Private Schools?

[spainbrit]

Shore Acres - St Pete Catholic - Jesuit - Academy of Holy Names - Tampa Prep - Berkley - first two in St Pete Rest in Tampa.

[Spree]

In the Brandon/Valrico area, there is also Brandon Academy (non-religious), Bell Shoals Baptist, Immanuel Lutheran and Providence Christian schools.

[vanille]

Our child goes to Brandon Academy and it is exceptional. Small classes, excellent teachers, supportive parents. The campus and facilities are nothing to write home about but the quality of education is excellent compared to the nearby public A rated schools.

[Mozart271]

For elementary and grade school Independent Day School in Carrollwood is good, I think. My son went there for 6-8th grades and did very well. Very small classes, decent teachers for the most part.

My son went to Jesuit in 2000-2003, and I have to say I was not overly impressed. (I won't say I was impressed by the public school he attended for one year, either, though.) The teachers at Jesuit were only so-so for the most part. If you think the peers would be a better group, nope. Many of the boys were into making fun of other kids, and misbehaving in classes where there was a new or inexperienced teacher. Also, drugs were brought onto the campus by students on several occasions.

There were excellent sports, but sometimes kids whose parents donated the most to the school got on the teams ahead of others. Clubs, dances and sports were the only things they did with the girls from the Academy of Holy Names. My son in particular did not do well socially because he was shy with girls, and it's hard to approach them at a dance. I have to say, he was much happier when he transferred to public high school and the girls found him the first two days. (I was a little more nervous at that point. )

Good luck, wherever you choose.

[bentlebee]

Thanks to e person who gave me a rep. point for my old post and after reading it I can still say that the best move we made is to change from private to public school for my child.

He was just accepted into 7 Universities and became #1 for the Nation debate contest for Florida and can go to the Nationals in June.

So being in public school was defiantly the best choice since the private schools get away with no FCAT and at the time of switching and soon thereafter we were asked to come to school and the public school teachers told us that he had to go back one school year due to not able to be up with the other kids and they thought it was a language issue..

We told the school that he never had the material and was far behind on that and if we could get some books to get him back at the same level he would be fine and the school helped us with the books and within months he was one of the best in his class and the next year he was tested for advanced gifted...

Thereafter we didn't hardly ever helped him since he was smart enough to do it on his own but it was just the lapse of teaching qualities and if the kids are not tested nobody has a clue how far they really are...

The advanced gifted was the best program I have heard of in our case and thanks to all the great teachers at Weightman Middle school in the advanced gifted program he is where he is right now.

[Stewabby]

What private school was he at, if you don't mind my asking.

[Katsolera]

My two children attend Academy of the Holy Names and we are very happy. It is not a diocese school (along with Jesuit) so it gives the school a lot of freedom. Kids have Ipads from 1st grade on in the class, they just instituted a hands on science program and it is also very nurturing. The kids there are just really great kids, not rich snobby kids at all, parents are nice, school communicates and is very receptive to parental concerns.