North Center

Our daughter attended junior kindergarten at North Park and has now started kindergarten, and we have been incredibly happy with the school. What stands out most is how genuinely known and understood she is here. The teachers recognize who she is and give her both the warmth and the appropriate boundaries she needs to thrive.North Park creates the kind of emotional safety that makes children open to learning. Our daughter feels comfortable being completely herself, looks forward to seeing her friends and teachers, and comes home excited to tell us about her day.Because it is a small school, the community feels unusually personal. The teachers, administrators and counselor know the children, and families have meaningful opportunities to know one another. The transition into kindergarten has felt thoughtful and reassuring, and our daughter already experiences school as a place where she belongs.No school can be the perfect fit for every family, but North Park has been exactly what we hoped for at this age: warm, joyful, developmentally appropriate and deeply attentive to the whole child. Seeing how safe and happy our daughter feels there has made us even more confident in our decision to send her.

Our daughter enrolled at Pilgrim in the middle of her seventh-grade year. The move was transformational for her. Academically, she has excelled although the Pilgrim curriculum is much more challenging and the teachers have higher expectations. More importantly, however, she and we feel she is part of a caring community that focuses on her well-being and is attuned to her needs. We wish we had found Pilgrim earlier but are thankful when we did.Here are a few Pilgrim characteristics that make it stand out:1. Strong Christian tradition that is open and welcoming of diverse perspectives and experiences.2. Exceptional family engagement and parent support of all aspects of the school.3. Rigorous curriculum, with diverse offerings (for a small school) such as Spanish, film, ethics, Christian studies, music. Offers algebra for 8th grade. Diverse novels and other readings in ELA and emphasis on writing development.4. Exceptional teachers.

We have been a part of the St Ben's community for four years and are extremely happy with the quality of the education and how invested and caring the teachers are. St Ben's also has so many extra curricular activities for the kids, sport twice a week, Spanish, Art, STEM, music and many more. There is lots of school events to get involved with for example Daddy/Daughter Dances, Mom's/Dad's nights out, a Gala, Fun Run and great Oktober Fest that the Parish puts on. The communication to parents each week is very clear and informative. Our daughter is thriving at the school, we are very happy at St Ben's!

Excellent community school that has a broad academic program with many options for your kid(s). The community feel around this school is extremely strong with excellent parent involvement across the board. As parents we moved both our kids here over the years and have experienced such a warm atmosphere with excellent teachers that care.