Lakehill vs Westwood (Richardson: middle school, live in, price)

[Farah A]

Need opinions. It's for upper elementary. Other options are too expensive.

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by Farah A

Need opinions. It's for upper elementary. Other options are too expensive.

It feels like on this and other threads, you need to provide more information about where your kids are now, and what your ideal schooling situation is for them longer term to help us give you the info you need.

If your kid is upper elementary age, and not currently in a Montessori program, I don't think upper elementary is the time to switch over to Montessori (ie Westwood). Personal opinion, but informed by talking with lots of Montessori and other educators, is that after about 1st or 2nd grade in a traditional classroom the self-motivation that a kid really needs to thrive in Montessori is less likely to develop and the setup of the Montessori classroom is less likely to make sense to kids who didn't start with it at a younger age. If your child is already in a Montessori program, then maybe you want to keep that going until the end of elementary school (around 6th grade). Keep in mind that Montessori are clustered w/ 3 age levels so if your child is going into 6th grade, he/she will have just one year in that classroom before moving on to middle school. So that might be disruptive and is something else to consider.

Personal opinion, unless you're coming from Montessori and want to keep that going, I'd pick Lakehill over Westwood all other things being equal (and I think they're basically the same price so that doesn't sway the decision either way). If you are coming from Montessori, I still don't know that I'd pick Westwood over Lakehill but the decision isn't quite as easy. We looked at Westwood and while we haven't toured Lakehill, we know lots of families with kids there who like it.

[jennifw]

What is your goal for your child's education? Are you looking for a school that goes all the way through to 12th grade? Looking for smaller class size? Why private? Is the list narrowed by tuition cost?

IMO, the two schools, Westwood and Lakehill, are very different. They are even geographically far from one another so based on where you live and work, which makes more sense?

[Farah A]

My son is currently in an AMI school and that's how I fell in love with the Montessori method.He will be starting 1st grade next year. I live in Richardson and have driven to Lakehill for 4 years for my high schoolers. Distance wise I can do both. Lakehill is older and it's location also gives it an advantage over Westwood. My plan is to keep him at Westwood until 3rd grade and then move him to Lakehill. I have toured both, Westwood more then Lakehill. My son spent 2 schools days at Westwood for evaluation so they don't have a ''test''. Ist, 2nd and 3rd grade is in the same class. I am leaning towards Westwood but Lakehill has more of a presence even if it's negative, esp on this forum. The teachers at Lakehill are much younger age wise and experience wise and on the other hand its the other way round. When I email Westwood for any questions, I get a very detailed response explaining the answer, whereas, it is a very short response from LH. Very confused. Not a whole lot but there is a difference in tuition. Lakehill just got renovated whereas Westwood is in an old building.