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best thing to do is go to the open houses and find inforamtion out for your own. My niece is in 7th grade and she has started doing that. I went to St. John the baptist (graduated in 95) I thought the education was decent and the sports where ok. Not as well regarded at St. A. at the time. I can say that Walter Lace (the principal) at SJB is a stand-up guy (he used to be one of my teachers and tennis coach) He was been principal for 5+ yrs I think and I know that he has really made the school better than when I was there. I still feel there are prob. better choices out there, but SJB worked for me.
She'll get in somewhere, since it's bad form to take tuition for 9 years and then not let them into Catholic HS - but unless she has a legacy at one of the better schools, she won't get in there.
That's what I was thinking. Her child definitely won't make it into any of the "better" Catholic HS --- most likely St Johns since they take just about anyone.
If they have issues with performance the choices are limited, they will probably not get into Chaminade or Kellenberg, Sacred Heart. I am sure they could get into St Mary's but that's a lot of tuition to pay for basic education.
Many of Catholic Elementary Schools (1-8) don't have the services and attention that public schools have for learning disabilities. If you have a child that has issues they tend to move them along; you would be better off in publics school but it sounds like that is too late for your friends child.
It's ridiculous that she didn't pull her child from Catholic School when the struggling first began. I told her time and again to put the child in public school where they have services, extra help, resources, etc that the Catholic schools don't have. She was so "afraid" of public school that she didn't want to put her child there. Absurd!! I asked her what she was afraid of (she's in a good district) and she said "those kids in public school". I said "your kid is in a Catholic school. It's not like a true "private" school that you're paying 35K/year for. You're paying maybe 5K/year for it. You're in a Catholic school that takes anyone who walks in with a check. What makes you think the kids there are any better than "those kids in public school'"??
Well, I guess come the end of 8th grade, she'll see how far keeping her kid in Catholic school got her. Even if the kid is allowed in the school, there's no saying they're going to be able to "keep up" with the curriculum.
It's ridiculous that she didn't pull her child from Catholic School when the struggling first began. I told her time and again to put the child in public school where they have services, extra help, resources, etc that the Catholic schools don't have. She was so "afraid" of public school that she didn't want to put her child there. Absurd!! I asked her what she was afraid of (she's in a good district) and she said "those kids in public school". I said "your kid is in a Catholic school. It's not like a true "private" school that you're paying 35K/year for. You're paying maybe 5K/year for it. You're in a Catholic school that takes anyone who walks in with a check. What makes you think the kids there are any better than "those kids in public school'"??
Well, I guess come the end of 8th grade, she'll see how far keeping her kid in Catholic school got her. Even if the kid is allowed in the school, there's no saying they're going to be able to "keep up" with the curriculum.
I have heard that issue more than a few times, its a very difficult decision to move a child even at the 3rd or 4th grade. It's difficult to move from Catholic Schools to Public Schools and a completely new environment and new friends but its really the right thing to do. There is some support from the school district for Catholic Schools but they really need more attention. There is quite a bit more early intervention in hte public schools that can help although not always a cure.
I would like to know out of these schools what are the best one:
Chaminade High School
Holy Trinity Diocesan High School
Kellenberg Memorial High School
St. Mary's College Preparatory High School
St. Dominic's High School
Sacred Heart Academy
St. Anthony's High School
Please include your experience someone elses experience. Both positive and negative.
Thank you in advance!
Kellenberg & Chaminade are by far the best schools out of what you listed. They're actually both run by the same group of Maranist community. If you're looking at an all girls school, I'd have to go with Sacred Heart.
Holy Trinity is what I'd call a liberal catholic school...it's the next best thing to a public school.
I don't really know anyone that went to St. Dominics or St. Anthonys...the majority of people either stick their kids in Kellenberg, Chaminade or Sacred Heart.
I'm a graduate of Kellenberg (Class of 2003) and went through 6 years in that school after coming from a public elementary school. I was put there for the education and not the religious experience. As much as I despised having the catholic religion shoved down my throat on a daily basis, I was more than ever prepared for college and never felt overwhelmed compared to my friends that came from a public school. I was already used to the heavy work load and stress.
Kellenberg & Chaminade are by far the best schools out of what you listed. They're actually both run by the same group of Maranist community. If you're looking at an all girls school, I'd have to go with Sacred Heart.
Holy Trinity is what I'd call a liberal catholic school...it's the next best thing to a public school.
I don't really know anyone that went to St. Dominics or St. Anthonys...the majority of people either stick their kids in Kellenberg, Chaminade or Sacred Heart.
I'm a graduate of Kellenberg (Class of 2003) and went through 6 years in that school after coming from a public elementary school. I was put there for the education and not the religious experience. As much as I despised having the catholic religion shoved down my throat on a daily basis, I was more than ever prepared for college and never felt overwhelmed compared to my friends that came from a public school. I was already used to the heavy work load and stress.
How can you honestly make a statement about Kellenberg being far better than all of the other schools listed (Cham excluded) and then essentially admit that you know little about St. Anthony's (or at least nobody that attended)? Sounds like you're Nassau-based to me and don't know much at all about St. A's.
So sorry that you had to suffer through having the Catholic religion "shoved down your throat on a daily basis" at a Catholic institution. How dare they do that!!!
Obviously I'm biased as a catholic, but I never found the catholic portion of the curriculum all that intrusive. In global studies we learned about various world religions and their histories/beliefs. The theology classes were more of the same, albeit more comprehensive.
And the majority of the "morality" stuff they get into wasn't the type of stuff that's restricted to Catholicism. The infamous abortion video was a little over the top, however anything that puts a scare into teens and gets them thinking about safe sex can't be all bad.
It's ridiculous that she didn't pull her child from Catholic School when the struggling first began. I told her time and again to put the child in public school where they have services, extra help, resources, etc that the Catholic schools don't have. She was so "afraid" of public school that she didn't want to put her child there. Absurd!! I asked her what she was afraid of (she's in a good district) and she said "those kids in public school". I said "your kid is in a Catholic school. It's not like a true "private" school that you're paying 35K/year for. You're paying maybe 5K/year for it. You're in a Catholic school that takes anyone who walks in with a check. What makes you think the kids there are any better than "those kids in public school'"??
Well, I guess come the end of 8th grade, she'll see how far keeping her kid in Catholic school got her. Even if the kid is allowed in the school, there's no saying they're going to be able to "keep up" with the curriculum.
Many who pay to send their kids to Catholic school have the view that public schools act like social service agencies and pander to the student's every need (real, imagined, or made-up) --and therefore fail to teach personal responsibility.
How can you honestly make a statement about Kellenberg being far better than all of the other schools listed (Cham excluded) and then essentially admit that you know little about St. Anthony's (or at least nobody that attended)? Sounds like you're Nassau-based to me and don't know much at all about St. A's.
So sorry that you had to suffer through having the Catholic religion "shoved down your throat on a daily basis" at a Catholic institution. How dare they do that!!!
And which of these schools did YOU attend?
I don't know much about St. Anthony's but when you have a bunch of classmates that live in Suffolk that turned down admittance to St. Dom's & St. Anthony's to come to Kellenberg, that tells you something right there...As a matter of fact, I knew a couple of kids that were kicked out of Kellenberg for bad conduct and ended up going to St. Dom's and St. Anthony's as last resort so their parents didn't have to put them in public school. It's definitely a "second choice" school.
I'd also like to add that it's much more appealing to colleges to come from a top, reputable school, like Kellenberg. Hofstra University (especially) and Adelphi have ties with Kellenberg and make special considerations for Kellenberg students. One of those considerations being that both schools waived the college application fees for Kellenberg students because of the curriculum we carried. At the time, I think the college essay for Adelphi was waived as well.
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Absurd!! I asked her what she was afraid of (she's in a good district) and she said "those kids in public school". I said "your kid is in a Catholic school. It's not like a true "private" school that you're paying 35K/year for. You're paying maybe 5K/year for it. You're in a Catholic school that takes anyone who walks in with a check. What makes you think the kids there are any better than "those kids in public school'"??
