Anonymous wrote:Just remember ... they are going to be the brainy kid in their home school too, and it gets more obvious hte older they get. The HCG will give them a peer group and it's a prety nurturing environment -- I would say that the chances of bullying are probably lower in the HCG.

+1

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
Thanks for your thoughts all. Yes, we're at Barnsley. There were a couple of parents that were concerned about possibly bullying issues stemming from this isolation where the neighbor kids would perceive the center ones as being 'brainy'. I hope this is not the case.

we are at Barnsley. there is little opportunity for the center kids to mix with the rest of the student body except during lunch, recess and field trips but I have never heard of any problems. The principal and asst. principal really stress good behavior and students are expected to be respectful to each other as well as to their teachers. My child says that noone is allowed to exclude another child from a game or activity during recess. This is of course hard to enforce, but it rarely happens because imo the school does a great job of establishing norms of acceptable behavior. the school is pretty strict but i think it is good and in fact necessary given how large and diverse the student body is. we have really enjoyed our experience at Barnsley and I give a lot of credit to the principal and asst. principal for the environment they have created.

I guess I don't understand why this is important. I mean, in regular 3rd grade, my child only has specials with his class. I think that what is important is that the HGC students feel as much a part of the school as everyone else but it makes sense to me that they will mainly know the kids in their class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the open house we attended it appears that except for lunch and recess they are pretty isolated from the rest of the school. This differs with other magnets (such as the language immersion programs) where the kids are mixed for all their specials. We like the mixing as it helps make the school more cohesive.

At Rock Creek Forest my kids really never mixed with other children, including specials. Certainly not any more than at the HGC.

We're at Rock Creek Forest now and the immersion kids and English Academy kids are mixed for all their specials. It's nice to see to kids to develop friendships with kids from both programs.

PP here. My kids are both in middle school so this mght have changed. But my kids didn't mix with English Academy kids for anything but band and chorus. There's a new principal there now so maybe that's a change made after the old one left.