Anonymous wrote:My kid transferred from DCPS to STA/NCS for later middle school and is doing better academically than his/her 4 good friends who are Beauvoir lifers. We did not supplement outside of school over the years--what he/she knows is solely what was learned in school.

I'm quietly proud of DCPS--they take a lot of crap (and we dealt with a lot of craziness over the years) but the kids are leaving well prepared to attend elite schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the assumption that beauvoir's philosophy is wrong and sta's right? Beauvoir believes strongly in age-appropriate levels of homework, per their research. Sta is unapologetically rigorous from day 1. Neither philosophy is necessarily wrong, and both schools are entitled to have their own mission.

In my son's experience, it means the fall of c form is a big transition. For most boys. Then they settle in. I might add that bvr boys aren't the only ones who have a tough transition. Boys from many schools come to sta in c form and really have to adjust to the ramp-up of work.

Every year, beauvoir haters come on here and denigrate young kids for what is a tough transition for all. It's gross.

And by the way, none of the bvr kids I've known who went to sidwell have had trouble. If anything, many parents have felt their bvr kid was right on track or ahead.

I didn't used to buy the conspiracy theories on dcum, but I've straddled the close and sidwell Communities long enough to know now that there are some very very bitter and insecure people out there who hit the same notes every year. Always in a way that's terribly insulting to kids and always slanted towards their own biases. More to the point—it’s usually a not-so-subtle “public school is better than private school” dynamic at play.

Sta c form is a big transition to a very, very rigorous school. All the boys have to adjust. Even if it's true that more play-based private school boys have a slightly tougher transition (not saying it is), so what? They get there. Pretty quickly. My son did (and by the way, it’s not hard to just give your son extra work that summer before to prepare for the quantity). I wouldn’t give up the love of learning and joy he got at bvr—and the differentiated education where he learned all the content he needed, thanks—just to please some public school mom on dcum.

This is silly. There are no assumptions, BVR is the prep for STA, their “philosophy” is supposed to be consistent with that of the other Close schools. They should not be marching to the beat of their own drum. They also should not be leaving it to parents to prep their kids for the change at the next level, it’s their job, period. Amazing the excuses people make. The bottom line is that all the schools should get on the same page. Perhaps that might require STA and NCS dialing it back a bit and BVR stepping up but my goodness, basic coordination and communication are not hard things to do and should be happening right now.

Maybe. The reality is sta isn’t that big a deal to transition to from bvr for most kids. And for the record bvr has ramped up third a fair bit recently.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the assumption that beauvoir's philosophy is wrong and sta's right? Beauvoir believes strongly in age-appropriate levels of homework, per their research. Sta is unapologetically rigorous from day 1. Neither philosophy is necessarily wrong, and both schools are entitled to have their own mission.

In my son's experience, it means the fall of c form is a big transition. For most boys. Then they settle in. I might add that bvr boys aren't the only ones who have a tough transition. Boys from many schools come to sta in c form and really have to adjust to the ramp-up of work.

Every year, beauvoir haters come on here and denigrate young kids for what is a tough transition for all. It's gross.

And by the way, none of the bvr kids I've known who went to sidwell have had trouble. If anything, many parents have felt their bvr kid was right on track or ahead.

I didn't used to buy the conspiracy theories on dcum, but I've straddled the close and sidwell Communities long enough to know now that there are some very very bitter and insecure people out there who hit the same notes every year. Always in a way that's terribly insulting to kids and always slanted towards their own biases. More to the point—it’s usually a not-so-subtle “public school is better than private school” dynamic at play.

Sta c form is a big transition to a very, very rigorous school. All the boys have to adjust. Even if it's true that more play-based private school boys have a slightly tougher transition (not saying it is), so what? They get there. Pretty quickly. My son did (and by the way, it’s not hard to just give your son extra work that summer before to prepare for the quantity). I wouldn’t give up the love of learning and joy he got at bvr—and the differentiated education where he learned all the content he needed, thanks—just to please some public school mom on dcum.

This is silly. There are no assumptions, BVR is the prep for STA, their “philosophy” is supposed to be consistent with that of the other Close schools. They should not be marching to the beat of their own drum. They also should not be leaving it to parents to prep their kids for the change at the next level, it’s their job, period. Amazing the excuses people make. The bottom line is that all the schools should get on the same page. Perhaps that might require STA and NCS dialing it back a bit and BVR stepping up but my goodness, basic coordination and communication are not hard things to do and should be happening right now.

Anonymous wrote:Why is the assumption that beauvoir's philosophy is wrong and sta's right? Beauvoir believes strongly in age-appropriate levels of homework, per their research. Sta is unapologetically rigorous from day 1. Neither philosophy is necessarily wrong, and both schools are entitled to have their own mission.

In my son's experience, it means the fall of c form is a big transition. For most boys. Then they settle in. I might add that bvr boys aren't the only ones who have a tough transition. Boys from many schools come to sta in c form and really have to adjust to the ramp-up of work.

Every year, beauvoir haters come on here and denigrate young kids for what is a tough transition for all. It's gross.

And by the way, none of the bvr kids I've known who went to sidwell have had trouble. If anything, many parents have felt their bvr kid was right on track or ahead.

I didn't used to buy the conspiracy theories on dcum, but I've straddled the close and sidwell Communities long enough to know now that there are some very very bitter and insecure people out there who hit the same notes every year. Always in a way that's terribly insulting to kids and always slanted towards their own biases. More to the point—it’s usually a not-so-subtle “public school is better than private school” dynamic at play.

Sta c form is a big transition to a very, very rigorous school. All the boys have to adjust. Even if it's true that more play-based private school boys have a slightly tougher transition (not saying it is), so what? They get there. Pretty quickly. My son did (and by the way, it’s not hard to just give your son extra work that summer before to prepare for the quantity). I wouldn’t give up the love of learning and joy he got at bvr—and the differentiated education where he learned all the content he needed, thanks—just to please some public school mom on dcum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Beauvoir boys cleaned up at lower school prize day last year. I'm sure they will "still be there in high school".

Maybe PP wasn’t talking about boys.

Anonymous wrote:The Beauvoir boys cleaned up at lower school prize day last year. I'm sure they will "still be there in high school".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np: they have shrunk the class sizes purposely. It's 18 per class in Pre-K. [/quot
They don’t have enough kids and they are spinning it. Bottom line is that it is a loss of revenue of 9 kids, or a bit under $360 k a year. Rising tuitions and the spread of universal pre-K are hurting all the schools. You don’t see it as overtly in gds and sidwell because they take fewer kids but even they have had to go further down their waitlist.

Sorry somehow my new post ended up in the quote box.

That first part can't be right. I knew families on beauvoir's waitlist who did not get off this year, so they weren't short. I agree universal pk is creating competition for the privates, and yes, sidwell and gds went relatively far into their waitlists in the younger grades, but no one is "short" kids. Beauvoir had people on the waitlist for pk, but they didn't take them off that list.