8317 McNeil St
Vienna, VA 22180

This school has a lot of money and resources. It is also an International Baccalaureate school so there is a lot of focus (and celebration of its IB program). However, this school has a pretty toxic and elitist culture where it seems like the overall goal is to make school as unpleasant and unwelcoming as possible. Students are pretty much numbers here and while there are demanding academic standards, god forbid your student has other interests and just wants to graduate from high school and move on. Counselors & administrators push your students to enroll in honors and IB courses then are surprised when your student hates the classes. There is a lot of helicoptering by staff and teachers and yes, they dot the i's and cross the t's in their communications to parents but with the weapon detectors, supposedly 3 bathroom passes if teachers actually grant them during class, staff are aiming to create a school environment that is as close to a correctional facility as possible or at least as unwelcoming and unpleasant for students as possible. If you raise concerns, suddenly you are labeled antisafety. Few counselors really care about helping students and if they have a disability or special need, you're pretty much on your own as they expect you to be like most families there with the financial resources to help them yourself and make up for the school's apathy and gaps. There are the same robotic messages from the Principal about how the school cares and supposedly, there is support available when there are traumatic events. Compared to other high schools in the area, the athletic teams are terrible, mostly due to the apathetic or outright awful coaches (except for track or football). Even my academically focused child who did extremely well in classes (i.e., Adv. IB diploma, top 1% SAT score) hated this place. Like many of his friends, college is fairly easy because there was so much work and testing during high school. While staff (and parents) may value a strong academic program, it would be nice if teenagers could actually also enjoy their high school years with a curriculum with enough rigor that they can move on to college and be challenged - some balance maybe? You'll hear a lot about inclusivity and kindness but you'll see little of the touted "kindness" from staff and admin. The only really "haters" and bullies at the school are a majority of the staff and administrators. Really they only want you to donate time and money and leave them alone.

I have been a parent at Stenwood for 3 years. I’ve always found the administrative and teaching staff to be kind, helpful and deeply committed to the care and development of my child.

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.