Does anyone have a child at Tuscaloosa City Magnet School?

[Meghan Kornegay]

Our son will be going to the magnet school this fall. I would love to hear from anyone who has any experience with it. We would love to know more about what to expect. Thanks

[Vanessa]

Meghan -- what do you think of the Magnet School? We're considering it for next year. Any input?

[Nicole White]

This is my daughter's first year and we love it so far! She has been much more challenged this year. Last year in Kindergarten she was bored. They do a lot of hands on, various styles of learning, including some projects. The principal Mrs. B is awesome! My daughter has Ms. Speight for 1st grade and we love her. They have Spanish, computer and art or music all once a week. They also do something called UA Partnership where students from the University come and teach them once a week...they get to choose from several topics. This semester she is doing violin! And last semester she had zoology. Her class has been to children's theatre a couple of times and to McWane in Bham recently. They also did a cool field trip to learn about Tuscaloosa where they went on the Bama Belle and visited the fire and police dept., etc. I think the biggest difference in the teaching is maybe that all the subjects are sort of integrated together, if that makes sense. PE and lunch are pretty much the same as the other schools. They have opportunities to do some extra stuff during after care, but she doesn't stay for that. Anyway, hope this helps! Be sure to attend the open house that they will have for new students - they will send out a postcard with details. The PTA will serve a meal and you will get a tour and get to meet teachers, etc. I think that happens in late spring. :) FYI, they are working on getting their IB certification (kind of like AP) and since Central has the IB stuff at the high school level, the kids at Magnet can go there for HS if not zoned to continue in the IB program.

[Vanessa]

Thanks so much for the input! Mine is in kindergarten this year, and she really likes her current school -- Verner -- so we're really torn. Where was your daughter?

Nicole White said:

This is my daughter's first year and we love it so far! She has been much more challenged this year. Last year in Kindergarten she was bored. They do a lot of hands on, various styles of learning, including some projects. The principal Mrs. B is awesome! My daughter has Ms. Speight for 1st grade and we love her. They have Spanish, computer and art or music all once a week. They also do something called UA Partnership where students from the University come and teach them once a week...they get to choose from several topics. This semester she is doing violin! And last semester she had zoology. Her class has been to children's theatre a couple of times and to McWane in Bham recently. They also did a cool field trip to learn about Tuscaloosa where they went on the Bama Belle and visited the fire and police dept., etc. I think the biggest difference in the teaching is maybe that all the subjects are sort of integrated together, if that makes sense. PE and lunch are pretty much the same as the other schools. They have opportunities to do some extra stuff during after care, but she doesn't stay for that. Anyway, hope this helps! Be sure to attend the open house that they will have for new students - they will send out a postcard with details. The PTA will serve a meal and you will get a tour and get to meet teachers, etc. I think that happens in late spring. :) FYI, they are working on getting their IB certification (kind of like AP) and since Central has the IB stuff at the high school level, the kids at Magnet can go there for HS if not zoned to continue in the IB program.

[Nicole White]

She was at Woodland Forest. We really liked it there too. But, when the opportunity came up to apply, we thought that TMS would be good for her academically. She missed her kindergarten friends, but we actually see some of them from time to time. Of course now she has lots of new friends in addition to the ones from WF that also started at Magnet this year. So I guess my suggestion would be if you feel like maybe your daughter needs more accelerated or diversified types of learning, then definitely check it out. If you are happy with where she is and how she is learning there, then maybe consider just staying put and allowing the other kids to apply for those spots? They are very limited because there are only 60 students per grade. Hope that helps! :)

Vanessa said:

Thanks so much for the input! Mine is in kindergarten this year, and she really likes her current school -- Verner -- so we're really torn. Where was your daughter?

Nicole White said:

This is my daughter's first year and we love it so far! She has been much more challenged this year. Last year in Kindergarten she was bored. They do a lot of hands on, various styles of learning, including some projects. The principal Mrs. B is awesome! My daughter has Ms. Speight for 1st grade and we love her. They have Spanish, computer and art or music all once a week. They also do something called UA Partnership where students from the University come and teach them once a week...they get to choose from several topics. This semester she is doing violin! And last semester she had zoology. Her class has been to children's theatre a couple of times and to McWane in Bham recently. They also did a cool field trip to learn about Tuscaloosa where they went on the Bama Belle and visited the fire and police dept., etc. I think the biggest difference in the teaching is maybe that all the subjects are sort of integrated together, if that makes sense. PE and lunch are pretty much the same as the other schools. They have opportunities to do some extra stuff during after care, but she doesn't stay for that. Anyway, hope this helps! Be sure to attend the open house that they will have for new students - they will send out a postcard with details. The PTA will serve a meal and you will get a tour and get to meet teachers, etc. I think that happens in late spring. :) FYI, they are working on getting their IB certification (kind of like AP) and since Central has the IB stuff at the high school level, the kids at Magnet can go there for HS if not zoned to continue in the IB program.

[Meghan Kornegay]

Sorry, It took me a few days to reply Vanessa. We love the magnet school. The principal is great and there are lots of activities (some are part of the curriculum and there are others offered after school for a fee). We have moved a few times since my son Wade started Kindergarten so he has been to a couple of farly good schools in other areas previously and then spent one semester at University Place here in Tuscaloosa before going to the Magnet School. It is our favorite school so far and we don't plan on moving again unless we absolutely have to because it is so hard to find a school of this quality that meets his needs especially in a neighborhood we can afford. University Place was the worst school he has ever attended so obviously we were very excited for him to get a spot at the magnet school but even if your daughter loves her school now she might find the magnet school to be a better fit if she needs more expanded learning opportunities.  As the other poster said the school is working on becoming an IB school so they focus on learning from a global perspective. It involves alot of projects and independant investigation. We were a little concerned because Wade had previously always been in a pull out gifted education class (usually once a week for a few hours) and they don't do that at the magnet school. He does miss the gifted education some but overall this style of education is allowing him to be more engaged throughout the whole week. They do not really use textbooks, although they do some worksheets (Wade reguarly does math worksheets still but they seem to be slightly more challenging than those at his previous schools). Overall we are very pleased with it and I'm hoping our younger son will be able to attend it too in a couple of years when he is old enough. I hope this was helpful. I'd be happy to talk with you more about it in person if you'd like we could meet up for coffee or something if you have any questions about it or maybe we will see each other at one of the events soon. There is a very small window for applying and we were not given the application by University Place like we were suppose to be. We had to ask for it, I think there is only about a two week window for applications so if you are interested be sure and ask or call the school board to make sure you don't miss out.

[Vanessa]

Thanks, Meghan. We applied back in December and were accepted just the other day -- they don't give you a lot of time to reply, so we went ahead and turned in the paperwork. My daughter's preschool BFF and a few kids from her class are going, so I think it'll be fine socially. I like what I hear academically as well so far. I'd just like to take a tour soon! :) Thanks for all the input - it's really helpful!!!

Meghan Kornegay said:

Sorry, It took me a few days to reply Vanessa. We love the magnet school. The principal is great and there are lots of activities (some are part of the curriculum and there are others offered after school for a fee). We have moved a few times since my son Wade started Kindergarten so he has been to a couple of farly good schools in other areas previously and then spent one semester at University Place here in Tuscaloosa before going to the Magnet School. It is our favorite school so far and we don't plan on moving again unless we absolutely have to because it is so hard to find a school of this quality that meets his needs especially in a neighborhood we can afford. University Place was the worst school he has ever attended so obviously we were very excited for him to get a spot at the magnet school but even if your daughter loves her school now she might find the magnet school to be a better fit if she needs more expanded learning opportunities.  As the other poster said the school is working on becoming an IB school so they focus on learning from a global perspective. It involves alot of projects and independant investigation. We were a little concerned because Wade had previously always been in a pull out gifted education class (usually once a week for a few hours) and they don't do that at the magnet school. He does miss the gifted education some but overall this style of education is allowing him to be more engaged throughout the whole week. They do not really use textbooks, although they do some worksheets (Wade reguarly does math worksheets still but they seem to be slightly more challenging than those at his previous schools). Overall we are very pleased with it and I'm hoping our younger son will be able to attend it too in a couple of years when he is old enough. I hope this was helpful. I'd be happy to talk with you more about it in person if you'd like we could meet up for coffee or something if you have any questions about it or maybe we will see each other at one of the events soon. There is a very small window for applying and we were not given the application by University Place like we were suppose to be. We had to ask for it, I think there is only about a two week window for applications so if you are interested be sure and ask or call the school board to make sure you don't miss out.