forum Did/does anyone go to a private school?

Started March 07, 2018 by @Broken Princess

tune

One of my stories takes place in a private school but I've never gone to one. Can someone help me out? I've got a couple questions.

I do, but it's a Montessori school so it might not be the perfect comparison

I went to private school for elementary, middle, and high school, all religious, so I can field any questions you might have.

Were there any required courses? Were there different levels of a class (AP, Pre AP, on level) or was everyone put in the same class? What's the sports situation? What was lunch like? How strict were the rules? Were there certain credits one must acquire/classes on must take in order to graduate? What are the main, notable differences between a private and public school?

Please answer with as much detail as you like.

Ok, so,across the board, the only required class was religion. In my elementary/middle school, we received these little index cards called "church cards", and we were required to go to church every Sunday and get them signed by a pastor/priest/religious leader of some sort. High school was much less strict, but we had to take religion class every year in order to graduate, and they gave us this single bible that we had to keep up with all 4 years. Needless to say, our books were completely torn up by senior year.

My elementary/middle school was a K thru 8 (kindergarten to 8th grade), and there were only two (sometimes three) classes per grade. We weren't separated based on skill, only split between teachers so that they wouldn't get overloaded with kids. The only language they could afford to teach was Latin, because one of the math/8th grade teachers happened to know Latin for some reason. We had a basketball team and nothing else, and of course you only got in if you were good at it. Lunch was separated into three blocks: K thru 2nd grade, 3rd grade thru 5th grade, and 6th thru 8th grade. We all ate the same garbage, but it was free garbage. You were only allowed to bring your own lunch if you had a "doctor's note" as they called it, which was essentially proof that you had some kind of allergy or dietary restriction. You couldn't even bring your own drink, not even water as far as I knew, without one.

The rules were very strict, and the teachers were free to use corporeal punishment on us until around 3rd grade, when such a thing became passe. Every Wednesday was chapel (I went to a Lutheran school), were the first 2 periods were dedicated to a church service. I loved Wednesdays because it was an excuse not to do schoolwork. After lunch was always recess for about 45 minutes, which was held in the gym, or in the street that was blocked off in the warmer months. We had uniforms: the girls were only allowed to wear the dresses, skirts if you were in 6th grade or older. No hats, no jewelry except for gold or silver posts, and no excessive hair accessories. Definitely no make-up. No sneakers, either, only dress shoes with a heel no higher than half an inch (and they measured, too).

High school was a Catholic school, and whatever you may think about them, it's not true. Or at least, not anymore and/or where I went to school.We weren't taught by nuns who beat us for every little thing; we were taught by regular teachers with regular lives who just happened to be catholic, although I'm not even sure if all of them were. Gone were the chapel days; we only had a special mass every once and awhile on very important holidays, and that one time for the earthquake in Haiti because the majority of the student body was Haitian. Lunch was separated by year and the food was much better. We could bring our own food whenever we wanted.

We still had a uniform, but there were so many different choices that it almost different matter. There were like 6 different color shirts, 2 different sweaters, two types of hoodies, and a choice between a skirt or pants for the girls. We were allowed to wear sneakers as long as they were all black with black laces. We could wear jewelry as long as it wasn't too excessive, and were allowed to wear make-up (even the boys if they so chose). We had (girls and boys) basketball, track and field, and softball, and our men's basketball team was pretty alright. Our girls excelled in track, and the jocks were usually the nicest and most popular among us because they were so chill. We only had 3 (or 4' can't remember) AP course that were optional for seniors and not required to graduate. And all and all, the rules for high school were pretty lax; we were even allowed to go home if we had no more classes for the day, which blew my mind coming from the middle school that I did.

That's all I can really think of for now, but if you have any other questions, I might be able to think of more specifics.

i went to a private art school in elementary ^-^

I’ve gone to a private religious school. It’s from K-8.

1) Were there any required courses?
In elementary, all of our courses were necessary.
In middle school, we got to choose 1 elective for the last period of the school day. Those were Band, Art, Choir, or Study Hall (most kids chose this one). Otherwise, all classes were required. We had homework almost every night too (apparently they didn’t do this in public schools?).

2) Were there different levels of class or all in the same?
There were two homerooms per grade and typically 14-20 kids per homeroom. Classes were so small and you almost always stayed with your homeroom class. You always saw the same people each year, despite them mixing up who’s in which class.
Everyone was in the same level for the most part. In elementary, they occasionally split us up into groups for reading and math. In 8th grade, they put us in Algebra or Pre-Algebra.

3) Sports?
As an after-school activity, the earliest you could join was 5th Grade (or was it 4th?). For fall we had Football and Girl’s Volleyball. For winter, we had Girl’s and Boy’s Basketball. For spring, we had Softball and Boy’s Volleyball.
We also played sports in gym class. We had different units. We played Volleyball, basketball, and pickleball (the bootleg version of tennis) in the fall, badminton, and floor hockey during winter, lacrosse, and soccer in the spring.

4) Lunch?
Teachers would mark you as “Hot” (eating the school lunch) or “Cold” (bringing lunch) lunch while taking attendance. You could also mark down whether you wanted doubles for the entree. Grades went to the cafeteria at different times. You would walk down as a grade, separated by homeroom. You had to get three of the main food groups, one having to be a fruit or vegetable. At the end of the lunch line, a person would mark down if you took hot lunch or a carton of milk. Then you’d have to go to your grade’s section of tables.
In elementary, recess was after lunch. To prevent kids from wasting food and leaving to early, kids would have to wait for someone to place a cone (like a traffic cone) on their table.
In middle school, recess is before lunch so that the cafeteria doesn’t get too crowded. They have to wait for a teacher to come down and get them.
During the recesses, 8th grade cadets sit at the doors and eat lunch there. They let people in and out. It’s a crummy job, especially during the winter. I had to sit by the door in a dimly lit, freezing hallway with a random classmate for an entire semester.

5) How strict were the rules?
Our main rule system on conduct was the “Spartan Way” or being Respectful, Responsible, and Safe. They started handing out detention at 5th grade. Write ups happened for serious actions against those rules, or for repeated offenses. They were pretty strict about phone usage. You couldn’t use your phone on school grounds during school time.
Our dress code wasn’t that strict. We didn’t have uniforms or anything. As long as the clothes were modest you could wear it. No spaghetti strapped tank tops, no leggings, no skirts that were shorter than three-fourths of the thigh, or short-shorts.
In 8th grade, you had to be a cadet. They are pretty much hall monitors. Morning posts watched the entrances, helped out with carpool, and acted as crossing guard. Lunch posts watched the doors during lunch or monitored the upstairs hall. Afternoon posts helped the younger kids get to where they needed to be (bus, carpool, daycare, etc.)
In Middle School, if you have passing grades, no missing assignments, and no write ups, you could go to a water park at the end of the year.

6) Grade Requirements for graduation?
As long as you had passing grades, you could graduate. You didn’t need to have credits or anything. Our grading scale is a bit higher than normal schools.

7) Church?
The school is parochial, as in our school and church shared the same name. We went to church every Wednesday as a school. We also had religion classes almost every day.

I hope this helps!

Were there any required courses? Were there different levels of a class (AP, Pre AP, on level) or was everyone put in the same class? What's the sports situation? What was lunch like? How strict were the rules? Were there certain credits one must acquire/classes on must take in order to graduate?

So I've gone to a small religious private school PreK-12th.
Courses:
I don't remember much about elementary, but in middle school all the courses were required, but every month you'd get cycled into a different extracurricular activity which was either band (didnt last too long though cause our band director left & no replacement was found), creative writing, drama, or art. There were also 2 other optional classes, chorus and sports. If you did one of these you weren't put in the weird extracurricular cycle system our school had.

In high school it was slightly more lax. We had choices of courses we could take. Though everyone had to take so many math classes, science classes, etc. before they graduated they could choose which ones they wanted. The only required classes were: religon (1 every year), P.E for freshman, an extracurricular of your choice (which included computer, art, drama, sports, chorus, & journalism) (art was the popular choice because kids would goof off in it), study hall, 1/2 a semester of government, health, personal finance, & economics at some point in your 4 years in highschool. 2 years of language were also required though students had a choice of latin or Spanish. Also every other Wednesday grades & gender were seperated & would meet in certain small groups. (there 2 designated teachers for the specific small group would talk either about puberty, religious stuff, or any issues that may be going on, etc.)

Church:
I went to a Church of Christ school, so obviously Bible class everyday (except on Wednesday)was always a requirement. On Wednesday there would be chapel where we'd leave class for 30 minutes, sing, hear someone talk, pray, etc. Also there were no extracurricular activites after school on Wednesday because a number of the kids would go to church/youth group on Wednesday after school.

Levels:
Most people were put in the general courses, with about 14-20 students per class depending on what the class was (I say depending on the class because there were times where there were literally 3 students in a class). My middle and high school did offer AP and dual enrollment courses. They were optional, but recommended if: your grades were good enough, if you could handle it, & a teacher in the normal level of the subject could vouch for you doing well in the subject. AP & DE courses generally had less people in them cause they were more difficult (duh) & not a lot of people wanted to deal with them. There was also a specially taught class for students who had disabilities or trouble learning like the others.

Sports:
Sports were available to middle school and high school students who wanted to take them. My school offered: baseball, softball, girls & boys basketball, girls volleyball, track, later went on to have a boys soccer team, cheerleading, & of course the biggest sport was football. I believe for all the sports you had to pay a fee for equipment, uniform, & other stuff (?) (I never did any sports so don't quote me on the last bit). I'm not kidding when i say probably 80-90% of the extracurricular budget the school had went to sports, and more specifically football. As someone who was in both art and technically drama I can say a lot of us were salty about this, because we had close to no budget while football got a brand new stand for the field (the old one was perfectly fine) & equipment. Our sports teams were pretty good, but the football team was probably the best cause they won state & the school even gave high schoolers the day off to go to the state championship game. I believe there was sports practice either everyday after school or every other day. Sports schedules typically didn't collide with school schedules. If someone was making either 2 D's or a F in a class they would be suspended from sports for 2ish weeks(?). After the 2 weeks some of the faculty would look to see if the grades improved & if they did they could return to sports, but if not they'd be suspended another 2 weeks. & so on & so forth until the grades eventually got better. Home sports games happened usually around 5 ish & were free to students from the school, but a lot didn't stick around for them unless: thier friend/family was in it, they had nothing better to do, or it was an important game. Most people stuck around for the home football games cause they were usually on Friday. I don't know much about away games cause I never bothered with them. Half of the people at the home football games didn't even go to watch, they just went to buy concessions and hang out with any friends who may be there (myself was included). When it came to sports the only day that could get everyone excited was the homecoming football game. Obviously it would be a home game & everyone & thier family would show up in school colors to cheer on the team. The Homecoming Game would be the biggest sports event in the school.

Lunch:
Ok I'm one of the lucky kids who's school lunch was actually really good. Usually the grades would take turns and eat lunch at different times for about 30-45 minutes each. Elementary started off the lunch cycle & it would go up from there. Lunch was eaten in the cafeteria & clean up would be done be specific classes, & this rotated every week. Even though we could sit wherever we wanted, typically a person would sit by thier friends and they had specfic unspokenly 'claimed' tables they would sit at every day. Lunches served in the cafeteria changed day to day, but always had grilled chicken available for kids who didn't like what they were serving. Friday there would always be fries and domino's pizza, the rest of the days were random. Kids could pay either with cash or the money on thier lunch account that was under thier name. By far the most popular food day my school had was poppyseed chicken day. It was the best meal the school served and everyone would always get 1 or 2 orders of it when they had it. The school always made several large batches of it, but it would always run out. Lord forbid you got stuck behind the football players on poppyseed chicken day. You may as well kiss it goodbye at that point, cause each of them would get a minimum of 2 servings. They eat so much it's not even funny (I once witnissed a football player inhale 2 slices of pizza, 3 chicken patty sandwhiches, a thing of fries, & he even went back for dessert to my horror). Seniors had some benefits when it came to the high school lunch rush. Not only were they released 15 minutes early for lunch, but they could eat in the commons area instead of the cafeteria. Also if thier grades were good enough, every Friday they could leave campus to eat for an hour (compared to thier usual 45 minute lunches the other days )if they wanted.

Rules:
Ok so like any private school there was dress codes. Compared to other schools, they weren't horrible but still annoying. Some things were upheld, but other things were lax. Like even though our polos/blouses were supposed to be tucked in, almost no one would do it unless word got around that the principle or some other faculty was going around and doing uniform checks. Uniforms for guys were: khacki capris or pants, orange white or navy polos with brown black or tan belt, shirts tucked in, must be cleanly shaven, closed toed shoes, no really long or wierd colored hair, no hats, no really big logos on any sweatshirts/ jackets unless they were from the school, sweatshirts also had to be school colors, or black/gray/neutral colored. Unifroms for girls: either school specific plaid skirts or khacki pants, skirts couldn't be a credit card length shorter than the knee, closed toed shoes (no heels allowed), white button up blouses or polos, same policy with sweatshirts and hats, belt if pants, makeup had to be light, no wierd hair colors or other flashy stuff you could do to it. Every friday was jeans & spirit shirt day (optional but most particpated cause jeans).

Obviously stuff like drugs, weapons, alcohol, etc. were a no go, and those were strictly enforced (punishment could be suspension or expulsion). Write ups & detention were a thing in both middle & high school. Also you were allowed 3-4 tardy slips per semester & if you exceeded that you got a detention. If you skipped out on a detention, you'd get another one & a saturday school. Technically no phones, but as long as they were silent and you weren't using them in class you were good (though people would use them anyway sometimes, especially during study hall & lunch). Headphones were also something we weren't supposed to have, but it depended on the teacher (ppl would hide them though anyway if the principal came around doing checks). So yah lax on some things within reason, & strict on others.
Also seniors who had certain grades at the end of the year could skip the exam in the specific class & get an automatic A.

Graduation Requirements:
Both middle & high schoolers needed passing grades obviously. High schoolers also had an extra requirement though. They had to have had accumulated 60 service hours within thier 4 years of high school to graduate.

But yah that's my experience, sorry this ended up so long.

I went to a private school for all of high school. Required courses were technology (it basically showed us how to use the internet, how to cite, etc. etc.), general health (sickness, disease, etc.), sexual education, fitness (we got CPR and first aid training and tried different sports), drugs/alcohol course (talking about addictions and abuse and the like). We also had to take one leadership class every year. There were year/grade specific leadership classes. There were also required humanities courses. So, we didn't have English or history classes we had humanities which, essentially, is a mix of the two. We had to take at least one every term/semester (terms were 4x a year and semesters were 2x… some classes also varied in hours/length). We could sometimes choose what KIND of humanities course, but in the end, it was still humanities. We also were required to participate in an afterschool activity, but if we didn't choose one we were forced to exercise in the gym on campus at LEAST 4 times a week.

There were different levels of classes… there were normal (which were roughly the same as a public school AP class) and then the AP classes which varied in difficulty depending on the teacher. We had a variety of sports like archery, football, hockey, horseback riding, speech, theater, lacrosse, tennis, really anything you can think of. There were three lunch times (A, B, C) and it varied what lunch we had depending on what our class at the time was scheduled to go to (i.e. I could have A lunch on Monday but B lunch on Tuesday). We also had a cafeteria we called the dining hall. And this was a co-ed school, but there were "technically" two separate schools (girls and boys). The only difference was uniforms, leadership positions, rules, some meetings, and how some staff members treated us. But generally, we all took the same classes. I can't think of any that were gender separated.

Rules were VERY strict. Especially for the girls… for the boys too, but they were a different case (but that's another issue. If you want specific examples, feel free to message me or something, haha). The biggest rules we had were curfew, skipping classes/meetings, town visitation, and uniforms. We had to complete a community service project to graduate and take required classes.

This is awesome, thanks guys! Feel free to add more if you'd like.