Laurel Ridge Elementary School

Love our experience thus far. First grader been in the school the past 2 years. New principal seems fantastic. Club offerings and activities are wonderful from garden club to kindness club. Daughter is looking forward to girls who game club when she is older. We have had 2 fantastic teachers. Overall we love our school.

CV is an incredible school. The 2 teacher model ensures everyone’s needs can be met. My kid loves learning and going to school. I love the schools commitment to the 3Rs- respect, responsibility and resourcefulness. Everyone is happy. For our family, it’s worth the investment.

I would not recommend Arbor Montessori School if you are seeking academic rigor or emotional support/resources for your child, particularly in primary. My opinion is based on my child’s time there from 2021-2023 (ages 3-5). In my experience, Arbor does not live up to its reputation in the Montessori community.We discovered that the Head of School, Primary Program Director, and Board President lack skills and character to operate a successful primary program. In general, Arbor Montessori has inadequate educational and emotional support and resources for children, teachers, and parents. The program was not as educationally engaging as expected, the teachers lacked training to identify and utilize child’s strengths, teachers avoided using different approaches to learning, there was inadequate language arts instruction, limited outdoor play (15-minutes/day (Scott campus)), no gardening activities (Scott campus), etc. Leadership intentionally keeps parents in that dark about their child’s progress. Leadership and teachers seemingly don’t understand (or care) about how events, such as COVID, teacher absences, loss of a family member, can negatively impact children and steps to take to help the child thrive. Leadership lacks sufficient problem solving and communication skills.Of course, this review does not include all teachers or all administration at Arbor. However, it appears that the culture at Arbor is as described above.

ADS is the hidden Gem of Brookhaven/Atlanta! Wonderful teachers, academics, and community. The staff truly cares about every individual child and has the ability to cater to each child's specific needs. They intermix the old kids with the younger kids to develop wonderful mentoring opportunities and the kids love knowing the older kids names. The school places as much emphasize on the social/mental wellbeing of the students as they do academically, which is so important. Do yourself a favor and visit the school for yourself.

Hess has been a great fit for my middle school child! It’s a small, warm and accepting community with many great teachers. The small class sizes really help my child thrive. I also appreciate the focus on outdoor time and field trip experiences.