Tag Archives: GFS

all-school heart small

3 Parents Share Why They Chose Greene Street Friends [School Selection Report]

Leave a reply

This is a snapshot of three parents’ school choices. You can read other parent testimonials and contribute your own thoughts. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

Parent #1

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered PreK

What neighborhood are you in? Fairmount

What schools did you consider? We considered doing the voluntary transfer for public schools and charters.  We looked at other private schools but found this to be much more affordable.

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Teaching Philosophy, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? The size (small) and the fact that it is a Friends school.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice?  When we went to see it and met some of the staff, it seemed to be a very gentle and nurturing environment.  Also, much more affordable as it only goes up $100 each year.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  Progressive

Parent #2

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered kindergarten

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Wissahickon Charter, Miquon, Germantown Friends, Perelman, Project Learn, Greenwoods

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Location, Teaching Philosophy, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? We heard great feedback from families who went there, plus that they focus on quality education and affordability.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? Quality education, school values and environment, strong teaching and leadership, relative affordability

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  progressive

Please share anything else about your experience We love the small school experience of Greene Street, the focus on educating the whole person, the excellent sense of community and commitment to diversity and inclusiveness that a relatively low tuition allows.

Parent #3

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2011/2012

Grade your child entered K

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Henry, Jenks, Greenwoods, Wissahickon Charter, Project Learn, and Perlman JDS

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Location, Teaching Philosophy, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? reputation

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? We wanted a school that was local, diverse, and offered a holistic view of child development. Cost was a factor as well.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  progressive

This is a snapshot of three parents’ school choices. You can read other parent testimonials and contribute your own thoughts. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

greenstreetmap

Why I Chose Greene Street Friends: 2011-06-06 School Selection Report

Leave a reply

This is a snapshot of one parent’s school choice. Help other parents–take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

Date Submitted: 6/6/2011

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends School

Calendar year your child entered 2009/2010

Grade your child entered PK

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Miquon, GFS, Penn Charter, Henry, Waldorf

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Location, Reputation, Teaching Philosophy, Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity, Special Programs (language immersion, music, etc.)

What first attracted you to the school? GSFS seemed to have a neighborhood feel to it. It is diverse and unpretentious.  When we asked around, we found a lot of CH, Germantown and Mt. Airy families from many different economic situations sent their kids there so it seemed like a nice mix of our wonderful community.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? The tuition is much more reasonable than many of the independent schools (and doesn’t start climbing steeply after kindergarten), and it still had all the things we were looking for: great teachers, great community, great values, an emphasis on making learning fun while teaching serious academics, a good after school program, active parent community, small class size, special programs (music, Spanish, sign language in Pre-K, etc.).  My son is now entering first grade, and I don’t regret our decision at all.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be your average Mt. Airy liberal

Please share anything else about your experience My only worry going in was that it would be too small down the road, and I couldn’t decide where he’d want to be in middle school or high school, but I am so glad I let go of this and just went with where I knew he’d be happy in the younger grades (and wouldn’t cost us an arm and a leg). The truth is that kids move around all the time (even at those K-12 schools), and if it seems like one year GSFS is no longer a good fit, we’ll just switch schools.  But for now we’ve found the perfect fit for our family, and I don’t see us looking for a new school for our son until high school.

GFS 2

3 Parents Share Why They Chose GFS [School Selection Report]

Leave a reply

Normally, these get posted one at a time, but three survey responses came in at once for Germantown Friends School and it made sense to combine them.

This is a snapshot of three parents’ school choices. Help other parents–take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

What school did you decide on? Germantown Friends School GFS

Calendar year your child entered/will enter 2007, 2010

Grade your child entered/will enter Kindergarten

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Henry, Miquon, Greene St, Penn Charter, Abington Friends

What factors were most important to you? Location, Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity, ethical values

What first attracted you to the school? Felt like a neighborhood-y school for our part of Mt Airy.  Quaker values were appealing.  Academic intensity seemed like potentially a good fit for our kids, though you never know.  K-12 meant potentially not having to go through application process again until college!!!

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? Most important was that we felt like the parent community was a community we wanted to be a part of — which we weren’t sure we’d find at a private school.  In particular, we loved the strong emphasis on non-consumer culture, social and economic justice, and (relative) economic diversity, which was not only present in the parent community but really strongly emphasized by teachers and school administrators.  We had hoped that would really be a prominent part of the school culture, and we have not been at all disappointed.  The proximity to our neighborhood and the fact that GFS draws heavily from NW Philly was also a big draw for us — no more driving 25 min to play dates.   Finally, we loved the teachers and the academic curriculum: in the lower grades, instilling curiosity and excitement about learning, very little homework, heavy emphasis on social and emotional development and letting kids be kids in the lower grades.  Looking forward to great science, social studies and humanities education in the upper school.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be Very liberal by US standards, about average for W Mt Airy

Please share anything else about your experience We have been very satisfied with GFS so far (our oldest is just finishing up 3rd grade).  Each year we have thought “well, we’d better enjoy this, because we couldn’t possibly have such a great teacher for our child next year,” and each year has been better than the last.  We’ve also been very satisfied with teachers’ and administrators’ response to our older child’s emerging learning and emotional difficulties.  Most importantly, HE still is in love with GFS.  Not sure if he’ll be able to manage the middle and upper school workload, but we’ll see.

What school did you decide on? Germantown Friends

Calendar year your child entered/will enter 2011

Grade your child entered/will enter 9

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Briefly considered a few city high schools but the distance was too far by train and bus and nothing was definite. Just like Len Lipkin, I went to my area school for 12 years. I lived in Pittsburgh growing up and attended St. Basil’s in Carrick from 1st through 12th grade. Where I went to school was never an issue.

What factors were most important to you? Location, Reputation, Teaching Philosophy, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity, student centered environment

What first attracted you to the school? The atmosphere of the school: I feel my daughter will benefit from the student centered classrooms and the challenging curriculum.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? Curriculum, safety, location, school’s reputation

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be Liberal Democrat

Please share anything else about your experience My professional life has involved education. I taught in the Pittsburgh School District and the School District of Philadelphia. I was an assistant principal and principal in the School District of Philadelphia. Much of my career involved middle school students.

There are many wonderful teachers, school staff, students and parents involved with the Philadelphia school system. What I feel could be improved upon is the focus which need to center on the education of all the students. All decisions should center on the educational impact of each decision So much is unpredictable when you enroll your child in a school. Change should be minimized during the school year. The planning needs to be done in the spring so that the school year runs smoothly. I believe the School District of Philadelphia could be one of the best in the nation. The parents in all communities want a strong educational program. Some do not know how to support it; others are willing to give their all to make their neighborhood school the best it can be. My question is “Why is it not happening?”

What school did you decide on? GFS

Calendar year your child entered/will enter 2011

Grade your child entered/will enter Kindergarten

What neighborhood are you in? Center City

What schools did you consider? CHA, Friends Central

What factors were most important to you? Reputation, Teaching Philosophy, Principal Quality

What first attracted you to the school? Listening to Dick Wade, the Head of School, address prospective families.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? Reputation for rigor, diversity, tolerance, and genuine adherence to Quaker values.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be liberal

Please share anything else about your experience School selection is a question of “fit.”  We predict that GFS will fit our kids better than any other we looked at.  Time will tell.

stpeters

Why I Chose St. Peter’s School: 2011-05-03 School Selection Report

Leave a reply

This is one parent’s opinion on why they chose St. Peter’s School. Help other parents–take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

Date Submitted: 5/3/2011

What school did you decide on? St. Peter’s School

Calendar year your child entered/will enter 2011-12, 2006-7, 2004-5

Grade your child entered/will enter Preschool, 3rd, 5th

What neighborhood are you in? Center City

What schools did you consider? Germantown Friends School, William Penn Charter, Friends Select, Springside

What factors were most important to you? Location, Reputation, Teaching Philosophy, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, K-8 environment, multidenominational

What first attracted you to the school? St. Peter’s School is located in safe and historic Society Hill, which is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the America.  We were first attracted to the school because the school is located in our neighborhood and having our children attend the school simplifies our already complicated and busy lives. For example, play dates with friends do not require driving and the residents of the neighborhood know and look out for the safety of our children.  However, as I learned more about the school, I realized that is a gem.  The school is over 175 years old, with a tradition of academic excellence and it is rich in unique, wonderful traditions such as May Day, Declamation and Folios.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? Although what primarily drew us to St. Peter’s School was academic excellence, there are many other critical factors which led us to select this school for our children including the protection of childhood which is afforded by a K-8 school, the 9:1 (or lower) student to teacher ratio which then builds confidence because there is no “back row” to hide in, the quality of the teachers, leadership and public speaking training, a focus on the classics (Shakespeare, Twain, Dickens, Austen), community service is woven throughout the curriculum and occurs on a weekly basis at least, the school welcomes a parent-school partnership in the educational experience, and the wonderful community and friendships that are gained upon enrolling.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be democratic

Please share anything else about your experience This school is known as a “process” school, one that guarantees a process by which each child has an individualized learning experience that challenges him/her to be their very best.  It is also a school that also develops the entire child, as conveyed by the school’s motto which is to “develop the child’s mind, body and spirit,” and thus does not solely focus on academics. At St. Peter’s School, the children learn to be good individuals: tolerant, respectful, honest, cooperative, kind and engaged in their community through service.  The curriculum and school are a structured environments: students wear uniforms and civility is expected. The St. Peter’s School experience will prepare my child to enter the professional world successfully.

This is one parent’s opinion on why they chose St. Peter’s School. Help other parents–take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

Germantown Friends School

Why I Chose Germantown Friends School: 2011-02-15 School Selection Report

1 Reply

This is one parent’s opinion on why they chose Germantown Friends School. Help other parents–take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

Date Submitted: 2/15/2011

What school did you decide on? Germantown Friends School

Calendar year your child entered 2005

Grade your child entered kindergarten

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? GFS, Miquon, Penn Charter, Perelman, CHA, Greene Street

What factors were most important to you? Location, Reputation, Teaching Philosophy, Teacher Quality

What first attracted you to the school? First and foremost we were attracted to the reputation for educational quality, particular the emphasis on teaching.  We also liked that the values-based education as well the quality of the non-academic programs.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? In addition to the foregoing, our general impression was that GFS would be the most “neighborhoody” of the schools we were looking at (i.e. the highest concentratoin of students from NW Philly).

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be liberal on a US scale, conservative on a Mt. Airy scale

Please share anything else about your experience We have been very happy at GFS.  The strengths that we identified when selecting it for our kids have proven out.  The teachers in particular have been great.  We are grateful that we have the ability to pay the tuition.

This is one parent’s opinion on why they chose Germantown Friends School. Help other parents–take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!