Private school?

[Cami]

Just curious... if your children are going/will go to private school (I'm thinking kindergarten and up)...

what are your reasons for choosing private school?
what type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc)
how did you pick the school you did? how many schools did you consider?
how much is the tuition?

[TtownAnne]

what are your reasons for choosing private school? DH's insistence, mainly. He is certain that if you pay to attend, it must be better quality. :rolleyes:

what type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc) Caroline will attend our local Lutheran school.

how did you pick the school you did? how many schools did you consider? We considered three different private schools (two Catholic, one Lutheran), and this was the one that had the best plan in place for working with kids above grade level, I liked their approach to discipline and encouraging independence without leaving kids who aren't ready for much independence floundering, their willingness to work at the kids' pace instead of working to meet benchmarks set by the state. I was most particularly impressed by discussing some of the problems that we had had at Montessori and the administrator being positively aghast and assuring me that such a thing would never happen there, they would certainly work in all ways possible with a nervous/timid child while still encouraging them to not feel that way, etc.

how much is the tuition? I believe it is around $4,300 a year, and then goes up around 5th grade.

[Clare]

What are your reasons for choosing private school? Both Alex and I went to private schools, it's what we know. Also the state schools in our area are huge and overcrowded as well as being toward the bottom of the socio-economic ladder :shuffle:

What type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc) Catholic

How did you pick the school you did? how many schools did you consider? We only considered the one for a few reasons. It's the closest one to our home, Alex went there as a child, it is small and one-stream and we like the community feel that that creates.

How much is the tuition? Off the top of my head around $900 per child per year.

[Mary DK]

How much is the tuition? Off the top of my head around $900 per child per year.
Wow Clare, that's awesome! :nod: If I could find a private school that charged that amount over here my kids would be going to it :nod:

[Clare]

Wow Clare, that's awesome! :nod: If I could find a private school that charged that amount over here my kids would be going to it :nod:

That's only primary school. Once they get to high school (7th grade) it goes up to around $6000 per child per year :faint:

[Eleanor]

What are your reasons for choosing private school? DH and the girls are Catholic. So for him, it's a way of life. We did consider other schools, but what finally made ME decide was that if they didn't attend Catholic school, they would have to attend weekly religious ed classes outside of school...and we've already got enough afterschool activities!

What type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc) Catholic

How did you pick the school you did? How many schools did you consider?
How much is the tuition? We only considered the one private school. Our other option was our neighborhood public school, or the magnet school (which looked really good...except I couldn't get over the fact that it's in a not so great area of town). Its around $2000 for the year...but that's because DH is a tithing member of the parish- otherwise it's close to $4000.

[Cami]

Clare, what does "one stream" mean?

to answer my own questions~~

*what are your reasons for choosing private school? We just bought a house that's in a school district with a not-so-good reputation. I'm not completely sure why we did this but that's another story. We never planned to go the private school route so this was a big adjustment for me. But after our kids' wonderful school experience last year in England, I wanted to replicate that kind of environment... small classes, small school, religious and moral instruction... and that's hard to do at a public school in a big city like Houston.

*what type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc) Addison will start K at a Lutheran school. A&B will switch over to there next year: Aubrey for K and Brady for preschool.

*how did you pick the school you did? how many schools did you consider? We visited four schools and probably would have looked at 2-3 more but those schools already had full enrollment. 1) Catholic school was way too rigid for us. 2) Christian school was very nice but expensive (and they had a wait list anyway) 3) Non-religious private school gave us a good feeling about the kids' emotional adjustment but I was concerned about the academic standards 4) Lutheran school that was very nice, very normal, very reassuring. We picked that one.


*how much is the tuition? It's $5400/yr for one non-church member student but they have a huge sibling and church member discount, so it'll be about $7000 total for all three kids when they go there full time. The cost is one reason we picked that school.

[Clare]

Clare, what does "one stream" mean?



The "stream" refers to the number of classes in each grade. So a one stream school only has one of each grade, two stream two etc. I like it cause it keeps the school small and family-oriented. There are a maximum of 28 kids in each age group. The downside is that if there is a kid (or teacher or parent :shuffle: ) that you or your child doesn't get along with, you can't get away from them by transferring to the other class!

[Alyson]

Brookelyn still has one year until she'll be in kindergarten but we already know where she'll be going to school. I've already looked into the different schools and our town isn't huge, so it's easy to know what schools are good and bad.

what are your reasons for choosing private school?
We really have a few reasons. One, being that the schools in our area aren't so great in a lot of ways. We want her to have religion included in her education, the school she'll attend is a Christian school through our church so we're very familiar with all of the 'goings on' and many of the parents, teachers and other faculty. Not to mention that the academics are excellent. We like their approach to discipline and also the extra time they seem willing to take with each child. We also wanted her in a school where the classes would be smaller than normal for CA.
Also, DH went to private school and the public school I went to was as close to being private as you can get, without having to pay tuition or wear a uniform (although w/our dresscode, we may as well have had uniforms)... so we both felt like private school was a better route.

what type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc)
She'll attend a Christian school.

how did you pick the school you did? how many schools did you consider?
We picked the school because it's the one that we decided was 'best' for Brookelyn. We considered 4 schools but in the past few months we've narrowed it down to the one.
how much is the tuition?
The tuition is roughly $4000 per year, this year (2007-2008). The tuition will likely go up a bit for next year, which is when Brookelyn will start attending. But, we will get a discount because we're members at the church.

[MrsPeacefrog]

What are your reasons for choosing private school? I went to private school and Tony went to public school, after comparing our education and opportunaties given to us it was obvious that I had a better education and was give way more opportunaties than Tony was. You do also find here that most public schools are of the lower economic group and can be quite rough, Aiden is currently going to a public preschool and after the taste of what that is like I know we have made the right decision on sending him to a private school.

What type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc) Catholic

How did you pick the school you did? how many schools did you consider? We considered 2 schools. As I did not grow up in this area we had to really on feedback from other parents in daycare/preschool. It also turns out that the school we are sending the kids to is run by the same "parish" as the one I went to as a child. As my mother works at the church that is connected to my primary school she was able to ask the principal there what this school was like and we got glowing reports on it. After doing a tour and seeing what it had to offer and seeing the children there we knew it was the one for us.

How much is the tuition? The school year for Aiden doesn't start till February so I haven't received the exact amount yet, but during the interview we were given an estimate of around $2000 for the year per child but each sibling that goes it gets cheaper and cheaper, the 4th child is free. I doubt we will still be in this area to actually utilise that once bubs gets to school age, but if we are it's a nice bonus!

[Joan]

what are your reasons for choosing private school? Better environment, better education. The public school in our area is average. I think a child can get a very good public education here but they have to be motivated. I'd have no problem sending Sean to the public school I teach at. It is fantastic.

what type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc) Christian based, the school was founded by missionaries but the Christian aspect is not really evident.

how did you pick the school you did? how many schools did you consider?
how much is the tuition? Pete is a teacher at the school and we could get a big tuition discount :) The other school we considered was a small Lutheran school with a big arts focus. Tuition is very high, no way could we afford it without the discount.

[Wendy]

what are your reasons for choosing private school?

This whole school thing is just about the toughest parenting decision we have had to deal with. I would love it if Abby could go to the public school across the street from our house. However, with everything I have heard about the public school system in Georgia in general I just dont think it is the place for Abby. I need her to be in an environment where kids can work at their own pace. I just dont think that the public school here is the place that is doing to do that for her.

what type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc)

Since Abby is doing kindergarten at montessori she will attend first grade at a new school. She still has to be accepted so right now we still have two options open. One we like a lot more than the other but it is also a lot harder to get into. Especially since we made the decision to keep her where she is and not get her one of the "kindergarten" spots. One is a christian school (our back up) and the other is just a very good private school.

how did you pick the school you did? how many schools did you consider?

We considered about 3 (distance with Atlanta traffic was the biggest factor) and picked the one we really want her to go to based on interveiwing, reputation, speaking with her current teacher whose husband teaches there and daughter goes there and feedback from one of her friends that started there last year.

how much is the tuition?

This is the part that sucks. $14,000/year for the one we want her in and if we got with our second choice about $8,000/year.

[Lora]

what are your reasons for choosing private school? Ed and I both attended Catholic elementary school so it was very important to us that the boys get the same kind of education that we did.

what type of school do they attend? (ie, religious, montessori, special needs, etc) Catholic elementary school in the Parish that we belong to.

how did you pick the school you did? how many schools did you consider?
how much is the tuition? Our Parish school has a great reputation and is very solid in a time when many of the Catholic schools around us are closing. Our school has the highest enrollment in the diocese so we never even considered another school.

How much is tuition? Tuition for all day kindergarten for Christopher and preschool 3 days a week for Patrick is costing us a total of$3500 for the year.