My girls are in an upper elementary school building, where it houses all the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in the district, ~1300 students in all. There are always problems with the administration and teachers and rowdy children, starting its 5th principal one in 10 years. DD1 is heading off to the MS next year and she's looking forward to it. But then we just heard there is a new principal, assigned half way through the year. Augh.
I grew up in a town where there were eight elementary schools that held students from K-8, ~ 900 students in the whole building. It was nice. Everyone got to know everyone else. A vice principal was assigned to the 7th and 8th graders but he also helped oversee the whole school so it was one cohesive environment. Not chopped up like the one here.
I would think handling a small group of tweens would be better than handling a massive amount. What about you?
My younger 2 kids homeschool(ed) through middle school (one is currently in 6th grade). My oldest went to a prestigious, by-lottery-only school from 5th -7th grades. The middle school goes from 5th-8th, but she chose to homeschool for 8th grade, then went to a public high school for journalism.
We live in a fairly small town where we have just 3 schools: Elementary with Pre-K to 4th grade, Middle with grades 5-8 and High School with grades 9-12. Our kids are in 8th grade so they are in their last year of middle school. The 5th and 6th grades are kept pretty seperate from the upper grades. Each grade has their own "wing" of the school for classes and lockers and lunch hours are seperate. The 5th and 6th grade go to lunch/recess at the same time but one grade goes to lunch first then recess and vice versa for the other grade. Same goes for 7th and 8th grade. Although 7th and 8th graders do have some classes together (gym, art, wood shop,etc.).
We have had very, very little turn over in administration and teachers over the years. We are lucky to have a wonderfully stable and supportive school system.
My 10 year old is in elementary school with about 500 students and my 12 year old is in middle school with approximately 600 students. All of our middle schools have about 3 feeder elementary schools. In our county we have 5 or 6 county high schools that have an individual middle school and we have two city high schools. They start off with smaller groups and work them into larger groups. Most pre-ks are in private day cares instead of in elementary schools. All of our schools have at least 1 principle and vice principle. The high schools have 2-3 VPs. Elementary schools are grades K-5, MS 6-8 and HS 9-12. We also have several charter schools in our area as well that have different focuses.
My son goes to a junior high. This year, it is 7th and 8th grade, but the school district is changing it so junior highs are 6-8th grade next year. There is about 200 kids in my son's 7th grade. The junior high is not our neighborhood school. My son attended a magnet elementary, and this junior high continues that magnet program.
Yard work
- mamavalor
on Feb. 21, 2013 at 6:51 AM