Kindergarten Option 2: A British Primary School at $12k+

Today I toured a local K-8 British Primary school where the emphasis is on educating the whole child. What that means is that in addition to academics the school is really focusing on the social and emotional aspects of the child and nurturing those aspects as much as reading, writing, math and so on.

This school is unique for several reasons. First and foremost they have multi-age classroom environment for K-1-2, 3-4-5, and then in middle school the format changes slightly where the kids have a homeroom and an advisor for those three middle school years that is multi-age but attend classes with their respective grade level peers.

The K-5 classes sometimes split in half to pursue more specific levels of instruction. For example, the older half may do math while the younger half go off to dance class.

The K-5 classrooms have around 28 students and 3 teachers or a 9:1 ratio. The class teachers help the students "uncover" information in core subjects like reading and writing, and the students also benefit from specialists who teach math, Spanish, PE, dance, music etc. The K-5 kids get specials twice a week. A regular day in the classroom includes meeting, choice time, core subjects, and rotating specials.

HB already attends a preschool based in the British Infant System so the atmosphere at the British Primary school feels familiar, yet more casual and unstructured than the Country Day school. The British school is very much about family involvement and community building which I think really improves and enhances the experience for everyone in the school, particularly the child. The children seem to be engaged at both schools, and both schools seem like happy, thriving places.

At the end of the tour a current 8th grader sat on the panel to answer questions about the school. She was darling, articulate, and confident while answering questions about her experience at the school.

They both seem like great schools in different ways, and it is hard to compare the two at this point.

Two tours down, around five more to go. I will also be touring a local Episcopal school, a charter, and a few neighborhood DPS schools. Hopefully I can make sense of it all!