Finding Schools

Choosing a private school is a process with many parts to it. It also takes 18-24 months to complete. This collection of articles deals with the second part of the process in which you look at all kinds of private schools and see what they offer. I'll show you where to look for schools. I also introduce you to some of the things I think you should look for in a school.

What am I looking for?

If you don't know too much about private schools but are thinking that private school might be a good option for your child's education, here's how to get the search process started.

How To Search For Schools Private School Review has a robust search engine that will make your private school search process much easier to do. Here are some tips on how to use this tool.

Private School Search Tips We look at several ways you can use to search for private schools. Whether you are beginning the search process for a school for your child or just want to find out more about particular schools, we offer some tips and tricks to make searching more efficient.

The Search Process: A 5 Point Checklist Use this five-point checklist to keep your search for private schools organized.

This video offers an overview of The Madeira School in McLean, Virginia.

What kind

Google, Bing, and Yahoo will find anything you are looking for provided that you ask them correctly. The problem with these search engines is that if you aren't careful, you will end up with far too many results. And 99% of those results will not relevant to you and your needs. For example, when I search for "private schools" on Google, I get 1.5 billion search results. Nobody has time to look through all those schools. With that in mind, here are a few search tips to help you search more efficiently.

Save interesting sites.

Before we start searching for schools, take a few minutes to set up a Google or Word doc. Save interesting school websites for easy reference tomorrow, next week, or a month for now. Doing this will save you valuable time and keep your search process organized.

Use quotes.

When you enter the term private schools without quotes in Google, Bing, or Yahoo, you will get millions, even billions, of results. By surrounding your search term with quotation marks, you will restrict the results to precisely what you have specified. For example, "private schools raleigh nc" will produce a list of private schools in Raleigh, North Carolina. You will still have to filter the results to find schools which match your requirements.

Be precise.

If you are looking for Jewish schools in Nashville, Tennessee, enter jewish schools nashville, tn You will still have to filter the results, because depending on the keywords which various

Editor's note: In the following conversation, the parent is fictitious but her questions and my answers are real.

Parent: I am thinking about sending my teenage daughter to a private school for grades 9-12. How do I find the best school for her?

Rob K: Let me answer your question with another question. I know that I sound like an attorney by doing this, but I need to understand why you are thinking about sending your daughter to private school. Once you have told me your reasons, I will explain how to accomplish your goal.

Parent: My daughter's current school is OK. It's a public school which sends a large percentage of its graduates on to further education. So, that's OK. She's been with some of her classmates since kindergarten. Now I feel that she should be with other students who really want to learn. I also want her to be in smaller classes. She's one of 25 students right now. The other thing which concerns me is that the high school curriculum seems a bit thin, and is mostly focused on SATs and AP examination preparation.

Rob K: Now, you are giving me something to work with. Small class sizes are one of the main reasons most parents decide to send their children to private school. Most schools have 12-15 students per class. Your child will not just be a number in a small class. She will know everybody and everybody will know her. She

When planning your children's summer, you give yourself two gifts. The first is engaged, active, happy children. The second gift is the comfort of knowing that you are expanding their knowledge in an informal, supervised learning situation.

When I was growing up, my parents decamped every summer from Montreal to Woodlands, on the shores of Lac Saint Louis about 30 miles west of the city. They rented a cottage across the road from the lake. We took swimming and sailing lessons at the Woodlands Yacht Club and helped with the large garden, which provided vegetables and flowers during the short Canadian summer. It was idyllic and safe. The routine was pleasant and predictable. My parents were not wealthy. In the 1950s, a lower-middle-class family of seven could make summers like the ones I described above happen for a meager cost. Fast forward to the 21st century, that's essentially what the summer camps and summer schools that have sprung up over the past forty years do, namely, to provide an activity-filled day in a safe, well-supervised environment.

The most important caveat when selecting a summer program is to make certain that you understand all the aspects involved. Know everything about the quality of the activities, the supervision, snacks and meals, and all the other details. Assume nothing. Most schools and churches that run summer camps will be happy to answer your questions.

Now, let's look at options available at various age levels.

Elementary grades

Let's assume that your children's

https://www.privateschoolreview.com/the-hill-school-profile As you zero in on the best private school for your child, keep this list of reasons for doing so handy. The question you need to keep asking yourself is whether the fit is right for each of these attributes. You may not get all 15 items scoring 10 out of 10, but try to get as close as you can. Scoring these items is obviously a subjective matter. Remember that the schools which come closest to matching your requirements are the ones to which you should probably apply. Finding the right school is a process with a lot of moving parts. If you get one of these factors wrong, it won't kill the deal. It could, however, make your child's experience less than optimal. Here, then, are fifteen reasons why we think you should consider our school.

1. School size

Most preschools and nursery schools tend to be schools with a population of 75-100 students. Schools offering kindergarten through grade eight usually have a population of 200-500 students. As you search for schools on Private School Review, you will notice that some day schools show a student population of 800-1200 students. Our school includes prekindergarten through grade twelve. We have divided our student population into two divisions. Our elementary grades division and a high school division have their own administration and support staff. We may possibly add a middle school division in the future.

2. Religious emphasis

Private schools offer a wide variety of