Pecan Grove

Principal is very fake. I don’t believe she genuinely cares about the children. The teachers are hit or miss, some great, a lot not so great. Front office staff is rude. My 2nd grader missed his bus home one afternoon , and they blamed him for not being where he was supposed to be, when the real issue was a teacher not calling out his bus number. Front staff was extremely rude about it. Another time, my son was sent to the library to learn “virtually” all day because he took his mask off when he couldn’t breathe. The pandemic has shown the true colors of the school, and sadly, they’re lacking. I asked for physical worksheets to be sent home for my 2nd grader (who spent most of 1st grade virtual) so he could physically work on his handwriting. The teacher’s response was that they don’t do that. So I had to order my own worksheets. They rely way too much on technology to teach kids, rather than building fine motor coordination with pencils, paper, glue, and scissors. Overall they’re going downhill from where they were a few years ago when my children first attended KES (2019).

I have 2 children that attend Newington, my oldest child who has been there since K and currently is in 2nd there, and my younger one who just started K! They both love it! I could count on one hand the days where I have to actually “make” them want to get up and go to school, and it’s usually because they would rather stay curled up in their bed- and not because they don’t like their class/school.The teachers they have/had have been amazing (especially dealing with all the COVID, quarantine and virtual learning situations that have been thrown at them- with no or very little guidance on how to proceed or how to handle) even when one of their teachers got sick (unsure if it was COVID related or not) she was still on virtual the week they all were on virtual at home, you could tell she didn’t feel good, and had to take a few breaks but she pushed thru it and finished the week and taught what she had to get done for that week! Neither of my kids have ever mentioned themselves or anyone being bullied or getting picked on!My 2nd grader is reading way ahead of where he should be (I believe it’s 4th grade DRA numbers) has been doing multiplication/division since first grade- at home in his free time, he asks for hard words to spell, hard math questions to do, and extra long numbers to read out loud for fun!! I’m hoping he tested well enough to go into GATE next year! He was lucky enough that his K teacher moved to 1st along with him so we had the same GREAT teacher 2 years in a row! Unfortunately she moved upstate so my younger son won’t get the chance to have her, but his teacher and her assistant this year are just as great!! They have patience with their students I could only dream of having one day!! I was for sure my youngest was going to be a tough one- mostly to get him to focus and hold his attention long enough in the classroom, and it would be a struggle to make him do “extra” work at home- but he has almost finished all his sight words he needs to know by the end of the year ( with 4 months left) the ones he practices every night- he can do it in record speed!! He is reading whole Pete the cat books each night, and pretty quickly! And just got Terrific kid of the month! So very proud of him!! So our experience at this school so far has been great and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon! But I know everyone’s will be different depending on needs, wants, and expectations - and it will be that way everywhere you go!

Great school that puts kids first! FES is the place to BEE!

Everyone talks about Reeves Elementary but the administrators here are a joke. The adults at this school are very cliquey because of the principals. Racism from the principals and there is not a lot of diversity here. The principal plays nice at first but you will slowly see her true colors as time goes on. Communication is not the best either. Things get swept under the rug and some teachers are not supported 100%. This school is not the best for minorities.

My son attended Pinewood for 4+ years and after bullying not being taken seriously we decided to pull him from 3rd grade. My concerns, which were well documented in email to my sons teacher, were called "unfounded" by the head of school. After interviewing several other local schools, I also expressed my disappointment in the academics of Pinewood as I did not think they were advanced like they market to parents and prospective students. All of this feedback was largely ignored. Upon exiting the school, I was billed an additional $4k+ in compliance with the school's TRPP policy. This policy states I am not entitled to tuition being waived because the school can not afford it. I asked several times in which finally it was revealed that even though my son's seat would be filled by another student, I would still need to pay remaining tuition. So they will double charge for one student's spot and you will be out of luck should you decide you'd like to remove your child from the school for any reason (besides medical). The tuition is just no longer worth what you get at this school. The Pinewood we fell in love with from PK4 and Kindergarten is a thing of the past and I would strongly urge anyone to reconsider attending this school. My emails with the head of school were met with one line replies where he ignored most of what I had to say and questions I had. Getting your money is their #1 concern and I am just glad we left when we did. If I am willing to pay over $4,000 to a school my child no longer attends just to get him out of there, that should tell you something.