North Beach-Blue Ridge

My son is a Kindergartner at North Beach and also attended Pre-K there. I honestly have only wonderful things to say about our experience.North Beach is a small school (around 300 students), which creates a strong, close-knit community. Just a few months into the school year, I knew most of the Kindergarten students and parents by name. A group of parents even runs a weekly “bike bus,” where kids ride bikes to school together. The PTA hosts several fun, well-attended events throughout the year such as the Harvest Carnival, Movie Night, and Culture Night. I got involved with the PTA early in the school year and have been really impressed by the level of parent engagement and commitment to supporting the school. The PTA also runs a robust after-school enrichment program with activities like chess club, basketball, theater, drawing, and more.Academically and socially, our son is thriving. We love his teacher, Mrs. Niemeyer. She sends a detailed weekly newsletter and regularly invites parents to volunteer in the classroom. She’s also been very clear about how our son is progressing with reading and math. We haven’t done a lot of reading practice at home, and very little math, but thanks to Mrs. Niemeyer’s teaching and the strong parent and volunteer involvement, his reading skills are developing right on track.We’ve been thrilled with our experience at North Beach and truly can’t imagine our family being anywhere else.

We LOVE Viewlands!We have had 4 children attend at least 2 years of Viewlands between 2013 - 2021, all with very different needs, personalities, and learning styles. Every year their teachers meet our kids where they were and celebrated their strengths. While the kids have favorite teachers, who they hope to get each year, there is not a single teacher they haven't loved. Our kids always feel valued and seen by all the staff. You cannot walk down the hall without a teacher or staff member greeting a kid by name. 3 of our 4 have IEPs and all our interactions with the teachers and staff around getting updates, making sure accommodations are met, etc have been positive - with the staff often bringing up suggestions we hadn't thought of before. With one of our kids, it took us 2 years to realize she likely needed an IEP/504 because the teachers just naturally provided accommodations to her (and the rest of her class). We only formalized her accommodations to make sure we have them for when she moves on to middle school/ Junior high.Unfortunately, the diversity in the school has decreased as a result of the demographic changes in the neighborhood. While this sucks and I wish our neighborhood wasn't pushing our neighbors out, I think Viewlands does a good job trying to make sure their students & families of color still feel seen, heard, and wanted. I know they have done outreach to engage their families that may feel like they are being pushed out and to keep the community feeling united.