so they accepted a lot of 4th graders. But this year's 3rd is a lot bigger (the same size as the current 4th grade). So who knows how many kids they will accept for 4th.

I would ask the admissions team if you are looking at those grades.

Anonymous wrote:It’s a really easy school to get into for 4th, likely the easiest.

Why is 4th the easiest?

It’s a really easy school to get into for 4th, likely the easiest.

We have a LS daughter at Holton. Girls truly come from everywhere — she has girls in her grade from multiple DCPS/MCPS/Virginia public schools, BVR, Concord Hill, PDS, WIS, St. Pats, River, NPS — the list goes on.

Her grade grew significantly in 4th and they add a bunch of girls every year through 7th grade and then again at 9th.

Holton has been great for our daughter and there are a lot of BVR families there who didn’t want to do NCS.

Anonymous wrote:Kids go to Holton from many schools
Primary day is a common one for 3rd grade
NPS is a common one for 7th
Local K-8s like Norwood for 9th.
But kids enter Holton from all over the area - public and private, in every grade.

This is good to know. Thanks!

Kids go to Holton from many schools
Primary day is a common one for 3rd grade
NPS is a common one for 7th
Local K-8s like Norwood for 9th.
But kids enter Holton from all over the area - public and private, in every grade.

Primary Day School

Current BVR family interested in a school other than NCS.

Which schools feed into Holton? I imagine starting at Holton in third grade is ideal because everyone is new to the school. Was entering in 4th grade a challenge for your daughter?