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  • Any Brooklyn Friends moms on? How do you like it? Saw it last week and it seemed really nice, but looking for btdts about experience there and how it compares to other schools in Brooklyn or downtown (like, LREI, or Friends, etc). TY!

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    11.20.09, 01:43 PM [ Flag ]

    • tell us more about your child, age, gender, interests, and I will try to provide helpful info about BFS (btw you don't need to give exact age, I am interested in whether you are looking at lower school, middle, or high, for example). I would not recommend the high school (or perhaps even the middle) to a very high scoring dc. In my experience BFS is not the best place for such students. I have known high scoring kids who were underachievers there, and had to go elsewhere to have their talents or abilities recognized or nurtured.

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      11.20.09, 01:55 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

      • IMO the lower school is better for girls than for boys, for example, there is a lot of time sitting and in recent years very young boys were given no recess (but lunch) until after 1 PM, and guess what, there were behavior issues with large numbers of the boys! Surprise, surprise! Last year in one lower school classroom about half the boys in that class left the school for other schools (public as well as private though, so some might have been financially motivated)

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        11.20.09, 01:58 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

        • this year the lower school class day was made LONGER with earlier arrival times, to accommodate more foreign language instruction. Why can't they make it longer to add more recess?

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          11.20.09, 02:01 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

          • OP, here: we have a dd, applying for K with very high erb. Thinking that there are other schools that might be better for her, but it did seem like a nice school, but because I know so little about it, wondered what current parents thought, etc. I couldn't quite get a handle on the curriculum while on the visit, either.

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            11.21.09, 10:29 AM [ Flag | link to this post ]

            • ^^Also: dd's interests are drawing, stories (she's starting to read), she's also very physical (does dance), very well-behaved (for the most part!). Probably pretty typical for a 4 1/2 year old.

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              11.21.09, 10:40 AM [ Flag | link to this post ]

            • It is a really nice school. Honestly, you don't see many BFS parents on here, but the school is an incredibly warm environment. When you go, notice how polite the kids are, even the middle school kids. Always hold the doors, etc. They have good science and art and my son was an early reader (started really reading at 4) and they have kept him totally challenged and engaged.

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              11.21.09, 11:48 AM [ Flag | link to this post ]

              • I think you would probably be very happy there and since your child is so young, anything can happen with the high school before your dd reaches that level

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                11.21.09, 07:01 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

      • OP, I'd take everything you read on this board with a grain of salt. To add another perspective, we are at lower school with a boy and really love BFS, as do every other boy's parents I know.

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        11.21.09, 11:42 AM [ Flag | link to this post ]

        • Can you describe the curriculum a bit and also what you like (or do not like)? TY.

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          11.21.09, 11:49 AM [ Flag | link to this post ]

        • one of the second grade classes lost quite a few boys this year, maybe 5?

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          11.21.09, 07:00 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

          • I don't think that is true. Unless they didn't replace them. 3rd grade only got 2 new students. Second grade got less than that, like 1 I think.

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            11.22.09, 11:44 AM [ Flag | link to this post ]

            • actually it is true, the kids are now in 3rd, I know 5: 2 went private (2 different schools) and 3 went public, but even among the public group it was not all financially motivated. I heard that BFS DID replace them, which is a good thing in terms of class balance (want equal numbers of boys and girls, or close to it), also in these times schools need to retain students so as not to have a hole in the budget.

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              11.22.09, 03:32 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

              • btw I know a third grader who left for a different private for 4th as well

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                11.22.09, 03:33 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

              • Why do they not show up in the new students directory then?

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                11.22.09, 04:43 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

                • some kids left, but class sizes did not change much, where are you looking in the directory?

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                  11.22.09, 05:55 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

                  • it would be a very weird directory that identified who is "new" that year! You can only tell by comparing with the earlier one!

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                    11.22.09, 07:53 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

                    • They publish a directory of new families. You wouldn't know about it unless you got one.

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                      11.23.09, 06:26 AM [ Flag | link to this post ]

                      • I wonder if they addressed the decrease in boys in that grade perhaps by holding back some boys one grade above? I wonder because this past year was the first time in my experience that the new contracts (for 2009-2010) did not specify what grade your dc was going into Spetember 2009. It was weird because in earlier years the contracts referenced explicitly BOTH the current grade level and ALSO the grade level for the next coming year (the one the contract was for). I was not thrilled to complete a contract that left open the option for my dc to be held back (if the school so chose), or even presumably to have dc put into a multi-age class. It seemed like a weird change but when I talked to other parents it seemed like ALL the new contracts were written the same weird way.

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                        11.24.09, 02:35 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

                        • I wonder why they did it, and I do wonder if any kids were held back. From what I read, parents did not seem to have any right to exit their BFS contract if the school decided not to promote the dc and told parents after the final deadline (which I think was very early, like some date in March)

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                          11.24.09, 02:36 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]

                        • but maybe the change in wording was just by chance, who knows? it is difficult to imagine any private school telling a parent at the end of a school year "your child is repeating this grade next year!"

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                          11.24.09, 02:45 PM [ Flag | link to this post ]
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