5450 Echo Ridge Rd
Raleigh, NC 27612

I am the parent of 2 BHS graduates who were accepted into UNC and NC State, the 2 largest schools and both prestigious regionally and nationally. These schools accept < 20% of applicants. Their experience at a larger school on a block schedule similar to college courses readied them for college. They both took a variety of AP classes, and their friends in the IB program did well and were admitted to top-flight schools as well. Broughton is a real community, with families across the socio-economic spectrum, and recognizes students across all abilities with the prominent Caps on a Roll program. I found the teachers to be professional, engaging with parents, and supportive of students without hand-holding them.

Our experience with this school is that there is very little warmth or joy here. Kids are expected to immediately start functioning as adults on day one in 6th grade. There is no “transition”. Lockers are not allowed, bathroom breaks not allowed between classes (kids must raise their hand and go during class), assigned seats at lunch, 15 minutes for lunch. Because of this rigid system our kids have found very little time to be able make new friends or even speak with their old friends from elementary. Some teachers give inordinate amounts of busy work for homework. When bringing these issues to the principal we are met with an attitude that it’s our problem. She is ex military. There are a few great teachers, so it’s not every single staff member, but the overall feeling is one of rigidity and lack of trust in the kids or space to relax into enjoying school. Our well-behaved kids are very unhappy there.

This school is a terrible choice for parents and students looking for a supportive teachers. Teachers will rarely listen to or try to understand a student's point of view. The administration will ignore many student concerns without any investigation unless parents interfere. Many of the work handed is just busy work and rarely has an impact on student learning. There are some helpful teachers but there are even more cruel teachers. It's incredibly hard to fix grades that a student didn't deserve without parental interference. The courses offered are very restrictive as well.

I have had an amazing experience as a student at this school. This has made me not only ready for college but also the professional world. Throughout my four years here I was able to grow and learn through the help of the incredible students and staff. I can't wait to see what Wake STEM becomes.

While we have had a few bumps getting our boy engaged, the leadership have been great partners with looking at options. This school is a college prep school so there is not an emphasis in the Arts, but more a focus on core curriculum. We love that there are male teachers teaching our boy as they provide examples of strong role models. We love the uniforms!

All teachers are very attentive and helpful especially Principal Baker during this pandemic. We are very lucky to belong to a school who treats the children as their own.

We are new to the area, and our daughter is going to PGES from another zone (the other school is capped). We had no idea what to expect given the not-great ratings, but we have overall been very happy with the school (and the ratings make absolutely no sense to us whatsoever!). Our daughter seeks challenge in school, and her teachers have been great about doing the best they can to help get her there, answer our questions, etc. (Having any support for GT/AIG is new to us, as the district we were in before in another state had zero support for teachers or parents/students in that situation.) The principal is very nice and supportive. Our daughter's teacher has been very kind and helpful in working both with our daughter and with us. My only substantial concern is that there seems to be far too much food-oriented rewarding at the school, which is not universal in the district, but too common from what I have gathered (it's the same for our son's middle school). This is complicated and concerning if there are health or behavioral concerns around food for some children, as we deal with, particularly with no school nurse on the grounds the vast majority of the time (that is a state/district issue). That said, the school is good about working with us when food presents a challenge in school. Overall, we have been as happy in most ways, and in some ways happier, with PGES as we were with our kids' former school (rated an 8). It's been a very good experience overall.