DCUM Forum

Anonymous

11/20/2023 13:48 Subject: Re:Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Anonymous wrote:Given all your criteria, I would go with Lake Braddock.

Agreed.

Anonymous

11/17/2023 12:59 Subject: Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Anonymous wrote:If Japanese and Swim Team are your main concerns, in nearby APS (Arlington Schools), all three high schools offer Japanese. The swim teams at W-L and Wakefield high schools are no cut, but there is a swim test requirement. You may want to confirm. I believe Yorktown HS has cuts, since the state championship swim team there is hyper competitive. But it’s more or less a low key sport at the other two high schools. As the PP wrote, you may want to check out South Lakes HS as well.

The difference in the rent you’d pay in Arlington compared to a neighborhood near any of the high schools mentioned is immense. I agree with previous posters that your child can get an excellent education at any of the schools you mentioned. I’d probably choose LB for the Japanese option. I’d join a neighborhood swim club where your son can participate in swimming during the summers. I wouldn’t operate from the assumption that he would make a school team.

Anonymous

11/14/2023 17:33 Subject: Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

If Japanese and Swim Team are your main concerns, in nearby APS (Arlington Schools), all three high schools offer Japanese. The swim teams at W-L and Wakefield high schools are no cut, but there is a swim test requirement. You may want to confirm. I believe Yorktown HS has cuts, since the state championship swim team there is hyper competitive. But it’s more or less a low key sport at the other two high schools. As the PP wrote, you may want to check out South Lakes HS as well.

Anonymous

11/14/2023 17:05 Subject: Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Anonymous wrote:OP here - private school is not an option, and to reiterate, we are NOT looking for a neighborhood to buy a home in, so we don't care about that. Just looking for a school with a Japanese program, where a kid who isn't a future Olympic swimmer can make the swim team.

South Lakes High School has Japanese and a swim team. I don’t know how competitive the swim team is. Fox Mill ES feeds into SLHS and has a Japanese Immersion program at the ES so there are a decent number of kids who have been taking Japanese since first grade. There are also a good number of kids from Japan who live in the area because of the JI program at Fox Mill and Japanese being offered at the MS and HS that Fox Mill feeds into.

I am not sure if you are targeting these schools because of their location or commute for work or if you are looking at other areas as well. I waited to post because it felt like you had specific schools in mind but the recvent post made me think that the Japanese was more important then the commute.

Anonymous

11/14/2023 13:58 Subject: Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swim Team is competitive at all three schools mentioned, but probably less so at SOCO.

+1
I don't think your kid is guaranteed a spot at any of these schools--or really most FCPS HS. So I wouldn't choose on that basis.

Swim and dive team is walk-on guaranteed at a few schools like Lewis and Mt. Vernon. Falls Church may have trended that way as well. The smaller schools have a lot of spots available as most are no-cut.

Anonymous

11/14/2023 13:03 Subject: Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Anonymous wrote:Swim Team is competitive at all three schools mentioned, but probably less so at SOCO.

+1
I don't think your kid is guaranteed a spot at any of these schools--or really most FCPS HS. So I wouldn't choose on that basis.

Anonymous

11/14/2023 13:01 Subject: Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Swim Team is competitive at all three schools mentioned, but probably less so at SOCO.

Anonymous

11/14/2023 12:07 Subject: Re:Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Given all your criteria, I would go with Lake Braddock.

Anonymous

11/14/2023 11:18 Subject: Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at next year and for various reasons these are the main choices we have. Based on simple academic rankings, it looks like Robinson is best, and we don't mind the IB program (but don't care one way or another really). BUT, we have a very introverted child with severe social anxiety and are concerned about the size of Robinson. Moreover, DC has only two interests - Japanese language and swim/dive - and Robinson doesn't have Japanese (or many world languages at all) and we've heard swim/dive there is unusually competitive to even be on the team, especially freshman year. LB and SC offer Japanese (according to the fcps website), but LB is also very large, and SC has low rankings. Any thoughts from people with some real-life experience with these schools?

If it matters, DC is into computer science and will probably have a stem major in college, and currently takes all honors and has an unweighted 4.0 (but I don't want to imply DC is a super student or really advanced, as it's just more that the current school isn't very demanding).

Look into Woodson HS. Smaller and lots of Asian 4.0 kids there.

Anonymous

11/14/2023 10:40 Subject: Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

OP here - private school is not an option, and to reiterate, we are NOT looking for a neighborhood to buy a home in, so we don't care about that. Just looking for a school with a Japanese program, where a kid who isn't a future Olympic swimmer can make the swim team.

Anonymous

11/12/2023 20:24 Subject: Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at next year and for various reasons these are the main choices we have. Based on simple academic rankings, it looks like Robinson is best, and we don't mind the IB program (but don't care one way or another really). BUT, we have a very introverted child with severe social anxiety and are concerned about the size of Robinson. Moreover, DC has only two interests - Japanese language and swim/dive - and Robinson doesn't have Japanese (or many world languages at all) and we've heard swim/dive there is unusually competitive to even be on the team, especially freshman year. LB and SC offer Japanese (according to the fcps website), but LB is also very large, and SC has low rankings. Any thoughts from people with some real-life experience with these schools?

If it matters, DC is into computer science and will probably have a stem major in college, and currently takes all honors and has an unweighted 4.0 (but I don't want to imply DC is a super student or really advanced, as it's just more that the current school isn't very demanding).

Expect the quality of FCPS academics to take a nose-dive as teachers and principals alike flee the system. The newly elected, single-party school board does not care. They will make it worse in fact.

Best find a good private school for your child. FCPS is a sinking ship.

If you’re looking in southern Fairfax, you’re likely looking at public schools. There just aren’t good private school options nearby. If you’re further east in Alexandria, there are some options, and a lot of people in the Langley area send their kids to privates, but people living in the areas where OP is looking are probably not going to schlep their kids to private school.

Anonymous

11/12/2023 20:22 Subject: Re:Please tell me about Lake Braddock, South County, and Robinson HS

Swim team is competitive at LBSS

All of LBSS, South County, and Robinson are large. No real difference in the size of each class year - except that Robinson and LBSS have grades 7-12, so the school is larger.

We are happy at LBSS but probably 6 of one, half a dozen of the other with all of these 3 schools. I would include WSHS in that assessment as well.