Anonymous wrote:Honestly, these seem to be a few disgruntled people. Make your decision by talking to the school and other parents, not anonymous complainers. This has been a hard year for every school. My daughter has be at Holton since ES, and has thrived. The teachers and admin have been very caring, and we aren't big-money donors. The school is challenging academically, no question. Some girls leave for less-demanding schools. But that's why Holton's reputation is stellar.

I am glad to hear your daughter has thrived at Holton since ES. I have nothing against Holton nor am not a disgruntled parent. I am stating the fact when a Holton girl needs support with mental health, Holton isn't there to support. Let me explain more about Holton being a cookie cutter school. Cookie cutter approach is when they always use same approach and not enough attention is paid to individual differences.

Every child is different hence, they should be supported especially when there is a mental health challenge. I think the school is starting to realize their stance and supporting toward the girls with mental health needs.

Now, you are saying some girls are leaving for less-demanding schools and makes Holton's reputation more stellar is very shocking to me and reeks arrogance. I hope you realize that the girls leaving Holton are always for different reasons and lack of support in mental health is definitely one of them. Parents just don't talk about it because it is a taboo!

Honestly, these seem to be a few disgruntled people. Make your decision by talking to the school and other parents, not anonymous complainers. This has been a hard year for every school. My daughter has be at Holton since ES, and has thrived. The teachers and admin have been very caring, and we aren't big-money donors. The school is challenging academically, no question. Some girls leave for less-demanding schools. But that's why Holton's reputation is stellar.

First of all, it really has nothing to do with "long" commute. The school was really overwhelmed with adjusting their in-person learning during the pandemic. A lot of girls struggled to adjust while some teachers opted to teach from home. Yes, the girls attended the classes in person most of the year while some teachers weren't physically present until they were forced to come in around March. They had teacher assistants chaperoning the classroom, true story!

Secondly, handling mental health isn't a priority to Holton is understatement. They clearly believe the girls don't belong to the school if they struggled to adjust to meet their social, behavioral or academic expectations. Their learning specialist did absolutely nothing to support the girls' needs.

Holton is a cookie cutter, so think carefully before enrolling your daughter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offered spots at NCS and Holton. Very good schools either way. Holton’s campus and stellar Administration sealed the deal. HoS listens at Holton.

This made me laugh! The administration at Holton does not ljavascript:void(0);isten at all. And the HoS is so cold and fake. We once loved this school but don’t anymore. It makes me sad to write that but I have to be honest.

Can you elaborate on what changed for you and how HOS is "cold and fake"? What year did you enter and what did you love about it? Current year? Are you staying or leaving?

It’s a small community so I won’t give details about who we are but we won’t be back next year. HOS barely says hello to us and we have been parents for many years. She is focused on big money donors for sure, they get what they want and if you’re just a regular parent you have little say. We have loved some of the teachers and the staff is very kind (security and kitchen etc). The upper school head is not strong and he is neither a woman nor a parent so he has no perspective on many things that matter. They are all so focused on changing the curriculum to being “anti racist” that it takes over every subject and discussion including all advisory meetings. If your daughter doesn’t have far left political leanings best to be quiet or she will get called all kinds of names just for not following the group think. This happens openly in class with teachers listening and agreeing. Lots of limousine liberals for sure in the student and parent body, not the environment we enjoy.

I was trying to understand what the issue was and then I got to the “anti-racist” part and that gave it away. Thanks for sharing.

So so so much bigger than that. Here’s another one I will add - Holton is terrible in supporting students who may have a mental health crisis. Soul crushingly terrible. This is a big problem and the administration does not care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offered spots at NCS and Holton. Very good schools either way. Holton’s campus and stellar Administration sealed the deal. HoS listens at Holton.

This made me laugh! The administration at Holton does not ljavascript:void(0);isten at all. And the HoS is so cold and fake. We once loved this school but don’t anymore. It makes me sad to write that but I have to be honest.

Can you elaborate on what changed for you and how HOS is "cold and fake"? What year did you enter and what did you love about it? Current year? Are you staying or leaving?

It’s a small community so I won’t give details about who we are but we won’t be back next year. HOS barely says hello to us and we have been parents for many years. She is focused on big money donors for sure, they get what they want and if you’re just a regular parent you have little say. We have loved some of the teachers and the staff is very kind (security and kitchen etc). The upper school head is not strong and he is neither a woman nor a parent so he has no perspective on many things that matter. They are all so focused on changing the curriculum to being “anti racist” that it takes over every subject and discussion including all advisory meetings. If your daughter doesn’t have far left political leanings best to be quiet or she will get called all kinds of names just for not following the group think. This happens openly in class with teachers listening and agreeing. Lots of limousine liberals for sure in the student and parent body, not the environment we enjoy.

I was trying to understand what the issue was and then I got to the “anti-racist” part and that gave it away. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offered spots at NCS and Holton. Very good schools either way. Holton’s campus and stellar Administration sealed the deal. HoS listens at Holton.

This made me laugh! The administration at Holton does not ljavascript:void(0);isten at all. And the HoS is so cold and fake. We once loved this school but don’t anymore. It makes me sad to write that but I have to be honest.

Can you elaborate on what changed for you and how HOS is "cold and fake"? What year did you enter and what did you love about it? Current year? Are you staying or leaving?

It’s a small community so I won’t give details about who we are but we won’t be back next year. HOS barely says hello to us and we have been parents for many years. She is focused on big money donors for sure, they get what they want and if you’re just a regular parent you have little say. We have loved some of the teachers and the staff is very kind (security and kitchen etc). The upper school head is not strong and he is neither a woman nor a parent so he has no perspective on many things that matter. They are all so focused on changing the curriculum to being “anti racist” that it takes over every subject and discussion including all advisory meetings. If your daughter doesn’t have far left political leanings best to be quiet or she will get called all kinds of names just for not following the group think. This happens openly in class with teachers listening and agreeing. Lots of limousine liberals for sure in the student and parent body, not the environment we enjoy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offered spots at NCS and Holton. Very good schools either way. Holton’s campus and stellar Administration sealed the deal. HoS listens at Holton.

This made me laugh! The administration at Holton does not listen at all. And the HoS is so cold and fake. We once loved this school but don’t anymore. It makes me sad to write that but I have to be honest.

+1

Round trip I guess so, or go to your office. Or pick a achool that’s around or on the way to home or office

+1. "Get informed" should get a life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With many students having stiff 1 hour plus commutes I can see why one day off campus may be an option for high school students.

I cannot believe that "many" Holton students spend an hour getting to school. Perhaps few to none would be more accurate.

If They live in Virginia or Maryland with traffic it could be an hour round-trip.

Not at 7:30am. Get informed.

If you don't think there is traffic in the DC area at 7:30 am, then you must live under a rock. Pre-Covid, ur daily commute to Landon was OVER an hour, and that was on a good day....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offered spots at NCS and Holton. Very good schools either way. Holton’s campus and stellar Administration sealed the deal. HoS listens at Holton.

This made me laugh! The administration at Holton does not ljavascript:void(0);isten at all. And the HoS is so cold and fake. We once loved this school but don’t anymore. It makes me sad to write that but I have to be honest.

Can you elaborate on what changed for you and how HOS is "cold and fake"? What year did you enter and what did you love about it? Current year? Are you staying or leaving?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With many students having stiff 1 hour plus commutes I can see why one day off campus may be an option for high school students.

I cannot believe that "many" Holton students spend an hour getting to school. Perhaps few to none would be more accurate.

If They live in Virginia or Maryland with traffic it could be an hour round-trip.

Not at 7:30am. Get informed.

I live in VA and will say that it can be an hour on certain days, especially with waiting in car pool lines at both drop off and pick up. With no traffic it’s 12 minutes door to door. There are many of my daughters friends that live farther into VA that spend an hour round trip on the commute. And also the busses can make multiple stops where their trips are long.

Just because it’s not your issue doesn’t mean that the girls aren’t happy to skip their commute once in a while and work from home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With many students having stiff 1 hour plus commutes I can see why one day off campus may be an option for high school students.

I cannot believe that "many" Holton students spend an hour getting to school. Perhaps few to none would be more accurate.

If They live in Virginia or Maryland with traffic it could be an hour round-trip.

Not at 7:30am. Get informed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offered spots at NCS and Holton. Very good schools either way. Holton’s campus and stellar Administration sealed the deal. HoS listens at Holton.

This made me laugh! The administration at Holton does not listen at all. And the HoS is so cold and fake. We once loved this school but don’t anymore. It makes me sad to write that but I have to be honest.

Do most people have that many options anyway these days? We would have loved a spot at Holton or NCS!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offered spots at NCS and Holton. Very good schools either way. Holton’s campus and stellar Administration sealed the deal. HoS listens at Holton.

This made me laugh! The administration at Holton does not listen at all. And the HoS is so cold and fake. We once loved this school but don’t anymore. It makes me sad to write that but I have to be honest.

Our dd is happy, challenged and thriving. The school has been very supportive of needs, including moving her up when she was not sufficiently challenged, providing support and extra tutoring when she needed it.
We are very happy.