Boyd Acres

My children loved this school so much they cried on the last day of class because they did not want the school year to be over. The teachers are very kind well-trained and make every child still feel special, they serve nutritious meals with lots of choices, have adapted areas within the school for children with special needs

There are only 2 Spanish language speakers on staff at this school and one is an administrative assistant. It shows, too, as language learning is not strong at BIS. To see the grammatical errors and errors in speech tells me that they ought to take Spanish language learning more seriously. I wish that I could disagree with rhe other review but it is true.The school disciplinarian/dean/activities coordinator uses outdated punishments and clearly has little understanding of child development. He rejects more developmentally appropriate scientifically backed strategies for working with children and it shows. Behavioral problems are not addressed well. Bully is a fair description due to his intimidating demeanour and inclination to go with the Frenchsystem of justice: guilty until proven innocent. Many parents have complained to no avail. When a student does call an issue to the attention of staff they are dismissed and the issue minimized. If it is escalated staff band together and start to question the student instead of addressing the problem. It is a very dysfunctional environment. The departure of the original director was a huge improvement as she was very dismissive of students and unpleasant and difficult to work with. She lacks a background in education. The new director, while an improvement, is not effectively changing the problematic staff culture at BIS. I wish I could write a better review as the concept is a wonderful one. The execution, is lacking.

We just left this school after several years. We wanted this school because we liked the idea of a small school and did research on Montessori. But it was one thing after another in our time there that we finally decided to leave. 1.) Staff turnover was a significant problem and never got better. They said at the tour that students get the same teacher for 3 years so they really get to know your child, but every year there was a new teacher, or a new principal or others. It started to feel like a red flag when the school couldn’t retain its staff. 2.) Going to this school takes work! There is no bus, so we had to make arrangements everyday to pick up and drop off. Not the end of the world, but also a burden sometimes. There is no food or lunch available so we had to deal with packing lunches. Again, not the end of the world but this is a challenge we wouldn’t have to deal with at other schools. And the amount of fundraising felt excessive! We felt at one point like we were being asked to “donate” so much, we may as well have had to pay a tuition. It was optional technically but with the amount of asking they did, it felt like an obligation. Constantly selling something, hosting fundraising events or just asking for direct donations. Cost of living is hard enough right now, add having to commute to the school twice a day, buying lunch supplies and “dont forget to donate”, it was honestly a financial burden for our family to go to this school. 3.) Academically speaking, I don’t think they are preparing kids well at all. We didn’t have any concerns while there because we always got positive feedback from teachers and we trusted them, but now that we’ve left and are at a new school, we are finding out our child is really behind. I don’t know if it’s the method or the new teachers every year, either way, we are disappointed in the academics side of things. All in all, this school was a let down. The whole lottery thing makes you feel like you really “won the lottery” to get a spot. But after having experienced it, it’s not as great as it seems. I wouldn’t recommend this school.