Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 19:14     Subject: Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
We've got two kids at YY. For the record, one of us is of Chinese descent, one is not. Both of us speak some Chinese.

I do agree with the previous poster who mentioned that experience with Chinese by at least one parent (or a pretty darn high and sustained level of interest) is essential. The kids have homework in Chinese. For our kids, it takes a LOT of motivation and effort on the part of us to get them to read and make sure they are doing their lessons correctly and not just pretending to. I don't know how we'd do it if we didn't have a lot of background in the language ourselves. We long ago decided we would "force" our kids to learn Chinese, even though they'd be happy just speaking English.

There is a good mix of students at YY, no one ethnicity seems to predominate, and there are quite a few mixed kids with at least one parent who is Chinese. If that's what you're looking for, you'll be happy.

There seems to be high parent involvement. We're not super involved ourselves, but the volunteer work we've done has always been well attended, and the parent association meeting have had lively discussion.

The school facilities are quite nice and getting better all the time. The few times we have needed to talk to the principal or administration about something, they have been very responsive.

So we're very happy with the school, at least for our particular situation. Can't speak for anyone else.

One other thing -- elementary schools tend to run the gamut from "let the kids be kids and learn to bloom and socialize" to academic meat-grinders. YY tends toward the academic side. There's homework in even the younger grades, and let's be frank, learning Chinese means a lot more homework and effort on the part of the students, and parents. So if that is what you want, YY might be fore you.
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 19:08     Subject: Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I have 2 kids in the upper grades and never heard of the Saturday homework help!! I know it wouldn't come out in an email (those are very rare) but I would expect to see something about it on the portal. Maybe I missed it?

BUT... I'll piggy-back on that to add that communication is a serious issue at the school. You will never, EVER get a warm fuzzy feeling from the administration about anything. Not to mention that important information is rarely communicated by the principal. Unless you count tweets (which I believe come from the secretary), that are typically either boastful of administrators going to conferences, or are generally about language instruction and unrelated to the the school itself.


It was in an email. I remember noting it b/c it sounded like a great thing to have. Maybe ask about it at the front desk.

I actually like the admins including the principal, vice principal, etc. and have no issues with them at all. They are all really nice to the kids and seem to look out for their best interests which is what matters. I can stand not getting the warm fuzzy feeling from them and any other faults with communication, etc. b/c they are so great to the kids. My DC loves the school so I'll just follow his lead.


I have 5 years of emails archived an this never arrived in my inbox.
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 18:57     Subject: Re:Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Anonymous wrote:


Sorry to hijack, but Brent is NOT in the JKLM league, however much one DCUM booster wishes it were true. And of course everyone leaves because unlike most of WOTP Brent has no respectable feeder pattern.


True, Brent is in a league of its own, helping explain why so few YY families come from its school district. Lafayette is rundown, super crowded, noisy (ever seen their temp partitions in open classrooms and nasty old carpets?) and far from the National Mall. Brent is much nicer inside and out, closer to the action, and on the road to being just as high-SES despite a problematic feeder pattern. Everyone doesn't leave and the school will offer 6th grade math to 5th graders in the fall.



HOORAY!! For once, instead of crazed YY boosters /haters crashing threads about other schools, crazed Brent boosters/haters crashed a YY thread! There's enough nuttiness to spread around!!
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 18:51     Subject: Re:Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
We've had one kid at Yu Ying for a couple of years and will have another join in the fall. YY is awesome for language instruction (as immersion programs generally are) and aftercare (although REEF is pretty expensive). It's fine-to-good for everything else.

Immersion is important to us and we can support Mandarin at home. If all schools in the city were free and our kids could "get in" anywhere, they'd be at Yu Ying. But that's because of the Mandarin. If language immersion weren't important to us (and maybe even if we couldn't support Mandarin at home), Yu Ying would fall behind Sheridan, Maret, GDS, and EL Haynes of the schools we know pretty well, and also almost certainly others we know less well. (It still would be ahead of a bunch of monolingual schools we're familiar with, but I don't want to call those out by name.)
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 18:25     Subject: Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Anonymous wrote:I have 2 kids in the upper grades and never heard of the Saturday homework help!! I know it wouldn't come out in an email (those are very rare) but I would expect to see something about it on the portal. Maybe I missed it?

BUT... I'll piggy-back on that to add that communication is a serious issue at the school. You will never, EVER get a warm fuzzy feeling from the administration about anything. Not to mention that important information is rarely communicated by the principal. Unless you count tweets (which I believe come from the secretary), that are typically either boastful of administrators going to conferences, or are generally about language instruction and unrelated to the the school itself.


It was in an email. I remember noting it b/c it sounded like a great thing to have. Maybe ask about it at the front desk.

I actually like the admins including the principal, vice principal, etc. and have no issues with them at all. They are all really nice to the kids and seem to look out for their best interests which is what matters. I can stand not getting the warm fuzzy feeling from them and any other faults with communication, etc. b/c they are so great to the kids. My DC loves the school so I'll just follow his lead.

Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 18:02     Subject: Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
I have 2 kids in the upper grades and never heard of the Saturday homework help!! I know it wouldn't come out in an email (those are very rare) but I would expect to see something about it on the portal. Maybe I missed it?

BUT... I'll piggy-back on that to add that communication is a serious issue at the school. You will never, EVER get a warm fuzzy feeling from the administration about anything. Not to mention that important information is rarely communicated by the principal. Unless you count tweets (which I believe come from the secretary), that are typically either boastful of administrators going to conferences, or are generally about language instruction and unrelated to the the school itself.
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 17:56     Subject: Re:Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?


Sorry to hijack, but Brent is NOT in the JKLM league, however much one DCUM booster wishes it were true. And of course everyone leaves because unlike most of WOTP Brent has no respectable feeder pattern.


True, Brent is in a league of its own, helping explain why so few YY families come from its school district. Lafayette is rundown, super crowded, noisy (ever seen their temp partitions in open classrooms and nasty old carpets?) and far from the National Mall. Brent is much nicer inside and out, closer to the action, and on the road to being just as high-SES despite a problematic feeder pattern. Everyone doesn't leave and the school will offer 6th grade math to 5th graders in the fall.

Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 17:37     Subject: Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Anonymous wrote:Parent of rising first grader (jumbo class). We're getting to a point in my child's YY experience where I worry that my & my husband's lack of Chinese language knowledge is hurting his educational experience. He's supposed to spend 10 minutes a night reading in Chinese. The school provides books at his level, but they just don't interest him. If I knew the language, I could find different books on the topics that interest him. But as things are, I'm not able to help him out.

We came to YY because we're very interested in bilingual education, and it's the only bilingual school where we got a spot. We had an opportunity to leave last fall for another school, and didn't take it. We're still committed to the school, but our role as parents is even harder than I'd expected.


Same class. I'll admit it, the expectation that parents help with Chinese homework bugs me. I think that's completely unrealistic since most parents knows no Chinese or less than the kids. We don't do it and so far DC is not behind in Mandarin. I can see a day when we may have to hire tutors. DC will be going to China for summer school from next summer onwards although the reason he is not going this year is b/c he is too scared to go: He knows he'll have to do all the speaking/reading/etc for his mother who knows zero Mandarin.

YY does have Chinese homework help in aftercare and on Saturdays - although I'm not familiar with the Sat. program since it's for 1st grade+. YY is an awesome school but only if you really want your child to learn Mandarin.
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 16:56     Subject: Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Parent of rising first grader (jumbo class). We're getting to a point in my child's YY experience where I worry that my & my husband's lack of Chinese language knowledge is hurting his educational experience. He's supposed to spend 10 minutes a night reading in Chinese. The school provides books at his level, but they just don't interest him. If I knew the language, I could find different books on the topics that interest him. But as things are, I'm not able to help him out.

We came to YY because we're very interested in bilingual education, and it's the only bilingual school where we got a spot. We had an opportunity to leave last fall for another school, and didn't take it. We're still committed to the school, but our role as parents is even harder than I'd expected.
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 16:50     Subject: Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Who is the arbitror of JKLM status? What is the threshold a school needs to reach in order to reach the status shared by WOP schools?
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 16:28     Subject: Re:Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Anonymous wrote:Good luck, OP. Nobody can offer insight about a YY experience that isn't positive without standing accused of this and that, particularly never having enrolled a child in the school. If you're not wild about YY, you must not have sent your kid.

Here's a litlte insight, rowdy kids (AA and white) who won't buckle down, in either language, are the biggest problem. They drive parents to privates in the upper grades. But then that happens in most DCPS outside JKLM and Brent, and charters.



Sorry to hijack, but Brent is NOT in the JKLM league, however much one DCUM booster wishes it were true. And of course everyone leaves because unlike most of WOTP Brent has no respectable feeder pattern.









Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 16:24     Subject: Re:Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Anonymous wrote:Good luck, OP. Nobody can offer insight about a YY experience that isn't positive without standing accused of this and that, particularly never having enrolled a child in the school. If you're not wild about YY, you must not have sent your kid.

Here's a litlte insight, rowdy kids (AA and white) who won't buckle down, in either language, are the biggest problem. They drive parents to privates in the upper grades. But then that happens in most DCPS outside JKLM and Brent, and charters.




I've heard that discipline is/was a problem in the upper grades but have not experienced it at all for my rising 1st grader. The school is always very nurturing and provides an inclusive environment. All my child's classrooms have great classroom management. My child has an IEP and the school has been great about providing DC with supports and services (basically everything we've asked for and more).
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 16:08     Subject: Re:Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
PP who wrote about friends with child at WIS--I wasn't referring to the Chinese at all---WIS only offers chinese language instruction, not immersion, in the upper grades so that would be an unfair comparison. What i was referring to was the curriculum and fidelity to the PYP. Our child is doing almost exactly what the WIS kids are doing except for in many cases at a higher, deeper level. Our friends joke that they pay almost 30K per year for what we get for free. They want French, however, and the IB which is why they're at WIS (and they live right by it, and they're rich).
WIS actually just started doing student-led conferences because YY does them (they're considered best practice by IB).
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 15:56     Subject: Re:Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Very happy with YY but we also really wanted Chinese. Unlike one of the previous posters, I like the child-led conferences. IB PYP was another major draw. But unless you/your family is interested in Chinese, I don't think it should be your top choice. Immersion itself is a major commitment but even more so with Chinese where there are far fewer opportunities to engage in the language, say as opposed to Spanish. If the parents aren't into it, the child will sense it.
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2013 15:54     Subject: Re:Yu Ying. Is it really that awesome?
Good luck, OP. Nobody can offer insight about a YY experience that isn't positive without standing accused of this and that, particularly never having enrolled a child in the school. If you're not wild about YY, you must not have sent your kid.

Here's a litlte insight, rowdy kids (AA and white) who won't buckle down, in either language, are the biggest problem. They drive parents to privates in the upper grades. But then that happens in most DCPS outside JKLM and Brent, and charters.