Leesville

This is a tight knit community school. I love that children can attend from kindergarten through 8th grade. The small class sizes and STEAM focus allows for more hands-on learning and critical thinking than I've seen in other WCPSS options.

My daughter has thrived at this school. I love that they offer 4th and 5th graders the opportunity to be part of a musical production. I'm not sure she would have had that exposure if at a different public school. I love the front office staff (always so welcoming!). All staff in morning car pool are so sweet and energetic (rain or shine) which starts each kids day off with positivity. The PTA brings lots of great events and takes care of the teachers and staff! The principal weekly message and teacher's weekly email keeps us well informed, as well as talking point texts for last minute reminders about crazy hair day, pajama day, etc. As a busy parent, I appreciate the multiple communication methods! 5th grade graduation is coming up and I'm excited to see so many fun events to make it a memorable experience. As resources are being stripped from our public schools :( I am so thankful for the SCES community and the teachers that continue to show up for our children!

Our children attended this school years ago before recent leadership changes, and we have mixed reviews. We had some wonderful teachers and experiences, and some that were terrible. The lower school teachers were a mix of nice and some of the meanest women I have yet to encounter in a school. I had a terrible experience with one of them and they have since replaced her, thankfully, and I reported her strange and abusive behavior after the fact, and I regret not handling it swiftly at the time. There was definitely some bullying which fell on deaf ears, so I will say the experience there trained me to be a strong advocate in defense of my children. In general, many parents were unhappy with the leadership most of the time and there was a lot of gossip about that, which was tiresome. The teachers who were great kept the school running and my kids had a great time in those classes. They participated in wonderful musical shows, field trips, art classes and field days. In all, you can have a good experience here, but as a parent make sure they know that you are not going to put up with anything from the staff but completely appropriate behavior. For us, that was becoming a full time job, so we left for a school with better leadership.

School is amazing. Competent teachers, amazing hands-on leadership. Beautiful building. Everything you want a school to be. My older daughter went to private school for elementary and I would not hesitate choosing Barton Pond over private school options.