Move from London to NYC - request for advice
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Joined: Jan 2020
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Re: Move from London to NYC - request for advice
No idea about schools, but if you want to post a list of the areas you're looking at, I'd be happy to opine. I lived in Gramercy Park, Chelsea, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint, and I always explored a lot so I've got a pretty good idea of the character of most areas you'd want to be in.
The online school resources - Great Schools, Schooldigger, Niche, etc - can useful neighborhood screeners. They really just rank test scores, which usually indicates areas where kids are coming from ‘naice’ middle-class neighborhoods with a home environment that supports their child’s education, makes sure homework is done, areas with probably low crime and low rates of poverty. Don’t get hung up on shooting for 10/10 schools for what’s really just an affluence factor; any school with a 7/10 or more will almost certainly be fine - decently resourced through property taxes, with good equipment and programs for arts, sports, etc.
Your child’s actual experience, though, is unfortunately something that can’t be researched for as it’ll be entirely down to the teacher they get. My daughter - in a very highly-rated school - had a 3rd grade teacher that she LOVED, who really ‘got’ her as a person. But that teacher was very new, and not very firm, and let my somewhat lazy child get away with making very little academic progress that year. Still, she had a good time! The following year, she got a vastly more experienced teacher who was much firmer and a lot less personable and fun; academically she did ok, but it made it a year-long battle to get her to go to school each day as she hated being there. My son, on the other hand, would’ve loved a teacher like that, as he respects people who challenge him, and finds it motivating.
It’s a crap shoot, really, but on the whole picking any reasonably decent neighborhood will be fine. Your child will make nice friends for play dates, you’ll likely get along well with the other parents. Put ‘school’ in the box of ‘things you can’t really control for anyway’, and choose based on your other desired factors.
Your child’s actual experience, though, is unfortunately something that can’t be researched for as it’ll be entirely down to the teacher they get. My daughter - in a very highly-rated school - had a 3rd grade teacher that she LOVED, who really ‘got’ her as a person. But that teacher was very new, and not very firm, and let my somewhat lazy child get away with making very little academic progress that year. Still, she had a good time! The following year, she got a vastly more experienced teacher who was much firmer and a lot less personable and fun; academically she did ok, but it made it a year-long battle to get her to go to school each day as she hated being there. My son, on the other hand, would’ve loved a teacher like that, as he respects people who challenge him, and finds it motivating.
It’s a crap shoot, really, but on the whole picking any reasonably decent neighborhood will be fine. Your child will make nice friends for play dates, you’ll likely get along well with the other parents. Put ‘school’ in the box of ‘things you can’t really control for anyway’, and choose based on your other desired factors.