I have no first hand experience with CV schools. A guy I know who lives in CV put his kid in Cathedral because he did not like the level of attention (low) given to the athletics and ‘average’ kids in the kid’s public school. So that’s probably a positive for you.
My experience with Poway Unified is that things differ between schools and between teachers. I’m more satisfied with Stone Ranch in 4S than I was with Highland Ranch or Shoal Creek in Carmel Mountain. The curriculum (at least Math & Science) for the first grade is borderline trivial and pretty much all the kids can perfect the tests. All but two kids in my kid’s class did 25/25 on a recent test. The other two kids were 24/25. So the teachers probably have some freedom in choosing the materials. My daughter’s teacher uses several resources that are more challenging than the standard Math Expression edition. She uses Evan-Moor’s Daily Word Problems and that is more serious than pattern completion and bean counting covered by the Math Expression books. (e.g. “how tall would two and a half monkeys be if a monkey is 6 feet tall” – not trivial for a 1st grader in October)
I know that at least one other teacher is using the same material. I also know that at least one teacher does not.
There is GATE and all the kids in the school have access to Compass Learning. For the 1st grade the use is optional and they are not graded on that, for the older kids it’s mandatory.
They are doing the Science Fair this year, for the first time, and they seem to be taking it very serious (I was frustrated with Highland Ranch experience where my daughter’s kindergarten teacher did not even show up for the Fair).
My kid is an advanced reader/writer. She turned 7 a month ago and she read all 5000+ pages of Harry Potter books and she memorized all the spells (she also taught her 3 years younger brother some). According to the teacher she is at or near the top of the class. She’s ok with math – she can solve linear equations with integers (including negative), do word problems and she knows what the sum of interior angles in triangle is, in degrees (she’s not really getting the radians). According to the teacher she is near, but not at the top of her class. As the national champion in mathematics through my entire middle/high school I was slightly upset to hear that, but at the same time I was pleased by the fact that she is being challenged.
She plays chess and she can strategize, but her game is not breathtaking.
I don’t think she is gifted at a news-worthy level. I attribute much of her success to the work my wife does with our kids. Having three kids kind of helps to lower expectations – there just isn’t enough time to promote all three of them to sainthood 🙂
Overall I am satisfied with the school. My biggest frustration is that they do math after lunch, at the end of the day. This semester the after school tennis classes were canceled due to lack of interest, but science and chess aren’t. That tells you something about priorities of the parents.
