Big Thompson Elementary School

Big T has been our home for all of elementary school. My two kids have been well-educated and loved by this great community of staff and students. Big T is a special place: beautiful setting, well-connected to its community, great teaching and test scores. We have been so blessed by this great school.

Basically, the school has good and kind teachers who are following bad marching orders. Both of my kids got a weak foundation in math that they'll probably never fully overcome. I never saw any evidence of STEM being more than a buzzword that the school paid lip service to.Some specific memories:> When a problem kid threw a fit, did they haul his butt out of the classroom? No. Instead, they had all the OTHER kids leave the room and go to a neighboring classroom, halting the learning of two full classes of kids. Crazy.> Being told that "Math isn't taught the way we learned it" (i.e. lots of practice). "It's taught at a conceptual level now" (i.e. they show several different ways to do it - causing confusion - but don't assign enough problems to internalize any one of them). This "new math" teaching goes against ALL research on effective learning.> My daughter getting a "3" on their silly 4-point scale, on a spelling test where she got all 10 words and two bonus words correct. Why? "3" means "meeting expectations", and she was a good speller. "4" was literally unreachable. Crazy.What terrifies me is that this is probably a good proxy for the average modern American elementary school. The goal is NOT to help each kid reach his or her full potential. It's more about going at the pace of the slowest kid in the class so nobody is left behind.

When I was there they didn’t do anything about bullying and the teachers don’t support mental health

We came to Big T as a "school of choice" : it was the one school in the district where we had only heard positive reviews, we were pleased with what we learned about differentiated learning in our discussion with the principal, and our son instantly was drawn to Big T because of its "awesome upper (turf) playground"! We have felt spoiled by the education our son has gotten-- almost like the perks of "private school" tuition-free. We are indebted to his gifted/talented teacher, and to the principal's vision for giving her such influence within

Engaged staff. Inspired CEO with long range vision in practice. She coordinates staff, parents and community to the benefit of the learning environment. The STEM focus curriculum is working at every grade level. This is a pace setter school.