Independence Alternative School

We have been very pleased with the family engagement and quality of teachers here

We initially chose High Meadows amongst a list of the top private schools in the area based on the outdoor/activity component and the IB curriculum. Our child has been at HMS since Pre-K and stayed through 1st grade. There are many parts of the HMS experience we find so unique; we love the play based learning philosophy, the hour of play time at lunch, the beauty of the 42 acre campus with unique buildings, barnyard time with the animals, a "no phones" policy, the community gatherings, a strong music program - there are so many reasons it should be the best school experience money can buy. But, we found it's the most critical parts of a community that are completely missing for our child and our family. Despite being an extremely gregarious family who have lived in other countries/multiple US cities, we did not make any true friends at this school in our multiple years there. This is a very small school, so you may be lucky and get a great group of kids/families like our neighbors, but there is also the chance you may end up like us...it has been the most unfriendly group of kids/parents we've experienced absolutely anywhere. It's hard to get a take on that from trying out the 'Mornings on the Meadow' or even from feedback from other families as we've found connection with families many years above and below our grade but absolutely NONE within it. We have found most of the teachers seem great, but it doesn't make up for the kids your child will interact with and their parents. There was a 75% percentage of boys in our Kindergarten class and most of the boys are "red-shirted" in the Southern standard. Outdoor time in Kindergarten was experienced as "teachers are always screaming at the boys for bad behavior". While the head of school is inspiring, the elementary school principal did not present any leadership skills to handle problems amongst children. Be prepared to receive CONSTANT and overwhelming amounts of communication from the school about absolute nonsense and non-stop requests for donations, but when you have a true issue and need to reach out, there will be radio silence from everyone.

I absolutely HATED my experience. The work would always be due on around the same day, some specific teachers clearly favored one person or one gender in my opinion. All of my classmates didn't like the school and I have yet to meet a student who would say they liked ILM Academy. I had high hopes as a student there and I was let down. The rules also kept progressively getting stricter and it now seems like it's hard to fit in at times. Yes it might be a Muslim school but I did not enjoy my experience there.

Such a great elementary school with friendly front desk staff, the administration is very involved and communicates so well via classroom dojo, collaborative PTO, and all of the teachers are so nice and helpful. We have felt so welcomed here, and we have loved being welcomed into the VMES community!