All of the DC-MD private schools run the gamut. You should just be aware that WES has 2 -3 classes per grade. I’ve had several friends love it there and more than one leave because of mean girl issues in their grade. Hard to figure out in advance, it’s partially luck. All privates are going to have a smaller individual class size compared to the public schools in particular.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't like your grade, it's a tough school to be at. Each grade is really small.....

We are considering private school FOR the smaller environment where people hopefully would support and care about your DC. Have struggled in large public school. How small is too small?

How small is too small really depends on your kid and the cohort, and also to a degree the age/grade. My kid was in a k-8 with a small class of about 25 kids from 5th through 8th (fluctuated a little, but those were also covid years; graduating 8th grade was 24 I think; the largest it got was 29). That was fine for DC, but could have been stifling for a more social kid or lonely for a kid who didn’t click well with at least a few other kids. It was also a small grade even for that school, which aims for 32-35 kids per grade.

FWIW, DC’s HS now has about 120 kids per grade which seems to be a great number - big enough for the school to offer a good variety of classes and activities and for everyone to find their group, but not overwhelmingly large.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't like your grade, it's a tough school to be at. Each grade is really small.....

We are considering private school FOR the smaller environment where people hopefully would support and care about your DC. Have struggled in large public school. How small is too small?

Keep in mind that while grade level could be more kids in a bigger private, class sizes are still small so your child should still be very known. I think 100-140 kids in high school graduating class is good number

Anonymous wrote:If you don't like your grade, it's a tough school to be at. Each grade is really small.....

We are considering private school FOR the smaller environment where people hopefully would support and care about your DC. Have struggled in large public school. How small is too small?

If you don't like your grade, it's a tough school to be at. Each grade is really small.....

Any 5th grade parents that can chime in on the grade dynamics here?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What don’t people like about WES? What would you change? Seems too good to be true!

It’s tiny in middle school and can have graduating class as small as 30 kids. So if your kid isn’t vibing with the class, it can be very limited socially. Plus if a bunch of girls or boys leave along the years, the classes can be lopsided quickly.

Thanks for this perspective. Any other schools that are bigger but similar positives?

Because the MS director was the dean at St. Andrew's, naturally, it's similar. It's also in line with St. Patrick's in D.C. (where the founder of WES was HOS.)

And of course all three are Episcopal schools.

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6th grade DD and think the cohort is great. while there seem to be “friend groups,” they don’t seem strictly defined and my DD hangs out with girls across the grade. There’s of course some girl drama, but it seems more like one-off stuff or temporary issues rather than a culture of it. The parents are a very nice group. I don’t know much about the boy dynamics but I’ve never had the sense that there’s any major drama or anything and they seem like an overall good group.

I know a couple of fifth grade families that are lovely, but don’t know enough about the class as a whole to really comment.

Sixth grade is indeed a great group of kids! It’s a very cohesive grade. I don’t know fifth as well, either, but the families I do know in that grade are very happy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6th grade DD and think the cohort is great. while there seem to be “friend groups,” they don’t seem strictly defined and my DD hangs out with girls across the grade. There’s of course some girl drama, but it seems more like one-off stuff or temporary issues rather than a culture of it. The parents are a very nice group. I don’t know much about the boy dynamics but I’ve never had the sense that there’s any major drama or anything and they seem like an overall good group.

I know a couple of fifth grade families that are lovely, but don’t know enough about the class as a whole to really comment.

It's only the current 7th grade at WES that is problematic.

Problematic in what way?

clique

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6th grade DD and think the cohort is great. while there seem to be “friend groups,” they don’t seem strictly defined and my DD hangs out with girls across the grade. There’s of course some girl drama, but it seems more like one-off stuff or temporary issues rather than a culture of it. The parents are a very nice group. I don’t know much about the boy dynamics but I’ve never had the sense that there’s any major drama or anything and they seem like an overall good group.

I know a couple of fifth grade families that are lovely, but don’t know enough about the class as a whole to really comment.

It's only the current 7th grade at WES that is problematic.

Problematic in what way?

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6th grade DD and think the cohort is great. while there seem to be “friend groups,” they don’t seem strictly defined and my DD hangs out with girls across the grade. There’s of course some girl drama, but it seems more like one-off stuff or temporary issues rather than a culture of it. The parents are a very nice group. I don’t know much about the boy dynamics but I’ve never had the sense that there’s any major drama or anything and they seem like an overall good group.

I know a couple of fifth grade families that are lovely, but don’t know enough about the class as a whole to really comment.

It's only the current 7th grade at WES that is problematic.

We have a 6th grade DD and think the cohort is great. while there seem to be “friend groups,” they don’t seem strictly defined and my DD hangs out with girls across the grade. There’s of course some girl drama, but it seems more like one-off stuff or temporary issues rather than a culture of it. The parents are a very nice group. I don’t know much about the boy dynamics but I’ve never had the sense that there’s any major drama or anything and they seem like an overall good group.

I know a couple of fifth grade families that are lovely, but don’t know enough about the class as a whole to really comment.

Anyone know anything about the current 5th and 6th grade cohorts? Nice kids and parents?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely recommend you shadow with the grade (cohort) you are applying for vs shadowing with a grade above to see what MS looks like. More important to get a feel for the kids your DC will be with.

The school asks students to shadow with the MS grade they're applying for, not their current grade. I see your point about the kids DC will be with- should we ask for another shadow day/partial day?? What would be most helpful?

Does it really? When DC was applying for 5th, all the schools we considered (we didn’t look at WES) had shadow days with the current grade (4th), even places like Congressional where the daily format changes significantly between 4th and 5th because that was the break between LS and MS. At that age, it was more helpful to DC to see what the other students *in their grade* would be like and just get a general idea of the school, rather than experience the specific classes or teachers (but not students) that they would have the following year. YMMV, but it might be worth asking about a shadow day with your child’s current grade instead/in addition to a shadow day with the grade above.

We applied for elementary so shadowed with what would be his cohort grade so DS met kids who would be in his class at WES. I think they have applicants who would start in 6th (ie current 5th graders) shadow with 6th graders so they can get a sense of the MS which is quite different than ES. That said I think they would absolutely be fine with you doing an additional shadow with a kid in their current grade cohort.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What don’t people like about WES? What would you change? Seems too good to be true!

It’s tiny in middle school and can have graduating class as small as 30 kids. So if your kid isn’t vibing with the class, it can be very limited socially. Plus if a bunch of girls or boys leave along the years, the classes can be lopsided quickly.

Thanks for this perspective. Any other schools that are bigger but similar positives?

Norwood has closer to 55-70 kids in middle school. Much bigger than WES.

Although it's bigger, does it still have all those things that people love about WES: strong academics, supportive yet challenging environment, kind families etc?
Have seen mixed things on this forum.

Yes, people love Norwood. The community, families, etc. many families apply to both. Norwood is farther out than WES but their campus is amazing. They’re both great schools.