Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I would try to make sure he has an activity that he can jump right into when he starts at Gibbons if he goes there. It definitely took my DS a while to find his groove, coming from a public middle school, as the Catholic school kids can be a bit cliquey. That should definitely be a consideration for you if your child is shy or does not want to get involved in anything right off the bat. If I went to a Catholic grammar school with the same 40 kids for 9 years I'd be happy to shed them but that doesn't seem to be how those kids roll here LOL. We made sure he had an activity right from the get go as a means to get to know some kids. That worked out but like I said this year has been much smoother and now he has a large group of friends that seems to be growing daily.
As far as how rigorous it is, again hard for me to say as I don't have anything to compare it to. The public high schools here are on the block system and Gibbons is on the traditional the-classes-last-a-whole-year system so the workloads are not comparable. GHHS is an exceptionally rigorous public high school IMHO.
My child who goes to GHHS is a special ed kid but missing a day at Gibbons does not have the impact that missing a day at a public high school here will have. That may be another consideration if you plan to travel back Cali at all - WCPSS has very limited vacation in comparison and if he misses a day at WCPSS high school it is like missing two days. Gibbons will have a full two weeks at Christmas, a week in February and a week and a half at Easter. They also start about 2 weeks earlier than the public schools here.
As far as the sizes of the schools, the building at CGHS is tiny in comparison to GHHS - i simply cannot find my way around GHHS without a map and even the faculty that is there to help on open school nights is occasionally perplexed by how to get from point A to point B. Last year I had to go from a modular unit to the 3rd floor in five minutes with less than half the population of the school present on back to school night and when I got there my ds' teacher said "as you can see, it's not possible to make that trip in five minutes" noting that she cut them slack being late every day. CGHS is really not much bigger than my kids' middle school. CGHS is about 1200 kids right now and GHHS is about 2800 - that's a big difference.
If you want a smaller challenging school system you could look at Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools. It's pretty much the best public school system in the state (highest scoring overall) and he may feel some pressure from other high achievers, but if he likes a challenge it could work out well for him. Not sure if it would work out well for your commute, though.
I do think with the big high schools, especially coming in in 9th grade your fears about friends are not necessarily the case for most kids. It will be a new school for everyone, so it's an easy time to make friends. You have a better chance of making friends in the neighborhood, too. With DA and CA and Gibbons a lot of those kids already have their friend groups and it may be harder to break into it. Ninth grade is a good time to go, though.
I hear you about the big schools, though. My kids are in a smaller charter school because my oldest has anxiety and the big schools just felt too overwhelming. We have had a harder time making connections in our neighborhood, but part of that is definitely due to the anxiety. Takes just the right person to click with. My younger kiddo was able to make more local friends when she was in local schools, though. She followed big sis to the charter (her choice) and now is losing touch with the local friends and has more far flung friends.
I don't think the OP asked about the benefits of sending their child to private verses public school, they asked about the relative comparison of those three schools. I never understood why so many people immediately want to know why people chose to send their children to private school. It's usually the first question, right after, so "what's wrong with public school", or "public school not good enough for your kids?" I get.
There are some distinct advantages and disadvantages to both public school and private school, and the weightings of those advantages and disadvantages is entirely dependent upon the child and family.
Ours doesn't attend one of those three schools, but best of luck to the OP in your decision making process. Our experience has been (we have relocated a lot so have been to a few different private schools) that private schools will have a lot of new family mixers, family partnering, etc to ease the transition usually starting over the summer.
Well, in this case the OP mentioned public schools in their initial post, so it made sense to me to mention that the public schools are generally good in this area.
If you're living in Cary, you won't go wrong with either Gibbons or Cary Academy. There'd be no reason to throw a DA commute in the mix, along with the associated "who does he hang with after the day ends/on weekends". So, based on your comment, Gibbons should be the one since he favors it.
i actually think breaking into a public high school here is not that easy. My nephew started here in 9th grade and took a while to meet kids. Everyone thought he had come from another middle school. Of course, naturally you make friends in classes etc but it's not unheard of for kids from say, Apex Middle to assume the kid they don't know is from Salem and vice versa and so on. Compound that with having just moved and it's not really that easy. Again, jumping right into an activity can help.
Thank you everyone and especially wake74. We are not anti-public school, given my son attended one for the past 9 years. Since we have to make a move from Southern California to North Carolina, we want him to have a smaller school environment that would make would make the transition easier for him. He applied to Raleigh Charter but his lottery number wasn't selected. It's not just a geographic transition, it is also a cultural one and it is high school, not grade school so we want to make the best decision for him.
I had to do a ton of research into the public schools vs private schools and the private schools vs other private schools for a client of mine. I personally went to the public schools here from grades 3-10 and so can also personally compare the curriculum to others and what it's like to move in HS.
Of the three private schools you listed Cary Academy is probably the highest regarded nationally. From what I've witnessed from growing up here, my friend's kids, and volunteering with teens the private schools tend to be more clique-ish. Many of these kids have been going to school together since Elementary and have very insular friendship circles. This age range tends to form cliques anyways though so....The advice to have your son be involved in extracurriculars is an excellent one. It is probably the single best method for him to meet other kids most quickly and have common interest with them.
Every public HS in Cary is well rated but if size is your main criteria private schools are obviously the way to go. Like some of the previous comments have already stated though; I'm not sure size alone will help him acclimate. The public schools will also offer more diversity (by a lot).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
