Sutro Elementary School

My child has been here from TK and currently in 7th, and we have had an overall great experience. There is a max teacher to student ratio of about 1:12, with one main and 2nd assistant teacher. The current head of school was a teacher there for many years, before transitioning to assitant head of school and now in her current role for 6 years. The learning is experiential, project based, with a lot of cross polination between subjects (topics being studied on history will be picked up in Art and expounded on in a creative way for example). The teachers are overall excellent and well liked by students and parents-- some are fantastic and I still am friendls with her TK teacher Steve despite it being 7 years ago. The access to the Presidio is a huge asset--kids are often there 3 or even 4 times a week, for lunch, PE, science (studying water ecosystems), art (drawing or sketching). The school community is very active, a lot of in class-room volunteer activities, field trip volunteer oppurtunities especially in the tk-5 grades. They have a school counselor/psychologist who works often with the kids to develop social emotional growth. She is available to meet individual students/families which we have done and it was very helpful. Spanish is taughtin small increments even starting in TK and K, and becomes a full specialty class starting around 3rd grade. The music teacher is amazing, is based on the ORF teaching methodology, and culminates in a all school production by class level at the Palace of Fine Arts in the spring. Visual arts is strong, and they have an annual art show to showcase kids work. Overall I found the vast majority of staff and teachers incredibly dedicated, kind and receptive to our concerns. We really felt that the teachers are passionat, really love teaching there and feel supported by administration. In response to some of the negative comments on this site, obviously other kids/families will have different experiences and this school may not be for everyone. But we felt the school handled the pandemic quite well, was good about balancing the dual needs of safety and learning in a difficult time. It is a small school and so I can understand the perspective of a family if there child is feeling left out, but I would disagree that they don't take bullying seriously. Overall we love the sense of warmth and community from both the school and larger school community. My daughter has made friends for life and so have we!