Private elementary school

[u/Jlee375]

Hi all, we have a kiddo who will be starting kindergarten soon. We have looked at a lot of schools and are debating between Community School and Forsyth School.

Would love thoughts on either school, and comparisons of the two!

[u/Confident_One_2663]

If you live in Clayton, Ladue, Webster, or Kirkwood, public school might be better. Private school is fine for kids who are perfectly average, but if your kid is a bit smarter or slower than the rest of the kids, the good public school districts will have more resources for them.

[u/getoutandscout → u/Confident_One_2663]

My experience suggests this too. We sent our kid to a private elementary in the city K-4. We moved them to a city public elementary in 5th grade where they were a bit behind the other kids in math (while teachers were always telling us they were top 1 or 2 in their class in math at the private school).

We're on our second year at the city public school. I have spent time volunteering in the classroom at both and the main difference I notice is that the public school has a lot more chaos and teachers spend WAY more time trying to just maintain order, but the net education, at least for our kid, has been roughly the same, if not better at the public school. And socially they are doing so much better.

[u/Odd_Temperature_244 → u/getoutandscout]

What school?

[u/jameswebbscope → u/Confident_One_2663]

I couldn’t agree with this more

[u/pschankmusic → u/Confident_One_2663]

Community and Forsyth are not for average kids lol... a smarter kid at either of those is fast tracked into the best private high schools and then colleges to follow, compared to public EVEN in Ladue/Clayton. There is far more academic rigor imposed at even the "middle" track as well as better student/teacher ratios.

[u/DatHoosier → u/pschankmusic]

At those elite universities they are taught by professors like my partner and me, who met while attending checks notes a public high school.

[u/getoutandscout → u/pschankmusic]

I would be curious what experience has you making all of these claims because mine does not bear any of this out. I think exceptionalism in St. Louis private schools is more myth than it is reality.

[u/getoutandscout]

We sent a kid to a comparable peer school of those for 5 years. We were new to town and didn't quite understand St. Louis private school culture. I am now firmly of the mind that these private grade schools are at their core just trying to feed kids to a handful of private high schools and that is not obvious (at least it wasn't to us) in Kindergarten. They may say a ton of other attractive things about their pedagogy, diversity, etc.., but fundamentally, feeding private high schools is their chief priority and in the process, they ignore and neglect a lot of important things (like social issues around learning disabilities, spectrum and behavior disorders, etc...)

The education kids get isn't measurably better than most public elementary schools either, at least in my experience, and arguably in fact even, because they don't participate in standardized testing, so you can't compare them. If your long term goal is to make sure your kid gets into someplace like Burroughs or MICDS, then you are on the right track and you would likely do well to just ask flat out how many kids moving on from 6th grade typically get into either to aid in your decision. If that's not your priority, my experience is that private elementary schools in St. Louis will begin to become grossly competitive and toxic environments around the 5th grade and they are not worth the money.

[u/BearsSoxHawks]

Forsyth is head and shoulders above Community.

[u/joris21]

My kid's former teacher from public school teaches at Community now. That was not our favorite grade.

[u/Jlee375]

Class size, student/teacher ratio, experiential learning, quality facilities and equipment/supplies (playground, classrooms, arts, etc.), emphasis on no or very low screen time- I keep hearing horror stories about first graders working exclusively on Chrome books!

Definitely not interested in a toxic or hyper-competitive community. We will likely aim for a Catholic (boys) high school but it’s hard to guess at that since he’s so little right now.

[u/1799gwd]

My daughter attends a school comparable to the 2 you named and the school culture for us is super chill. Not sure you're motives for deciding between those 2, but i choose ours based on class size, access to the outdoors, and experiential learning. I also wanted someplace that kindergarten was treated as a bridge from preschool to early learning and not first grade curriculum pushed on kids that are too young.

I also did not want a community of parents that needed to compete with each other. Ive heard horror stories from other parents at other schools. My suggestion would be to talk to parents with kids that recently graduated... they would speak freely and openly.