Portsmouth Catholic Regional School

We moved to the area in 2019 looking to join the right school family and found it in PCRS! All three of our children now enthusiastically attend. Every teacher is their "favorite," every class is the "best." Excellent for us working parents, too, since they're open 6 am to 6 pm with extended care. We are ever impressed by the dedication of PCRS to the dual mission of instilling Catholic values in the student body and educating the same. After COVID shut down all Virginia schools in the spring, PCRS developed an extensive plan, certified by the VDOE, to open on time for live instruction for the 2020-21 school year, with smooth transition into the 2021-22 year. Their commitment to safely opening for in-person education says it all - the staff want to be at PCRS, teaching our children. And PCRS is where we want our kids! Homework - Homework schedules are clearly communicated by all teachers in writing. On the rare instances that last minute changes are necessary, the teachers let you know. Progression of the material over the academic year is well-thought out. Larger projects were given plenty of lead time. Our children were challenged without being overwhelmed, and we didn’t need to keep the kids up past bedtime to get assignments completed.Leadership/Teachers - Mr. Bolton, the principal, is continuously out there on the educational front line. His belief in the school's mission is apparent in his actions and words. Miss Wassell, Dail, Sears, Norton, Campbell, and McClure come to school every day engaged and enthusiastic. Not to be forgotten are Mr. Fred, the school's jack-of-all-trades and Mr. Baker, the technology teacher. Another strong note is that turnover seems much lighter than at other institutions, which I think is testament to the community spirit of the school and the staff's professional satisfaction. Character - The school routinely enforces good behavior by public recognition of students' positive character. For the times that our children needed correction, it was done discretely and in coordination with us. Despite ours not being a Catholic family, we appreciated the environment of religious instruction. Our children learned much about the Catholic faith and value system with no exclusionary treatment of other groups.

Not great, my child was excelling and knew how to write, was starting to spell, and could count very high before starting here, my child has since regressed and we will be working at home to fix

With deep regret, I say that our time at PCRS has been cumbersome. Our child regressed significantly, showed very little interest in learning and often acted out, in part, due to sheer boredom. Learning a letter a week? I feel a young child needs more engaging learning. Help them explore their natural curiosities! I felt the communication between leadership, teacher and parents was poor. What emails we did receive were ridden with grammatical errors. Leadership ofen coming across as patronizing. Teacher conferences were sparse and unproductive. The leap from pre-K to kindergarten is massive and simply put, there is little preparation to prepare the student to make said leap. Classroom sizes mirror that of public school ratios. There are few extra curricular activities for young students. Additionally, parents are required to volunteer but most announcements are posted the day before or day of, giving working parents little opportunity to participate. Want to volunteer in your child’s class? Not likely. This is NOT encouraged. We felt strongly about giving our child a faith-based learning opportunity, one that we make serious financial sacrifices to achieve, and it is hurtful to know that almost 2 years have been lost trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole. I’m sure many families are pleased but we simply, are not and look forward to a change next year.

Exceptional. This school builds Future Leaders for our community

Extremely poorly; frustrated, disappointed, expected more from a catholic school especially being a Catholic myself. With their current leadership, I would not recommend this school to anyone with a child who has learning disabilities