40414 Thomas Mill Rd
Leesburg, VA 20175

My children have attended Catoctin Elementary School for all of their elementary school years…the teachers, students and staff are absolutely amazing. They work hard to make sure it’s a safe, fun and engaging learning environment preparing them to be the best they can be for the next step in their school careers! I highly recommend this wonderful school…if only every child could be so lucky to get to attend Catoctin Elementary School!

As a student, my teachers here are great, but the admin here is the main issue. Me and my peers feel as if we have no say in our learning and our experience at Simpson. Our admin feels super out-of-touch with what students enjoy and what makes learning exciting and fun for us, neither do I feel safe with the constant fights that happen here. To our principal and other admins, me and my peers simply just feel like a test score to them- not students whose experience is taken into account at all. If you are considering putting your child in Simpson, be prepared to hear about school rules that simply make no sense, being yelled at for simply no reason other than having a drink or whatever rule they decide to make up next, the scary environment around their fellow students, and much more.

Graduated in 2018, and overall I think I had a decent experience with Loudoun County. It wasn't the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst either. My biggest issue was that I rarely felt the school provided support and safety from harsh punishment and discrimination--in my memory, I felt these issues were only ever addressed when they became significant enough problems that the school could NOT ignore them and had to act or risk pushback from the community. I also distinctly remember a significant lack of support for disabled students in need of accommodations--for example, my stepbrother required accommodations for a learning disability, and year after year he had teachers who outright refused to accommodate him until my stepmother made a scene about it and forced their hand. I did have some absolutely amazing teachers, and overall I think that the teachers are passionate and dedicated professionals who want their students to succeed. However, the teachers who were bad were *REALLY* bad. For the most part, I think the best way to sum up my experiences with Loudoun would be to say that most of its problems aren't unique, and it has a lot of good, like most of the staff. However, the bad things are issues that won't be addressed until it becomes a problem for the school's reputation, so keep that in mind.