Anonymous
06/29/2021 17:08
Subject: siblings offered spot at Mundo Verde
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I would switch for Oyster but not the others. But I do know several families who were able to lottery jnto Oyster from MV in mid elementary -- they were not happy with the academics at MV, but knowing Spanish helped them lottery into Oyster (which I think doesn't take kids who don't know Spanish after a certain grade?)
Do you know which years and for which grades they lotteried into Oyster? From what I can tell last year they made an unusual number of offers, presumably because of the pandemic, but aside from that there are sometimes a few in 4th and 5th only.
My DD and a few of her classmates from LAMB tried the Spanish lottery for Oyster in 5th grade a few years ago and all were accepted into Oyster after the language test and interview. So it does seem to be an option for the upper grades, with at least adequate Spanish skills. However, my daughter did not leave LAMB and is now happy at DCI. I think one of her classmates moved to Oyster, but not all of them.
Was this 18-19? Looks like Oyster has about 50 kids on the waitlist for 5th grade each year - they let in 1 in 16-17, 0 in 17-18, 11 in 18-19, 0 in 20-21, and 3 in 20-21. So again, not impossible, but seems like your DD and her friends were all lucky enough to get a good number in a year they let in a decent number of kids. How did she find the Spanish test at that age?
I guess it would have been 18-19. Good digging up of those numbers! I think she was comfortable with the test, but also really enjoyed the interview, strangely enough. We certainly didn't take lightly turning down a spot at Oyster, but I think we were hesitant to enter the DCPS system and were ready to give DCI a try and wanted a larger MS experience than would have been available at Adams.
Anonymous
06/29/2021 16:34
Subject: siblings offered spot at Mundo Verde
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I would switch for Oyster but not the others. But I do know several families who were able to lottery jnto Oyster from MV in mid elementary -- they were not happy with the academics at MV, but knowing Spanish helped them lottery into Oyster (which I think doesn't take kids who don't know Spanish after a certain grade?)
Do you know which years and for which grades they lotteried into Oyster? From what I can tell last year they made an unusual number of offers, presumably because of the pandemic, but aside from that there are sometimes a few in 4th and 5th only.
My DD and a few of her classmates from LAMB tried the Spanish lottery for Oyster in 5th grade a few years ago and all were accepted into Oyster after the language test and interview. So it does seem to be an option for the upper grades, with at least adequate Spanish skills. However, my daughter did not leave LAMB and is now happy at DCI. I think one of her classmates moved to Oyster, but not all of them.
Was this 18-19? Looks like Oyster has about 50 kids on the waitlist for 5th grade each year - they let in 1 in 16-17, 0 in 17-18, 11 in 18-19, 0 in 20-21, and 3 in 20-21. So again, not impossible, but seems like your DD and her friends were all lucky enough to get a good number in a year they let in a decent number of kids. How did she find the Spanish test at that age?
Anonymous
06/29/2021 16:19
Subject: siblings offered spot at Mundo Verde
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I would switch for Oyster but not the others. But I do know several families who were able to lottery jnto Oyster from MV in mid elementary -- they were not happy with the academics at MV, but knowing Spanish helped them lottery into Oyster (which I think doesn't take kids who don't know Spanish after a certain grade?)
Do you know which years and for which grades they lotteried into Oyster? From what I can tell last year they made an unusual number of offers, presumably because of the pandemic, but aside from that there are sometimes a few in 4th and 5th only.
My DD and a few of her classmates from LAMB tried the Spanish lottery for Oyster in 5th grade a few years ago and all were accepted into Oyster after the language test and interview. So it does seem to be an option for the upper grades, with at least adequate Spanish skills. However, my daughter did not leave LAMB and is now happy at DCI. I think one of her classmates moved to Oyster, but not all of them.
Anonymous
06/29/2021 12:38
Subject: siblings offered spot at Mundo Verde
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There are several kids at Bancroft who were once at MV. I'd choose wisely.
Meaning wait for a better school than MV or take the seat to keep the Spanish up?
We’re debating moving in bound for Bancroft/Oyster or trying MV for as long as it works and continuing to play the lottery. Would really love not to move, but also don’t want to sacrifice educational quality because we don’t want to move…
Play the lottery to get into Oyster/Bancroft? Is that possible? (Not being sarcastic, I would also love to get into one of those schools but the prevailing wisdom on the board seems to be that they never take English-dominant kids from OOB).
They do some years in upper grades, but you have to be able to pass the language exam in second grade and up. IMO, it's worth continuing to play the lottery since it gets you feeder rights to Wilson, but it's far from a sure thing (getting a good enough lottery number the year they make a few offers) and there are definite downsides to moving an older child to a new school a year or two before middle school.