SL100

Dear All

In a possible relocation to the US I will be working in Stamford. Many have suggested Fairfield town within Fairfield County as being generally a good place to live with my three young children (all under 5 yrs of age). I have a few questions I am hoping you can help me with in terms of education and school.

Question 1
I understand that when applying for elementary schools, the school you are given is dependant upon where you live. How would I know the maximum distance is from each school that you would need to be in (i.e catchment area).

Question 2
I have looked on the website for the Connecticut State Department of Education website and I cannot seem to work out what the application process is i.e. when and how you apply. Also what is the process when one moves to an area once the academic year has already started?

Question 3
Do you have some form of rating system/assessment method in the US by which I can ascertain how well schools are performing etc. If any of you have any personal experience - good or bad - of the elementary schools in Fairfield I would really appreciate it if you could share them with me.

Thanks

Bob

You look at the school district website, or whatever they call it for that state and you will usually find a listing under each school that will say exactly what street will go to what school.

There is no application process as such, you contact the school or the town school district and there you go, you're in the school.

You generally do need to provide vaccination history for the kids and certain vaccines will be needed to be admitted, those you can find on the state education site.

There isn't a national curriculum as such, to which you can rate schools, but if you search out the numerous other threads about schools and probably about CT itself, you'll find quite a few good links to guides to schools.

http://www.greatschools.org/ That I think is one that comes up a lot, but city-data.com will have a lot of info about the town no doubt too. I'm sure you've already been given that link though.

penguinsix

This is our wiki on schools

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Educat...s_in_school%3F

Many real estate ads tell you what school you would go to with that property. realtor.com has it I think and so do many others.

http://stamfordpublicschools.org/ is the "school district" for Stamford (i.e. the authority that runs the schools). State education just set standards and it is up to the local school district or school board to implement the details (i.e. curriculum arrangement, school maps, etc).

Here is a street to school lookup

http://stamfordpublicschools.org/con...8/default.aspx

Ruth16

Best schools in Fairfield County Ct are Wilton, Greenwich,Darien and New Cannan.

Brat1

When we moved here, we already knew what schools the kids would be going to and I contacted them via e-mail to tell them when we would be arriving. My 2 youngest ones (one was going to Elementary and the other was going to Middle School), had to go and sit a kind of entry test, so that they could see what stage they were at, but I also requested that they be placed with kids their own age, which they did, and they both have got on well with the curriculum. It's probably going to be easier for you because your children are younger and don't know any different, so the transition should be slightly easier.

As for the schools rating, the others have already given you the links which you need. If you're looking to rent a property, have you got a realtor working on this for you?? Our Realtor was great, and did all the legwork here for us, as obviously, we were still in the UK, and she managed to get us a rental which suited our budget/family size and location.

Good luck with the move, if you need any more help with regards to living in Connecticut, let me know

WEBlue

I think the OP means the town of Fairfield, not Fairfield county. Confusing.

I have a friend who lives in Fairfield town & loves it. She wants us to move there. She says all the Fairfield elementary schools are very good. Her kids attend Stratfield Elementary school.

In her opinion, the middle schools & high schools are top-notch too, even though some say Fairfield's two high schools (Warde & Fairfield Ludlow) rank somewhat lower than high schools in some of the wealthier towns to the west (Westport, Greenwich, Darien). I don't know if you plan to stay on till your kids are in high school, but it's good to investigate this anyway, especially if you're buying a house & are interested in its resale value.

As Bob says, the city-data Connecticut Forum is an excellent place to post such questions as this . . . .

Nutmegger

Ridgefield HS is 3rd best in the state and also in the national top ten. Lower grades are also excellent. Redding is also one of the best districts in the state.

Ruth16

Yes Ridgefield schools are excellent, I love the town also, I'm not too crazy about The town of Fairfield though

Brat1

I like Redding but have no clue about Fairfield.... I think a lot of the schools in CT seem to do quite well, although I've never really researched it apart from locally to here

Nutmegger

Seconded! There are many more-pleasant towns in the area -- and ones where there won't be a daily slog down I-95 to Stamford in the traffic.

WEBlue

Would you mind explaining what's amiss with Fairfield? I have mixed feelings about it myself (the parts close to Bridgeport, for one thing), but my Other Half would definitely agree with you both. He dislikes it--too much shopping, he says, LOL! I don't quite understand why some people love it so much, but we know some folks with children who say there's a lot to do there for the youngsters in Fairfield that isn't available in some of the smaller, more exclusive but perhaps more rural, towns that have been mentioned.

Agreed about I-95! It's horrible in rush hour!! Not sure the Merritt Parkway is any better, may be worse because it's a narrower road though it's much prettier. The OP is probably FAR wiser to explore other ways--like the train--to get to Stamford if he really wants to live in Fairfield.

dinosaur

The more exclusive towns are exactly that...you have the pros and cons of living among rich people :-)

I work with a number of people who do the Fairfield-Stamford Merritt commute - it's certainly (usually) less than an hour, which for FFC isn't too bad, although there will be bad days. Also, depends where in Stamford the office is whether I-95 or the Merrit works best.

Nutmegger

Could be just personal preference -- it is more urban than the towns in Fairfield County that I have lived in; to me the houses aren't as nice (generally speaking -- there are, of course, gorgeous places down on the water that are financially way out of the equation for most of us!); homes too close together; the town too close to I-95; just somewhat grittier overall.

Ruth16

There's quite a lot of English people in Fairfield county, mostly from the South of England ,bit snooty when they hear my Yorkshire accent, I can tell they don't want to strike up a conversation , I hear quite a few in the supermarket and I just have to hear one word to know there English .

In all the years im here still the Americans always ask me what part of Scotland I'm from...dosent bother me at all, I can't tell the difference between Americans and Canadian accents.

Bob

It's less the accent, more the use of certain words and sounding like a dunce

You tend to pick it up a lot more if you've lived near the border though, aah