Looking for a Good Preschool and Primary School (Manassas, Woodbridge: renting, daycares)

[RelocatingMama]

We are moving to Woodbridge in the next few months. We still haven't found a house and would like to use proximity to a good Primary School and Preschool in our criteria to find a house.

Can anyone recommend a good preschool. My son is 18mos, so probably will be looking at a summer program and to start up part-time in the Fall.

Anyone know of a good elementary school? My other son is High Functioning Autistic, so actually, services are what define his education, but a good classroom and school don't hurt! He is in kindergarten now and is mainstreamed with the other kids, he is pulled out for twice a week for 30 minutes of speech and OT.

On a side note, anyone know of a good ABA Therapist in the area, too?

[stpickrell]

If he is mostly mainstreamed, then the services in a school are (probably, I'm guessing here) from the county's mothership.

Some areas of Woodbridge are definitely better than others in terms of safety, you have some who refuse to even consider it and others who are better able to differentiate between the areas. Use greatschools.net as a starting point as you search for a base school for your kid -- will you be renting short-term or thinking about making a long-term home (through MS and HS)? in that case you of course need to look at MS and HS.

The general rule of thumb is that any Northern VA high school will have a large enough core of high-achievers to make success possible -- I am not sure whether this applies to Freedom HS or not, it is the worst-performing HS on the SAT in Northern VA by a good 75 or so points. Gar-Field and Potomac are above Freedom, and Woodridge and Forest Park are probably the highest-performers in eastern PWC.

Good daycares are probably everywhere, the locals might have good recommendations.

GL

[ChristineVA]

I have been out the "preschool/primary school" world for about 12 years now so I would not feel right in recommending something in that regard.

I would focus your house search to the Lake Ridge area of Woodbridge and to the Montclair area of Dumfries. 90% of the area in Lake Ridge will feed into good elementary/middle/high schools, and the Montclair neighborhood also feeds into good schools. Both have a good sense of community. For the purposes of schools, I would avoid any of the neighborhoods that feed into Potomac High School and Freedom High School. While most of the areas will feed into very good elementary schools, you will suffer when middle school comes. Many people think "Oh I'll just leave before then." You'd be surprised how fast the time goes and how hard it can be, depending on what life for the economy throws your way, to get out.

[RelocatingMama]

Bump - Any preschool recommendations in Woodbridge?

Great Thanks for the information. We are mostly looking at those areas. I do like some homes on the wrong side of the 1, I guess, the community is Dawson's Landing. Thoughts?

What are your thoughts on Manassas? The VRE schedule isn't as convient for DH communte. I see some good houses and what looks like good neighborhoods. I was cautioned, that because of some "county-boundry" issues that I might need to work hard to get my little boy his services from the smaller school districts.

We are buying site-unseen and will be in VA for a minimum of 2 years but no longer than 5. I just want to make sure we are safe and in a family feeling area!

[ChristineVA]

Dawson's Landing is an okay neighborhood but served by not great public schools. Elementary level is probably just fine though. After that, YUCK. I live very close to Dawson's Landing.

I am not a fan of most of Manassas and that is coming from someone living in Eastern Prince William County (Woodbridge). I think there are small pockets of nice areas but the commute into DC is one of the worst, and its long on VRE too as I have a few coworkers that do it. It's just situated in a very bad place for getting into DC. Just my opinion, but Woodbridge is a good bit better for the DC commute over Manassas.

As I said in my earlier post, I have been out the preschool stuff for a long time. But I can say that Cardinal Montessori and The Cloverdale School have all had EXCELLENT reputations for many years and are still there.

[stpickrell]

Woodbridge is better for commuting to DC since there's more of a slug/carpool culture that's grown over the years there. There's not as much of that (yet) from Front Royal/Winchester/Manassas/Leesburg/Warrenton.

OP, what do you mean by smaller school districts? There is Prince William Co schools, then there is Manassas City and Manassas Park City schools. M-Park is only 10k people so its school district is going to be smaller. Manassas City is 30k or so people, and every high school in PWC is over 1500 kids except for Brentsville which is in the SW part of the county. I understand there is *some* cooperation among the three school districts but don't know the extent.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by stpickrell

Woodbridge is better for commuting to DC since there's more of a slug/carpool culture that's grown over the years there. There's not as much of that (yet) from Front Royal/Winchester/Manassas/Leesburg/Warrenton.

Also noteworthy is that Woodbridge averages about 8-10 miles closer to DC than Manassas-in general (depends where in each area you are living versus where in DC you are going). Ten miles in NoVA can be a big deal.

[RelocatingMama]

So tell me posters... Dumfries has a couple of subdivisions: Country Club and Montclair. Montclair appears to "exchange" Montclair and Dumfries as the city name, yet Country Club is uses Dumfries. What is the history?

ChristineVA - thanks for your info. We really like the houses in Dawson's. Is it the shopping etc that is the problem? I can see that there is some lower end homes near... are the neighbors a problem? And thanks for the info on the preschools!

stpickrell - Since my child will need to be pulled out of his regular classroom, for 30 minutes 2 times per week, it would be better for him to have the services at the school. I was told, "off the record" by the school, that Manassas districts will likely not have that kind of service available and he would need to be transported to a PWC school for the service. This is my primary reason for not wanting him in a Manassas district school, the unnecessary disruption.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by RelocatingMama

ChristineVA - thanks for your info. We really like the houses in Dawson's. Is it the shopping etc that is the problem? I can see that there is some lower end homes near... are the neighbors a problem? And thanks for the info on the preschools!

There is nothing wrong with Dawson's Landing itself. It is the schools you will feed into. At one point, Dawson's Landing fed into Leesylvania Elementary school, which is fine elementary school. It is the middle/high schools that I take great issue with. Not sure what they are but most likely they would be Rippon and Potomac or Rippon and Freedom. Nothing good there but if you never have to have your child attend those schools, then there is nothing wrong with Dawson's Landing.

As to Montclair. I've always known the neighborhood to be named "Montclair". Not sure of a neighborhood called "Country Club" but Country Club Drive is in Montclair and there is a country club/golf club within the neighborhood.

Montclair is in Dumfries. The Montclair neighborhood tried to make some appeal to get their own post office and zip code (much like Lake Ridge, VA) but they were unsuccessful. "Off the record", I heard that they did not want to be associated as living in Dumfries. This was back in the late 80s/early 90s and maybe there was some sort of stigma then.

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by RelocatingMama

stpickrell - Since my child will need to be pulled out of his regular classroom, for 30 minutes 2 times per week, it would be better for him to have the services at the school. I was told, "off the record" by the school, that Manassas districts will likely not have that kind of service available and he would need to be transported to a PWC school for the service. This is my primary reason for not wanting him in a Manassas district school, the unnecessary disruption.

OK. In that case you want to avoid the independent cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, although they are on the opposite end of the county from Woodbridge.

In Virginia, independent cities are like miniature counties, with their own schools, police, sheriff, etc., etc. Towns, however, are part of their counties.