Hello everyone. It is that time of year again when all the schools are holding open houses, school fairs and tours to attract new students for next year. We live in the city with a 4 year old daughter so we are in the thick of searching for the best options. We have truly been comforted and surprised by the number of great options we have.
Last week we toured the St Louis City Magnet Schools and found 4 we would be delighted to have our daughter attend. Of all the schools we looked at we found Kennard Classical Junior Academy, a Blue Ribbon School, to be our first choice by a very narrow margin. We were impressed with Dewey which focuses on International Studies. The kids from Pre K to 2nd grade have 30 minutes of a foreign language every day revolving between Russian, Spanish, French, German and Mandarin and are giving the opportunity to chose in 3rd grade which language they want to focus one and become fluent in. How amazing! We were also impressed with Mallencrodt which has two teachers that have been awarded teacher of the year awards. It was reassuring to have such great choices. If the St Louis Magnet schools are an option for you, you must act now! The deadline for applying for many of the magnet schools is this week, November 13th.
We were also pleasantly surprised to read that 1 in 3 of the children who applies to attend a magnet school is accepted. My perception has always sounded so hard and you have to be in a lottery and the chance of getting in is so low....when in fact, you have a 1 in 3 chance of getting in if you apply. I wonder if the fear of perception of it being so hard keeps many families from even trying? There are three families in our small neighborhood that send their kids to a magnet school and one child from our daycare also began attending a magnet school this year. All four of these families are thrilled with the education their children are receiving. We applied last year for the 3 year old program and did not get in. This is the hardest program to get in because it has the fewest number of slots. We are hoping to have success with getting in the 4 year old program and take comfort in know that we would still have another year to get her in to start kindergarten with her class if we are not accepted in the 4 year old program. Our application is already in and the lottery is in January which results being mailed out in February so we will keep our fingers crossed.
We also have some excellent charter schools in our area that we are very excited about. The two families that were at our daycare last year and now have children in our first choice charter school are both delighted with that school. It is another very appealing offer and one that several families from the county drive in to be able to send their children to. Lastly, there are many nice parochial schools that are available. The highest percentage of kids in our neighborhood attend St Margaret of Scotland School in Shaw. It is again a nice school with computers and smart boards in every room and a great student to child ratio. The families that we know who send their children here all speak very highly of the education and the social responsibility their kids are learning there.
We love our house and we love our neighborhood. We cannot imagine finding a better place to raise our daughter. The schools have been our biggest concern and we have done a lot of reasearch, touring and contemplating. We have many many options ranging from tuition free like the magnet and charter schools to moderately priced parochial and independent schools like St Margaret’s and The Soulard School that cost the same or less than what we are already paying for daycare, to off the charts expensive private schools.
Stay tuned to find out where Miss Rani will be attending next year. We are excited to have options and ready for this next adventure.
