We are at Claremont (I have a rising 1st and 4th grader). My kids speak English at home, but have Spanish speaking grandparents.

I think it is easier to get in you are Spanish speaking. They won't get tested on proficiency if they enter at the kinder or first grade level. But if you pick Spanish speaker, they might have issues with being placed into ESL classes, I am not sure how that works. I am sure you can clarify with the school.

Anyway, my 4th grader loves the program. He went from speaking no Spanish to being able to write multiple page stories in Spanish. He can also read in Spanish and seems to understand everything the teacher says. He is more hesitant to speak it but the teacher says that comes with time.

I am not sure what to say about academics. I mean things have been wonky for the past 1.5 years due to covid. He was also identified as gifted and is worked about 4 grade levels ahead. The gifted program is okay (or was when they were in school) he would get pull outs. He never said he was bored in class, but the teachers did tell me he would finish his work very early so they had extra projects on hand to give him. I find that having half the day in Spanish does challenge him when overall it might be too easy for him if it was in English, if that makes sense. e

My only complaint is spelling, but his teacher did tell us in the Jan 2020 that they would start really working on that. Then covid happened, so spelling kind of got thrown to the waste side (he can spell fine in Spanish). But I hear this is a problem in APS (and maybe VA public schools in general).

I also hear that if you are kid is struggling that immersion might not be the best fit. Basically if they are struggling to learn in one language, adding another only makes things worse. Especially when they are learning math in Spanish but can't get services in Spanish.

We love Claremont for the community and the school itself.

My kindergartner was virtual most of the year but seemed to learn a ton. I sat next to him the entire year so I got to see pretty much all he did. And he was learning to write stories and do simple addition and subtraction so it seemed fine. He seemed to absorb a decent amount of Spanish for what the year was. He loved going to school each day (even over the computer). He finished the year able to read Dr. Seuss books so that part seemed fine too.

Overall, I am very happy. My kids do have Spanish tutors in the summer to keep up with their Spanish, but if you can speak it at home this shouldn't be an issue.

I’d like to learn more about the Spanish immersion schools in APS. Primarily focused on Key since we’re in North Arlington so that’s where we would be applying. We are raising our kids bilingual though they prefer English — not sure if they get tested on proficiency since I’ve heard a
Percentage of the kids that enroll need to be native speakers. What’s important to us: academics, dual language education, diversity in that order. I’m interested in the chance for them to keep learning Spanish and to be in a more diverse setting than the typical North Arlington school, but academics are important to us. If we don’t go to immersion we’re considering parochial/private (which I realize would be way less diverse). Can you share your experience with immersion please? What are the pros and cons?