Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Far N. Arl schools try to write as many IEPs as possible b/c it gives them more staffing.

No way. They just load them all into one class. It’s easy to figure out which teacher has the “IEP class” in a given year.

that is illegal

It also doesn’t happen. PP is making assumptions about who has IEPs and who doesn’t, which is gross.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Far N. Arl schools try to write as many IEPs as possible b/c it gives them more staffing.

No way. They just load them all into one class. It’s easy to figure out which teacher has the “IEP class” in a given year.

that is illegal

I would consider reaching out to SEPTA to see if you could speak with someone who has a child with special needs at Nottingham. I have heard rumors that Nottingham was terrible at special needs (especially reading issues), somehow "got in trouble" for that, and has been much better the last few years. All that being said, I don't have children at Nottingham, and I'm not sure if the rumor is true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, we are house hunting and have one remaining child in ES with anxiety, no 504 or IEP, and we avoid Nottingham based purely on word of mouth. We are currently at another ES mentioned nearby.

We rebuilt in Arlington but looked at homes in other parts of Arlington first to see if we could just move to a home instead of rebuild and we specifically didn’t look at any homes in the Nottingham attendance zone because of their poor special education reputation. Special education parents talk and know each other and the issues at Nottingham seem to be nearly universally and difficult on even basic accommodations and legal timeline issues.

You are right that special education parents talk, which means we know who is making this specific claim over and over again, and why. Not everyone shares this view.

I think I know this person too!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- Nottingham is famous for having some of the toughest parents in the county...lots of vocal complainers in our community. If you are a reasonable person who knows how to partner with others, you will be happy with Nottingham! Dr Gardner is great and she does know her stuff. We have been very happy with our child's IEP team and we love Nottingham. There is also a new SLP this year and she is fantastic. She used to be in private practice and has a stellar reputation. Welcome to the neighborhood!

I wouldn’t say Nottingham has the toughest parents, I think this could be said of any of the more affluent schools (which also includes Tuckahoe, Discovery and Jamestown). Each of them has a contingent of parents who are entitled and demanding, with unrealistic expectations of a public school. Each of them also has a lot of really nice, reasonable parents. Focus on the latter rather than the former and you’ll find a good community within the school.

Question. Taylor draws from some very wealthy areas, but I never hear much about the school one way or the other (in general, not necessarily IEP related), and I'm just curious what seems to set them apart, or at least keep them out of the fray. They just never seem to come up in any thread one way or the other, it's interesting.

My theory is that the eastern half of North Arlington attracts a different, more chill kind of family. The houses in Donaldson Run and the neighborhoods that run up Military toward Washington Golf are plenty big and expensive, but many of them are older and less shiny than the teardowns surrounding Yorktown HS. I happen to live in one of those neighborhoods and have had neighbors say proudly (with a straight face) that our neighbors have middle class values (in $1.25 M houses).

What are middle class values?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- Nottingham is famous for having some of the toughest parents in the county...lots of vocal complainers in our community. If you are a reasonable person who knows how to partner with others, you will be happy with Nottingham! Dr Gardner is great and she does know her stuff. We have been very happy with our child's IEP team and we love Nottingham. There is also a new SLP this year and she is fantastic. She used to be in private practice and has a stellar reputation. Welcome to the neighborhood!

I wouldn’t say Nottingham has the toughest parents, I think this could be said of any of the more affluent schools (which also includes Tuckahoe, Discovery and Jamestown). Each of them has a contingent of parents who are entitled and demanding, with unrealistic expectations of a public school. Each of them also has a lot of really nice, reasonable parents. Focus on the latter rather than the former and you’ll find a good community within the school.

Question. Taylor draws from some very wealthy areas, but I never hear much about the school one way or the other (in general, not necessarily IEP related), and I'm just curious what seems to set them apart, or at least keep them out of the fray. They just never seem to come up in any thread one way or the other, it's interesting.

My theory is that the eastern half of North Arlington attracts a different, more chill kind of family. The houses in Donaldson Run and the neighborhoods that run up Military toward Washington Golf are plenty big and expensive, but many of them are older and less shiny than the teardowns surrounding Yorktown HS. I happen to live in one of those neighborhoods and have had neighbors say proudly (with a straight face) that our neighbors have middle class values (in $1.25 M houses).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, we are house hunting and have one remaining child in ES with anxiety, no 504 or IEP, and we avoid Nottingham based purely on word of mouth. We are currently at another ES mentioned nearby.

We rebuilt in Arlington but looked at homes in other parts of Arlington first to see if we could just move to a home instead of rebuild and we specifically didn’t look at any homes in the Nottingham attendance zone because of their poor special education reputation. Special education parents talk and know each other and the issues at Nottingham seem to be nearly universally and difficult on even basic accommodations and legal timeline issues.

You are right that special education parents talk, which means we know who is making this specific claim over and over again, and why. Not everyone shares this view.

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, we are house hunting and have one remaining child in ES with anxiety, no 504 or IEP, and we avoid Nottingham based purely on word of mouth. We are currently at another ES mentioned nearby.

We rebuilt in Arlington but looked at homes in other parts of Arlington first to see if we could just move to a home instead of rebuild and we specifically didn’t look at any homes in the Nottingham attendance zone because of their poor special education reputation. Special education parents talk and know each other and the issues at Nottingham seem to be nearly universally and difficult on even basic accommodations and legal timeline issues.

there's also a special needs forum for all things IEP, 504, ect. It tends to be helpful and non-bashing.

Anonymous wrote:I’m the op. we are home schooling right now because we weren’t happy with virtual school in our previous state. We will definitely be enrolling when schools open! But just wanted perspective about how it was going with this year. Yeesh! I feel like I did stir up some school bashing.

If you live in Arlington and are homeschooling school-aged children, you have to notify APS that you are homeschooling: https://www.apsva.us/home-instruction/

I’m the op. we are home schooling right now because we weren’t happy with virtual school in our previous state. We will definitely be enrolling when schools open! But just wanted perspective about how it was going with this year. Yeesh! I feel like I did stir up some school bashing.

OP, if you’ve already moved into the area with school aged kids, what are you doing while deciding whether to enroll? Are you homeschooling? Whatever people say here about Nottingham, your options are really limited because local private schools are full and the best you can do with the county-wide option programs is put yourself at the end of a waitlist that isn’t going to move significantly in the second half of the year. I’m almost wondering if this is a troll trying to stir up anti-Nottingham sentiment because the premise of the question is pretty flawed - you don’t have many options other than to enroll.

We are a happy Nottingham family. All 3 of my kids have gone through and we have always felt well taken care of. All of our interactions with the administration and staff has been wonderful. We did have some issues with bullying/mean girl dynamics...but nothing out of the realm of normal for an area like this.

Fwiw, we are house hunting and have one remaining child in ES with anxiety, no 504 or IEP, and we avoid Nottingham based purely on word of mouth. We are currently at another ES mentioned nearby.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just moved here and trying to decide whether to enroll. How are things going? Both my kids have IEPs for speech and reading.

Run. Run away fast. Dr. G or Dr. W or whatever she calls herself I think, hates kids with IEPs. She will deny as much as she can. even if you come with a good iep, she'll slow play implementation or say they are doing things they are not doing.

You have quite a grudge for someone who doesn’t even know her name.

You're pretty uninformed to make such a judgmental comment. Not the PP but this PP clearly knows who Dr G is bc she knows about the name change and you don't.

FYI, her name changed due to a divorce - was Dr W now Dr G.

and yes Dr. G is awful for kids with IEPs.

I'm personally stunned to read this. We've been quite happy. I would recommend Nottingham!

with an IEP? Interesting. I do know of a very few with IEPs who are happy.. she seemed to cater to a select few (for PR????) and gave nothing to the rest.

I know of so many with IEPs who left the school.