302 Patrick
Vienna, VA 22180

We’ve had a wonderful experience at Cunningham Park for 2nd and 3rd grade.

My 3 sons graduated from Madison. They are very different students and all had fantastic experiences. Madison is a special school where the teachers really care about their students, the administrators work well beyond their scope, and the community is supportive and highly involved. We chose our home because it was in the Madison pyramid and we are so grateful our boys went there.

As a current 8th grader about to graduate, I have a few thoughts about it, and I'll start with the positives. You can really find some awesome friends and teachers here. A good percentage of teachers do actually care about you and are honestly really chill. The electives, especially performing arts, are fun and you meet a lot of great people that way. There are plenty of after-school clubs, although most aren't very academic (still awesome,) and the teacher who helps manage is great (shoutout Ms. Carter.) A few miscellaneous good things: the school feels really open compared to others with its library (my favorite place), courtyards, outdoor fields, and its fancy chairs (they're 500 dollars each I hear,) and higher than average ceilings. Now for the things that I don't think are really that great. My bus in 7th grade had some racism and just general mean people who I saw nearly every day and nothing every got reported and solved. The environment can be really messy at times and you have to avoid the kind of people who get you in trouble. The school lunches look inedible 90% of days and is probably way overpriced. The school doesn't have an actual auditorium but rather a cafetorium. Overall, I think if you stick with the right people and focus on your schoolwork, Thoreau really isn't a bad school.