Wee Wisdom Day Nursery & Kindergarten

My daughter attended Columbia Elementary for Pre-K in the 2024-2025 school year and it was a wonderful experience for all of us. The administration, faculty, and staff all impressed me, and I am grateful to them. The school is located in a beautiful little enclave of Decatur, and having it near my home has been a blessing. There is a lot of love at this school!

I regret enrolling my daughters here.Some of the teachers here seriously lack emotional awareness and proper communication with children who are still so young and impressionable. I don’t think they’re trained to handle sensitive kids and they clearly don’t know how to handle their own emotions. My 1st grader came home feeling overwhelmed more than once, her confidence is so low right now not because of studies, but because of the way she was spoken to. There’s a clear difference between guiding a child and passively asserting control over them.If you’re a parent who likes to stay involved, ask questions, or gently support your child during transitions, be prepared it might be seen as “too much.”My daughter’s homeroom teacher is often emotionally unavailable and dismissive. It’s like the moment your child needs kindness, you get cold professionalism instead, even they start to point out your kid ONLY. I expected warmth, support, and better training from a school that teaches such young kids especially from teachers who are shaping their confidence and emotional safety.The syllabus is okay but teachers don’t pay attention to what the kid is writing I saw my daughter’s classwork there were errors but still it was marked as good job. Seems like teachers here just want to get rid of their tasks asap. Unfortunately, I’m now looking for other options.As a parent to parents reading this - please don’t get your kids enrolled here if their emotional wellbeing is your top priority.

Lack of staffing.My daughter attended this school in:2nd grade (2023-24). Her teacher retired 2 months into the year, only to have various substitutes until the last 3 months of school where they finally placed a teacher who ended up retiring once the school year was complete.3rd grade (2024-) The initial teacher stopped showing up 2 months in and these children have been left without an adequate, CONSISTENT teacher for almost 3 months and counting.Unfortunately this is the ONLY elementary school in my “zoning area”. This school is full of shenanigans, doing a great disservice to its children. There is no PTA to voice my concerns, just a dismissive staff.Also, if whomever is reading this goes to this school, please be sure to check the employees ID badge. All though name badges are mandatory in EVERY school district, they seem to be either optional or hidden here. If unfamiliar, you’d NEVER be able to tell the difference between staff, parents, etc.

My child and our family did not have a good experience at Friends. We thought being a quaker school that it would be inclusive and that as parents there would be many opportunities to engage and volunteer. We found the parent committees to be cliquish and difficult to participate even in volunteerism that we signed up for. Generally the school is very disorganized when it comes to events and programming making it difficult for working families to have clear expectations that things would start on time, in the location indicated or at all in some instances. Supervision of children is lacking and safety is a concern specifically in transitions and during after school. There are many times when non-teacher adults are supervising the children. Academically, the children who do well are the children who learn easily and are taught at home otherwise, you will not see progress from your children's academic development (at least in the early grades). The high level leadership Head(s) of school have been smart, kind charismatic and caring. Mid level leadership are ill-equipped for their roles and do not have the skills needed to support teachers and foster a professional environment to work effectively with children and families. Due to the school's decades long issue (pre pandemic) with low enrollment and being a tuition driven institution they do not have the resources that other schools at this price point offer to children. They simply do not have much to offer in the creative arts, performing arts or sports. The facilities both inside and outside are in poor condition and generally are not inspiring. Teacher retention is a problem, as well as teacher attendance, throughout the course of the year each class heavily relies on substitute teachers to fill in for chronically absent teachers. This tells me that there is an issue in the health of the school as healthy schools keep teachers for years and years and they show up to work due to their passion for the work and the sense of accountability to their students. It is not unusual to have a teacher leave midway through the year. Friends has trouble retaining children beyond prek & K when other area options open up within the public or private school systems. In the older grades able attract children for whom other area schools did not work out and for them Friends is a refuge. The families that Friends attracts are lovely and the community, if they can retain them are their best asset