Sleepy Hollow Elementary School

This school is great, although is does sometimes have a hard time dealing with student problems; ie, bullying. Most of the teachers are spectacular (Would highly recommend Shultz for first grade, Kelly for second, and Puranik for fifth) (Sorry If I spelled their names incorrectly). I learned a lot in this elementary school (I was here 1st through 5th). Your child should enjoy going here, and it was easy to make friends. They school has a vast emphasis on inclusion, respect, and perseverance. They teachers will always set aside time to help your child if he/she is struggling on a certain field. The only thing about this school that I did not like was the fact that they take safety seriously, a little too serious. (Don't get me wrong safety is important but it got to the point where it was ridiculous.) The school is very social and inclusive, your kid will make friends here in no time. They school offers a lunch system called choice lunch or you can bring your own. I have seen how they handle school during COVID, they do a pretty good job, sanitizing and all. This school really helped me grow as a kid and I learned many skills that I am still using today. Some awesome projects we did were making the maps of the exploration of California and National Park projects in 3rd grade, the Spanish Missionaries model project in 4th grade, and the restaurant/food truck math project in 5th grade. The best field trip is the 4th grade three day overnight stay at Malakoff Diggings. You learn about mining and take cool hikes on that trip. This school was spectacular and I would highly recommend it for your kid to grow their character and grow in academics.

SH is a stellar school. I would even say it’s better than most private schools. The school is richly funded by all parents, the school offers endless extra curricular, the learning is strict but shows results. It’s the smallest school in orinda and won’t go over a 20:1 ratio. The community is wonderful. Well rounded children come out of this school.

Backed by district administrators that actively discourage implementing extra effort for any student (either too low or too high achieving), this school’s teachers and administrators will work hard to NOT have to give any individual student special effort. Throwing road blocks, bureaucratic meetings that don’t result in anything, and straight up refusal to help, the school has trained parents to look outside of the school and district for any extra needed help. This problem is exacerbated by the affluence of the parent body and the mentality that “I’ll just pay someone else to do it.” This has included everything from paying out-of-pocket for neuro-psych exams for their kids (and then bringing those results back to force their hand to help) to extra curricular classes for advanced students. It’s clear that the teachers and administrators know that if they stonewall long enough, the parents will give up and use their own resources to pay for what their child needs. Meanwhile, they will not hesitate to ask for donations at every turn and blow the money on class parties, a week of teacher appreciation gimmicks ($120 budget to decorate one DOOR and there are at least 15 doors!) and more iPads (30 Macs and 60 Chromebooks aren’t enough).

Running is NOT allowed anywhere on campus during school time (except during PE which for K is only once a week for 30 minutes). I find that disturbing and against advice from educators around the world. This is the reason why many families transfer to other elementary schools in the area. Thankfully the AMAZING after school program allows some active play.

So far SH has been a execellant school and has exceeded all expectations. All the teachers we have come into contact with seem engaged. Parents are involved in the good kind of way.My daughter has loved her experience here and has thrived.