I wasn’t thrilled with our local elementary school - no recess and seemed very serious and academic for 4 and 5k and very large classes so we’re pursuing parochial school. What should I ask?? I’m going to ask for an average daily schedule because I want to make sure there’s outside time. I will ask about curriculum and teachers and class size. What else????
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Ask about homework!!!
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No recess is awful
Yes homework is a great indicator! For kinder last year all we were asked to do was read nightly - many weeks our teacher sent home book bags with a variety of leveled books which was helpful. And one “book report” where they had to draw a picture and get up and talk about their favorite part of a book. Part of it will be your teacher, it varied among different classes at our school.
It should be part of the answer to your schedule question but I’d want to learn about how they do specials - art, music, gym and some places may offer languages or other options. Also after care if that is something you need.
Could also be worth asking about pta and parent involvement. So many of the great things at our local school are funded/organized/staffed by our pta and parents make a huge difference in the feel of the school and what events they can offer for the kids.
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@gotkimchi: here are some question to consider:
-what is the approach to discipline?
-what supports do they have for children with special educational needs (there is a lot of variability in what private schools offer for this and even if you don’t have this need now you don’t know about the future)
-what is the primary focus of their teaching—critical thinking? Test scores? Is it experiential project based or more old school worksheets and drilling? What are you looking for?
-for a parochial school, how does the religious component work? (I am catholic, we looked at our parish school but didn’t ultimately choose it...however I had a good conversation with the principal about dogma vs. acts of service type focus if that makes sense) -
If you want outside time and you are looking at a private program, have you considered looking for a program at a nature center?
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@JCCovi: @bhbee: @MamaCate: thanks everyone this is all excellent and exactly what I was looking for!
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@looch: I have looked in the past since I’ve seen that talked about on here before but the nature center in our area doesn’t offer anything and I wasn’t able to track anything else down
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@gotkimchi: Got it!
I hope you find what you're looking for. It's not easy.
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