Our kid started at at K8 in 4th and will stay there thru 8th then back to public. I think most of the public HS in moco have more to offer as far as being well rounded, than the privates do. I also think the kids get that entitled attitude as they get older, and I don’t want my kid around that in the teen years.

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Anonymous wrote:Can you do middle and upper school private? If so, that’s what I’d choose. Kids should learn necessary skills in middle school - compensating for any lower school deficit) and be in good shape academically and socially for upper school.

Agree with this option—6-12 private or 7-12 private.

This is what I did; began private for 7th grade. But the variables are quality of your public and your desired target for social environment, curriculum etc. I don’t want public HS at all, even a good one. They’ve swelled in size to an unacceptably large student body and class size, and I want a different, more suitable social environment. Public elementary’s gifted program was an excellent start and we have no regrets about the solid foundation and local friendships gained.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We are doing private k-8 then public. Small, nuturing classes during the most fundamental years, followed by an academically rigorous public high school.

The flaw in that is your kid will not be on the rigorous math track once the get to HS which makes getting the most rigorous curriculum box checked hard assuming that you care about college admissions

No flaw. Kids are evaluated vis a vis what is available in their school.

And the public high school kids will be at least a year ahead of the kids coming from private for HS in math.

Not to the case with our K-8. Math is on par with public curriculum with the option to track a year ahead by 8th grade.

+1

Our school offers Algebra 1 starting in 7th so kids are on track whether they choose to switch to public or stick with private. I know some publics will accelerate kids even faster than that but that super fast pace isn’t appealing for us.

My kids will switch to our zoned public for high school. I think the social environment and class offerings are better than at the private schools we would consider.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are doing private k-8 then public. Small, nuturing classes during the most fundamental years, followed by an academically rigorous public high school.

The flaw in that is your kid will not be on the rigorous math track once the get to HS which makes getting the most rigorous curriculum box checked hard assuming that you care about college admissions

No flaw. Kids are evaluated vis a vis what is available in their school.

And the public high school kids will be at least a year ahead of the kids coming from private for HS in math.

Not to the case with our K-8. Math is on par with public curriculum with the option to track a year ahead by 8th grade.

I'd say a kid who does not have special needs can get a great foundation in k-8 model and skip crazy middle school in public. By HS a regular kid can thrive in decent public plus nice outcomes. You'll know by then if they need a private for HS. Worked for our family for one kid, and he begged for public mostly because of his friend group even though he got into some great privates in our 8th-grade process. This was 5 years ago, admitted into top 20 school, and is doing fabulous. No hooks just a well-rounded, hard worker. I think IB track available at his school was also a great fit for him. Our other kid had special LD which we found out in 6th during our k-8 experience and is a whole other story because it should have been identified earlier.

I think it really depends on your public options at each level. We are in Alexandria City and did public through elementary as we have a great neighborhood school, then switched to private for middle and high school.