Shirley Gate Park

Activities like musicals, Family Heritage night, STEM night, Eagle Trot Fun Run, field trips, and more contributed to an exceptional experience for my daughter. I am very grateful for this school and our teachers!

My child experienced neglect here. Came home starving every day, teacher was throwing out the food and not allowing enough time to eat. Child suffered severe anxiety from this school. Had issues coming home soaked in urine from not being toileted or diaper change. Issues with other children hurting my child and the school not reporting it and attempting to cover it up. Do not send your child here if they are nonverbal or unable to communicate what happened. Teacher refused to communicate with parents about whether basic needs were being met for my special needs child. IEP was not followed or developed at all. Teacher was openly gas-lighting parents about the severity of the child’s condition. They refused to give child resources that they had available at the school and were not at capacity, based on the teachers ‘belief’ that the child was ‘fine’. The child has 3 different diagnoses from a neurodevelopmental pediatrician and the school refused to accept it. The school attempted to blame the parents as if it was a behavioral issue ‘at home’. Teachers denied seeing any behavioral concerns, but there was physical evidence that it was occurring. Parents observed child at school and child was presenting maladaptive behaviors. Childs academic progress worsened here, and teacher attempted to present it as if the child got better and acted as if she cured my child’s conditions. 0/10 would not recommend.

Our family has had a wonderful experience with Oak View. The teachers are hands on and communicative and willing to answer questions about progress. We feel our children have received dedicated attention and are pushed in the right way to showcase their strengths.

This has been one of the worst elementary schools my daughter has attended to. Teachers are too hard of special needs kids, bullying, bad attitude, bad behavior, students judging other students weather their clothes are fancy. Like seriously? I am so disappointed. Everyone is so rude for absolute no reason. Never letting my daughter step a foot in this school. I would not recommend going. Teachers and the principal are just nice when parents are here. Don’t go here , its a MESS!

Worst school your child may enter, worst.

Our family is a proud member of the Gesher community for 8 years now. With 3 kids in Gesher at different age groups I feel very comfortable sharing they are all enjoying a very rich academic experience, by great teachers, that really give their everything for the kids to be happy and very well treated. The social environment is supportive, and the relationships and kindness between the older kids (7th and 8th graders) and the younger kids (pre-K and K) is heartwarming and beautiful. Judaism and tradition studies are amazing and given with a lot of fun. In a county where most schools are better than in the rest of the county, choosing to go private is a very difficult, but I feel our kids thrive in this school, and that is priceless.

Some of the courses taught are reasonable, but this school is not a great fit for academically gifted students. The course material tends to be repetitive and a lot of busiwork, even in the honors and AP courses. My children were challenged with the workload, but not with the sophistication and thought-provoking nature of instruction, more just the myriad of often boring assignments that needed to be handed in for grades. Over the years, I think my children learned more from their own personal pursuit of knowledge than they did from attending this school. That certainly makes me question the investment. Also, Flint Hill administration is horrible! They do NOT act in the best interest of students and take a my-way-or-the-highway approach. They are incapable of understanding nuance, don’t act in sophisticated way, and can’t handle basic communications with decorum and professionalism. They also treat athletes and kids whose parents donate to the school very differently than other kids - definitely a two-tiered system. They don’t have policies for disciplinary actions and make up everything as they go along. Don Paige, director of the Upper School, was a HUGE problem. He is now gone (my guess is he was pushed out) so maybe it is starting to come around but the problems with the administration were pretty deep seated when my kids were there.