Gatewood Park

I went to this school years ago at this point and I still have memories. With going there for 6 years and now being in high school, I can see that I've learned so much here. The staff was always nice and understood our age and tried working with us.

I’m not sure how this school has so many great reviews. In my option it’s been awful. A lot of it is the school system itself, like closing for a voting day then adding 10 mins a day to the end of the school day for an entire month. Truly insane. I have two daughters kindergarten and 3rd grade, and both of their teachers give them weekly homework packets. It’s just busy work! Half the time it’s not even relevant to current lessons. Teachers clearly aren’t using their time wisely and expect parents to do homework every single night. Oh and don’t even get me started on the CONSTANT flyers or random events I get weekly about raising money for the school. I DO not recommend this school at all.

This review is for families starting mid-elementary school and does not pertain to the music teacher, who is brilliant.Anyone with a high-achieving child who is not starting in kindergarten, I urge you to look anywhere else in the Great Neck, Kings Grant, or Shore Drive area. These teachers and administration do not advocate for these children. Classes are overcrowded, and gifted programs are administered disproportionately and not aligned with test scores.The principal constantly tells us his hands are tied, and their choices have had regrettable consequences for our daughter’s education. Our daughter received higher scores to get into ODS than children they allowed in from the supposedly more gifted classes. They do not communicate at all and don’t seem to have the time or energy to work with parents. Unless there is a change in the administration, I would avoided all costs.

We enrolled our daughter at Virginia Beach Friends School for 6th grade, drawn in by the promise of small class sizes and a culture built on kindness. Our experience did not reflect those values, and we withdrew her mid-year.With only six students in her class, we expected close communication from teachers. Instead, we had to initiate all contact ourselves. We eventually learned — only after requesting a meeting — that the school had been aware for months that the only other girl in the class was making daily threats of physical harm toward our daughter and openly discussing self-harm. We were never contacted about any of it.That meeting resulted in an action plan that the school never followed through on. In the weeks that followed — after we informed them we wouldn't be re-enrolling — our daughter was written up for minor infractions, and we received a Q2 report card with a D in PE, again without any prior communication from her teacher.The pattern felt retaliatory. We ultimately transitioned her to public school to finish the year.This school promotes kindness as its core value. In our experience, that did not extend to how they treated our daughter or communicated with our family. If you're considering this school, please ask hard questions about how they handle bullying and whether they follow through on commitments to families.