Santa Fe Montessori School

Horizon Prep has blessed us abundantly in every aspect of our two kids' lives! Attending the high school now, both of our children began at HP in their 8th grade years. While the closing of public schools during covid led us to private school, now my only regret is not moving to Horizon Prep earlier in their school careers. The immediate academic rigor they experieced over public school was enhanced by thoughtful and engaging teachers. Every teacher offers office hours to either clarify or expand on what my kids are learning. In addition, if my child needs prayer or a caring adult to talk with, the teachers have usually noticed and already asked if something is on their minds. The parental involvement is incredible to me as the high school students invite and enjoy their parents participating in their school lives. The no cut athletics are ministered by incredibly talented coaches and volunteers and give the kids opportunities to grow with teams in competitive but loving and supportive groups. My talkative child has learned to lead discussions with focused and concise information. My quiet child has developed into a public speaker who confidently participates after years of quietly hiding among the crowd in the public school classrooms of 36 students. Horizon Prep is small but boisterous. The smaller numbers require students to really be involved in their learning and that ownership has dramatically effected my kids' personal effort, responsibilty, and care in their education. As a new parent, my prayer was to raise well-rounded, servant leaders who have the decision making skills and grit necessary to walk their path as adults. I will forever be grateful for the teachers, staff, and community of Horizon Prep who have played such a vital role in their journeys thus far.

My son had a wonderful K year here. The small class size allows for truly personalized learning, as well as great social emotional development support. I appreciate that I know he is learning from 2 trained teachers as opposed to parent volunteers public schools often depend on to supplement the 1 classroom teachers. In addition to typical curriculum, the kids have daily specialists including art, music, Spanish, PE, library, gardening and drama. They have monthly field trips and a very active school community with tons of opportunities for parent/family involvement. And there is a big focus as well on social emotional learning. I have not seen any issues with bullying, problems with disruptions in the class, etc. Recently we ran into a few 4th graders that are the K's reading buddy class and the "big kids" were so sweet talking to and playing with my son and his friends. It really epitomizes what we have seen - it is just a great student body and small enough it really feels like a community. I have seen comments about the administration being bad but that hasn't been my experience. I have always gotten responses to any email or call and they do a good job communicating. And I love that the teachers make themselves available for parents to reach out directly. The principal even stands outside every morning greeting all the students by name!

I was a student at SFC from pre-school (when there was a pre-school) to graduating highschool, and while attending the school I was encouraged to take classes for things I wanted to learn about alongside requirements for graduation. I just with they had a better option for fulfilling PE requirements for students who don't participate in sports, like myself, than independent PE or a strength and conditioning class aimed at helping football players, such as an actual class to let you get the PE credits you need to graduate. They also have pretty much no special needs help other than extra time for tests and exams, sitting in the front of class when needed, and ADA required infrastructure. The school definitely needs better help for neurodivergent students such as myself when I was a student. They also need to have a better way of handling mental health. I delt with pretty bad depression and anxiety that I ended up needing to be medicated for while I was there as a student, and if they had some form of counseling for mental health, I wasn't made aware of it.

St. James Academy is a fantastic school that educates the whole child!