Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:thats crap about "friendship groups." when you are the "new" kid, the kids are instantly interested in you go out of their way to help you at the center and the teachers at the center are very good at integrating kids that come in in 4th, 5th and 6th and helping them fit in. Two of my daughters friends are not kids that she entered the center with, but are kids that came later.

NP here. Not "crap" based on our experience. DC entered in 4th grade. The academics are a great fit, but it's been really hard for DC to make friends (and DC was a well-liked kid at former school, who is outgoing and makes friends easily in any other situation.) The school did not help DC make friends at all, and does not stop groups of kids from excluding others....Teacher allows party invitations to be passed out in class, even if not everyone is invited, etc. We wish we'd started in 3rd grade.

We had a similar issue starting AAP in 4th grade. A well-liked, well-adjusted child prior to this year, ds experienced a lot of exclusionary behavior. He loved school previously, but came home pretty upset on a daily basis about how awful some classmates were being. Not only excluding him, but also telling others to do the same, just because. After a few weeks of trying to give him some tactics to try on his own, we went to the teacher. In our case, the teacher stepped right up (and did so without making it seem like it was just ds), and in fact, enlisted the guidance counselor when she realized it went way beyond just ds being excluded. His year improved greatly after that, and by the end of the year, he had a group of good buddies, who were the type of kids I would hope he would want to hang out with.

Anonymous wrote:We left all three of our AAP Center eligible kids in their immersion program and have been satisfied by that choice. They are all learning and growing, plus they are learning Spanish to boot. My 5th grader is now fluent and wouldn't have been had we taken him out at 3rd grade. You need to do what's best for your kiddo, look at your center school very closely, and decide what's best. He will be joining his classmates in MS next year and wont have any issues with the curriculum as he's had differentiated work at his immersion school.

We are movingto area. My child is already in immersion at current State wherewe livebut we would like to know what immersion school do your cjildren attend so that we can narrow down our home search. If possible, please email me. Really could use help: EstherOrtizLaw@yahoo.com

We left all three of our AAP Center eligible kids in their immersion program and have been satisfied by that choice. They are all learning and growing, plus they are learning Spanish to boot. My 5th grader is now fluent and wouldn't have been had we taken him out at 3rd grade. You need to do what's best for your kiddo, look at your center school very closely, and decide what's best. He will be joining his classmates in MS next year and wont have any issues with the curriculum as he's had differentiated work at his immersion school.

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone whose child attended immersion advise if they feel their children received the same level of academic challenge (in terms of English & Math).

I'd say yes. My oldest was placed in honors courses for all core subjects in MS.

Can anyone whose child attended immersion advise if they feel their children received the same level of academic challenge (in terms of English & Math).

I think it depends on your child. I did not move my DD into AAP because she is a very independent learner and because I think the social adjustment would have been very hard on her (for some personal reasons). The school has given her teachers that enjoyed finding challenges for her and she reads on her own and does supplemental summer programs. She is confident from being at the top of her class. With all that I do not think she is going to be behind. She loves learning and loves school, which I think is the most important thing to take out of elementary school.