Choosing a Private School

One of the components of a quality private school education is sports. A great many private schools offer athletic programs which rival many colleges and universities. Lest you get the wrong idea, academics are paramount in a private school experience. But private schools truly do adhere to the ancient motto mens sana in corpore sano - a healthy mind in a healthy body. Consequently even the most unathletic students in any private school community are required to do some kind of sports on a regular basis. Many boarding schools have a half day on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The afternoons are given over to athletics.

Athletics are one part of a comprehensive program most schools adopt to educate the whole child in mind, body and spirit. What do you do if your child is not athletically inclined? Don't worry. Schools are accustomed to students with just about every background you can think of. Your child will surprise you after a few weeks at school by exclaiming "Mommy! I love sprinting!" If you live within driving distance of her school, even better. You can attend games. We used to enjoy driving up to the old girls' campus of Kent School on Skiff Mountain to watch our daughter play field hockey. The toughest issue with boarding school athletics which she will encounter is which ones to select.

The intramural and varsity sports attract enthusiastic squads and are very competitive. They practice and compete in fine facilities. Check out the athletic programs

Use this checklist to keep track of your questions and answers to those questions as you visit each school on your short list. There is a lot of information to assimilate as you make those important visits. It will be easy to forget details unless you note them promptly.

School Demographics

• Day or boarding
• Coed or single sex
• Number of students
• Number of boarders
• Number of day students
• How diverse is the student body?
• Number of faculty
• Student-to-faculty ratio

Administration and Faculty

• Administration and Faculty
• How long has the headmaster/principal been in office?
• How large is the endowment?
• The financial condition of school (Excellent to marginal)
• Number of faculty with advanced degrees
• Staff turnover (If turnover, why?)

Curriculum and Instruction

• Curriculum and Instruction
• IB offered?
• Number of AP courses
• Teaching methods (Harkness, classical, etc.)
• Is technology integrated into teaching?

Religious Emphasis

• Which denomination or faith?
• Intensity of observances (relaxed to mandatory)

Campus and Facilities

• General Appearance
• Athletics facilities
• Sports programs
• Arts facilities
• Arts programs
• Security and safety

Location

• Urban? Rural?
• Convenient? Isolated?

Admissions

• Deadline
• Is staff helpful?
• Policies and procedures
• Shadowing permitted?
• Overnights?
• Quality of visit and tour

Financial

• Tuition Fees
• Sundries
• Financial aid offered

Notes

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Many parents agonize over sending their teenagers to boarding school or keeping them at home and sending them to day school.

Key Considerations

• The issue you really need to address is the quality of supervision you are able to give your children after school and on weekends.
• Let's face it, modern parents lead very busy professional and social lives.
• If you aren't around to see what's going on, do you know what your teen is up to?

The Advantage of Going to Boarding School

When you send your child to boarding school, you are buying the whole package: academics, athletics, social life, extracurricular activities, and 24/7 supervision all rolled into one.

• That's just part of a boarding school's DNA.
• It is an incredibly good deal for many thoughtful parents.

Of course, she will miss her mother and father, her siblings, her own room, and all those other special things she knows and loves.

• But the truth is that she will be off to college anyway in a few years.
• Getting a head start on leaving home is not a bad thing. It will pay huge dividends in later years as she has had to learn to cope and adjust to new circumstances at an earlier stage in her life.
• Teaching her to be independent is a good thing.

Living in a boarding school essentially prevents your child from being anonymous.

• She will be part of the school community.
• She will be engaged in its activities, academics,

The question and answer on the Bay Area Private Schools site says it all:

Q. Is there a ranking on California private schools?

A. There is no ranking on private elementary schools. Since the key to rewarding private school education is finding a good match for your child's specific needs, parents should not make their decision solely based on test scores and reputation.

So, the answer to every parent's question "Which is the best school for my child?" is a very ambiguous attorney's answer: "It depends!" What does it depend on? It depends on your requirements.

Overview of Sidwell Friends School

This video offers an overview of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.

What are your requirements?

You and your child will have different requirements, of course. You will be looking at test scores of a school's graduates, the colleges to which they matriculate, the quality of the faculty, how competitive the admissions are, and so on. Typical adult benchmarks.

She's more concerned with what kind of kids go to the school, what her social life will be like, whether she can bring her horse to school, how much homework there is, and how difficult the work is. Typical teenage concerns.

What you must do to determine the best school for your child is to examine and discuss all the things which matter to you both. This is not a discussion that can

Private schools learned a long time ago that small is good. Why? Because parents wanted more personal attention for their children than they could get in most large public schools. They didn't want their children to be a number. They didn't want their children to be anonymous. So in small schools teachers and all the other staff members would know students by name.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance offers more reasons in support of small schools: "One of the most effective ways to improve student achievement and curb school violence is to reduce the size of the nation's schools. Hundreds of studies have found that students who attend small schools outperform those in large schools on every academic measure, from grades to test scores. They are less likely to drop out and more likely to attend college. Small schools also build strong communities. Parents and neighbors are more likely to be actively involved in the school. The students benefit from community support and the school, in turn, fosters connections among neighbors and encourages civic participation."

This TEDx talk describes using innovative teaching methods in the K-12 classroom.

Low Student-to-teacher Ratio

Most prep schools or schools offering Grades 9 through 12 have a student population of about 300-400 students. Some schools are even smaller. As well, most PK-6 elementary schools tend to be small. Of course, you will find larger and smaller schools.