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I've been doing the rounds with the open houses for magnets and charter schools and I've been wondering what the best school would be for my preschooler, who is going into Kindergarten next year. We live in Bedford and would like to find something close, but if the school is worth it would be willing to drive.
Her base school is Wildwood which I've heard isn't that bad. Looking into the following schools:
Franklin academy (Odds are good that, that looking is as close as I will get. Also Direct Instruction is opposite of Montessouri) Wiley (I'm Chinese and its Chinese language program is one of the big draws for me) Brooks (She likes dinosaurs and I think she might like the hands on minds on approach for her learning style) Joyner (Don't know much about it but I know OM and it has done quite well in that area) Casa Esperanza (She is in a terrific Montessouri preschool, might be nice to continue her in a Montessouri school. Immersion spanish is a plus).
Are there any other schools that I should be looking at? Does anyone know anything I should be aware of with any of these schools? Favorites?
Have you been keeping up with the new school board and changes? I think you need to wait to see if we know which schools will be our neighborhood schools. Are these currently options in your node?
The dinosaur comment...most kids like em, I wouldn't base a school decision on this.
Actually not really. I'm still trying to warm up from a two week trip to the in-laws over the holidays(Montreal - brrrrrrr). I would actually be OK with Wildwood. I think the other semi base school (Not sure what the correct terminology is) would be Durant - I haven't been really impressed with the scores from that school.
After visiting the open houses at Wiley and Brooks i would be totally psyched if my daughter got into either of these two. I went to Franklin Academy yesterday but I'm not totally sold that it would be good for my daughter in spite of fairly impressive 3rd grade EOG scores. Especially coming from a Montessouri preschool.
I'll bet you are still cold! I recently saw some photos of the snow in Canada, forget which province, somewhere central(?). Unreal! We can never complain when compared to there!
Re: Durant, during the school board's live mtg this week, they said that Durant was at capacity and they'd have to cap registration. I haven't ckd their scores but I know someone whose child goes there and she is very pleased with the school. She's an engineer by profession and really was thorough in her evaluating the school before she put her child there. But, the way it is here yr to yr they can change in terms of quality, and depending on leadership.
Wiley and Brooks have traditionally been very good schools, have they had a decrease in scores over the past yr or two? Anyhow, you may know, you can't go by score alone. A lot depends on the principal. If they have a new one, I'd take a look at where they came from. Attend some PTA's mtg before you enroll your child to get a sense of the school's community. Of course the more involved parents are, generally the better prepared the students are - this makes for a more conducive classroom (learning) environ.
See today's N&O (online) for info on the school board. Will your child attend starting 2010-11 or 11/12?
Thanks for the feedback on the schools. It confirms what I suspected. I met the principal for Brooks and she seemed pretty nice and has been there since 2001. I know less about Wiley but I suspect unless there is a good bus system there will be logistical issues with attending there.
My daughter will be starting in the 2010-2011 school year. What is the significance? I guess I thought the big decision was to allow the parents to choose either traditional or year round school choices. Then again, I haven't been following as closely as I should have been...
The school system has a good bussing system set up for magnets such as Wiley, but I do know sometimes they can be on the bus for over 45 minutes depending on where you live. My neighbors attend Wiley, from Cary and their children don't get home until almost 5 PM. (That school releases at 4:15 PM). My neighbors don't have an issue with it because they both work and it keeps them from haivng to pay for after school care for just one hour, plus they evidently just do all their homework on the bus. But they really do love the school and love the foreign language options offered there.
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