Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Fairfax, VA middle/high schools info request

Hello, I�m seeking advice or recommendations from anyone who has familiarity with schools in the Northern Virginia area. We may relocate there next year so I have begun preliminary house hunting.

The specific high achieving school districts on our current radar and within our financial reach are Woodson, Lake Braddock and Robinson. Our son will likely apply to Thomas Jefferson, but we can�t bank on the stars aligning for his acceptance there.

I would love to hear from anyone who has experienced these or other Fairfax County high schools. Thanks.
PMs would be welcomed!

Hi,

I am from there & graduated from Robinson many moons ago! My DD went there in MS until we moved but her BFF & other friends still attend. I'm definitely biased as LB is a big competitor but I'd lean towards Robinson or Woodson.

From things I've heard from friends in the last 3 yrs, LB has more gang issues. Not to be scary because it's a great area, just little pockets, kwim? I'm not as familiar w/Woodson but always heard great things about it when DD was at Rob. Robinson offers IB/AP & we were very happy with middle school there. It's a large school but most are in that area. LB has more not as nice areas that feed to it but my friend's son goes there & does fine too.

If you'd like more info, I can ask around & would be happy to give any help w/neighborhoods or point you in website directions for any area info.

We are in neighboring Prince William County which I think also has an incredible school system, however Fairfax is supposed to be wonderful. Only caveats there are next year's predicted large budget cuts due to decreased home values/taxes for the county - this might affect education spending in coming years. That is probably true across a lot of high spending counties in Va.
Fairfax gifted program is pretty hard to get into, from what I have heard at least at the elementary level. If your children are really way up there you probably don't have much to worry about. I know at least one person whose child was denied eligibility not so much because of scores, but because they have a # of children accepted cutoff - basically (and this is on their website) they collect all the scores and other info, and set the gt program cutoff at a different level each year depending on the scores of kids tested that year. So one year it could be 130, the next year it could be 135.
I don't think you have to actually live in Fairfax county to get into TJ - it is a state/governor's school so kids from other counties go there as well. It is supposed to be really really great!
We also have nearby us a Tech magnet school - they have an award winning robotics team and they are sending kids to some of the elementary schools to get teams going there. There is one in a nearby elementary school that just won a lego robot design/programming contest.
The area is of course wonderful for exploring nature (mostly to the west), checking out the city, having a job that doesn't go away with the recession...the benefits are amazing. Now is a great time to move as well, outside the beltway prices for housing are way down, if you are buying.
Herndon is very interesting, it is right on the greenway for jumping into work and they have a well acclaimed gifted school there, Nysmith, grades pk-8. It is loudoun county, however, and I don't really know about their gt program in the public schools.
I wish you luck wherever you settle!

Steph and Chris, Thanks for your helpful responses! My husband finally had time this weekend to get my computer�s internet working to a tolerable speed again.

I�m really interested in Robinson now, Steph. They seem to have an excellent selection of clubs and it may be the right choice since my kids play band instruments. The only detractor seems to be that they offer fewer computer science courses as compared to the AP diploma schools. It may come down to where we find the best home for the money.

You are right that this is the time to buy in that area, Chris. Unfortunately, we won�t be able to sell anytime soon here, so we will most likely lease our current home and buy (finance)conservatively there. Herndon has been mentioned to us by a few sources so we will look into it more closely. Thanks for the suggestion.

Regarding the difficulty of getting the GT label, I�m not sure what the gifted program could do for us at this stage anyways. I�m looking for honors and pre AP/IB courses for our DS12 and DD14, but I don�t think they would have to be officially labeled as GT for that placement, Right?

I appreciate your thoughts here. Thanks again for the information.

I am not aware of any gt-label requirement for taking the AP courses or applying for IB programmes. I am sure there are grade-level achievement requirements for AP. A student would have to get such and such grade in certain courses to sign up, but you probably are figuring on that.

Fairfax is very bustling and fun, Herndon is a bit more out in the country, but is a nice flourishing community with an historic downtown area, lots of decent restaurants and many large companies.

Hi,

Just checking back to see if your plans progressed at all? No, you don't have to be labeled GT for those. DD was in honors but never identified at GT in elementary. Her BFF is in pre-IB & has been in honors but not a GT only option.

Good luck & keep us posted!

Hey, thanks for your interest! Yes, my husband has been transferred, but, we are on the fence as to whether or not he will go as a geo-bachelor, at least for the first year.

There are many variables to consider including the difficulty of selling our much, much nicer home that we could possibly afford there and my part time job with actual responsibilities that could not easily be duplicated even in D.C. Also, my son made a comment the other day to the effect that he was upset that we had searched for the perfect school for him for six years and now that we found it, we have to leave. We really do love the schools they currently attend and I�m nervous about rolling the dice again.

However, I have been in contact with administrators from two schools in your former area and am very impressed with their willingness to discuss educational options to include even a first year schedule for our high school daughter. The public school educational opportunities and the flexibility of school administrators are quite different better than our area. After driving my kids back and forth between home and their distant private schools (and sports practices and meets/games, concert events, academic team competitions, etcetera) for a minimum of six hours per day, I�m thinking any house there would be fine, as long as it�s close to school!

I guess we�ll have a decision by summer.