I am sorry to hear your child felt bullied at Burgundy. This response is not meant to invalidate the feelings of your child, PP. I have had 2 kids attend Burgundy and have experience in lower and middle school. Some kids absolutely struggle socially at the school. There are about 30 kids per grade. Burgundy splits the class in half after 1st grade and keeps the same groups of 7 or 8 boys and 7 or 8 girls together for 2 years in 2/3. The school then regroups the 7 or 8 boys and girls and keeps this new group together again for 2 years in 4/5. The 2 year structure encourages the kids to form very strong friend groups with minimal fluidity. In fact, one of my kids was in the same class with 3 kids for 6 years straight (k-5th). This can make it hard for new kids or kids that struggle to make friends. Our kids have absolutely felt excluded from certain friend groups or activities at times. However, overall, the kids are pretty kind and inclusive. My kids did not experience “relational aggression” so to speak, but it can be really hard if your child isn’t finding their place. This changes in middle school when the two 4/5 classes finally combine. Middle school has actually been lovely at Burgundy. It is the mixed age classes in the lower school that need to go!! New class assignments each year and single grade classes would help the kids branch out and have more open and fluid friendships. FWIW, the school is very resistant to changing the mixed grade classes.

Re: how they handle bullying, short answer is not great. they of course want to focus on inclusiveness, and that means including the child(ren) doing the bullying...in other words, this is a school that does not have a zero tolerance policy, but a moderate tolerance policy. outside of anything life-threatening, they will work with the bullying child and keep him/her at the school. they get counseling from their counselor (who isn't that great honestly - very much reads from a script). it's overall ineffective and if your child is the target, don't expect much support.

If you're thinking of staying till the later grades, here's their recent (I assume for the year 2017-2018 due to wording) outplacement:

It's pretty darn good.

Bishop Ireton High School
Bishop McNamara High School
Bishop O’Connell High School
Bullis School (MD)
C.D. Hylton Senior High School
Codrington School (Barbados)
Commonwealth Academy
Darien High School (CT)
Duke Ellington School of the Arts
Edmund Burke School
Elizabeth Seton High School
Episcopal High School
The Field School
Flint Hill School
Georgetown Day School
Hayfield Secondary School
Justice High School (formerly J.E.B. Stuart)
Kent Denver School (CO)
Lake Braddock High School
The Loomis Chaffee School (CT)
The Madeira School
Maret School
Metropolitan School of the Arts
National Cathedral School
The New School of Northern Virginia
Randolph Macon Academy
St. Albans School
St. Anselm’s Abbey
St. John’s College High School
St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School
Sandy Springs Friends School
School Without Walls
Shady Side Academy (PA)
Sidwell Friends School
Solebury School (PA)
South County High School
South Kent School (CT)
T.C. Williams High School (STEM Academy)
The Telluride Mountain School (CO)
Thomas Edison High School
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Wando High School (SC)
Walt Whitman High School (MD)
Washington-Lee High School
West Nottingham Academy (MD)
West Potomac High School
West Springfield High School

Burgundy is great for the early grades. We were not fans of the mixed classrooms. While it saves Burgundy money for teachers in the earlier grades, it creates too much of a spread of abilities and does a disservice to both grades.

Anonymous wrote:OP, this should go without saying, but... go visit. Ask if you can observe in the classroom. Ask for names and contact info for current parents. Attend a parent event and chat with as many people as you can. In my experience people are generally honest about what they do and don't like.

Burgundy is a small school. It is unique in many ways, and not everyone's cup of tea. Some people will hate the very things others love. (Mixed age classes! Calling teachers by first names! Etc.)

Also, some teachers have been there forever, but others turn over every few years. Unsurprisingly, there will be parents who say "oh yes my kid went there and it was horrible" and other parents who will says "oh it was great." But a bad (or good) experience some other family had five or ten years ago has zero relevance to whether you and your child would like the place a year from now.

Completely agree. We are about to send our child there and searched high and low for feedback before making this decision. Overwhelmingly the feedback we got was positive. I heard very few negative things - even from parents who had left - and I was looking for a reason to not like the school given the tuition. Outside of DCUM posts I was hard pressed to find anything that was negative enough to not send my child there. But of course that's all linked to the type of school we are looking for...certainly, experiences could be much more negative if you are not looking for their particular model of instruction for example, or it's not a good fit for your child. So I would go and visit and ask all the questions. I found the school to be very open and transparent (as far as I could tell).

OP, this should go without saying, but... go visit. Ask if you can observe in the classroom. Ask for names and contact info for current parents. Attend a parent event and chat with as many people as you can. In my experience people are generally honest about what they do and don't like.

Burgundy is a small school. It is unique in many ways, and not everyone's cup of tea. Some people will hate the very things others love. (Mixed age classes! Calling teachers by first names! Etc.)

Also, some teachers have been there forever, but others turn over every few years. Unsurprisingly, there will be parents who say "oh yes my kid went there and it was horrible" and other parents who will says "oh it was great." But a bad (or good) experience some other family had five or ten years ago has zero relevance to whether you and your child would like the place a year from now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Purely personal opinion here. Terrible. Mixed-grade classrooms simply don’t work. Teachers who throw pencils because of inability to control classroom. Completely off “alternative” curriculum. We just couldn’t stand it (although some people swear by it). Do a thorough word search for Burgundy on this board.

+100 we left after 2nd grade. The mixed classroom model was a disaster. We were there from kindergarten to 2nd grade

Kukla, Fran and Ollie. I call sock puppet. (Yes, this is my second post on this thread.)

Anonymous wrote:Purely personal opinion here. Terrible. Mixed-grade classrooms simply don’t work. Teachers who throw pencils because of inability to control classroom. Completely off “alternative” curriculum. We just couldn’t stand it (although some people swear by it). Do a thorough word search for Burgundy on this board.

Same person posting same odd pencil thing for a decade. just revealed how long I’ve been reading DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:Purely personal opinion here. Terrible. Mixed-grade classrooms simply don’t work. Teachers who throw pencils because of inability to control classroom. Completely off “alternative” curriculum. We just couldn’t stand it (although some people swear by it). Do a thorough word search for Burgundy on this board.

Where did you end up?

Anonymous wrote:Purely personal opinion here. Terrible. Mixed-grade classrooms simply don’t work. Teachers who throw pencils because of inability to control classroom. Completely off “alternative” curriculum. We just couldn’t stand it (although some people swear by it). Do a thorough word search for Burgundy on this board.

+100 we left after 2nd grade. The mixed classroom model was a disaster. We were there from kindergarten to 2nd grade

Anonymous wrote:Purely personal opinion here. Terrible. Mixed-grade classrooms simply don’t work. Teachers who throw pencils because of inability to control classroom. Completely off “alternative” curriculum. We just couldn’t stand it (although some people swear by it). Do a thorough word search for Burgundy on this board.

Re pencil-throwing: I have seen posts claiming this on every Burgundy thread. One parent told me, once, that an exasperated teacher threw a pencil in the general direction of the kids. This was a decade ago. Not commenting on the appropriateness or lack thereof of pencil thrown in exasperation- but, um, this was one teacher, once. I think it is safe to say there is not an epidemic of pencil-throwing teachers at Burgundy. Some uneven-ness between teachers, to be sure, as is true everywhere: my kids had some fabulous teachers and some just okay teachers. We never saw any problems with the mixed grade classrooms, however.

Totally disagree with 17:10. We loved the lower school. Great teachers, great environment, kids adored it, tons of outdoor time, creative play and creative curriculum. We hated the middle school, though I hear it has improved greatly with the new head.

Thanks! I was just reading about its middle school in another post. Any thoughts on the lower grades?

Purely personal opinion here. Terrible. Mixed-grade classrooms simply don’t work. Teachers who throw pencils because of inability to control classroom. Completely off “alternative” curriculum. We just couldn’t stand it (although some people swear by it). Do a thorough word search for Burgundy on this board.

I’ve heard great things about Burgundy Farm Country Day, particularly its outdoor learning to accommodate different learning styles. Has anyone had a bad experience there? Any idea how they are with bullying? Just trying to make that sure we’re not missing something. Thanks!