Lesley Ellis School

My son has been at Banneker for 3 years now and they never cease to amaze me! They are absolutely wonderful!!

I am an 8th grade student at this school and I would not recommend bringing ur student here I’ve heard better things about other schools than this one teachers will give you a work sheet barely explain and expect you to do it and if you don’t know how then you have to figure it out on ur own there’s been 2 physical fights at this school and a lot of verbal fights and nothing is done there only solution is to call home and that’s it I’ve been here since pre-k and nothings changed since then

The school is good and they do a good job on including everyone no matter what their ethnicity or disability

St. Raphaels has overall been a great experience for our child who is in Junior High. There are a lot of great after school programs (sports and academics) that students can take advantage of. They also have four dances (more like parties) a year and other fun social events, and there are educational Washington DC and NYC trips available for students to take part in. In the Junior High academic program, there is one teacher for grades 6,7,8 per subject. This can be a great thing if the teacher is an excellent teacher, which matches my perception for the bulk of the Junior High teachers. The kids seem to have a hard time learning from the math teacher but the school seems to be working on ways to make this better. If you are considering sending your child to this school, find a parent to talk to about their child’s experience with the math teacher. A good number of parents end up getting outside tutoring for math, which can add up quickly in terms of a family’s education budget. Overall, the teachers and staff are caring and devoted to the mission of the school.

Fayerweather has been an engaging, exciting, challenging experience for our kids, giving them a strong sense of ownership and agency over their own educations. We see in them the self-awareness to work effectively in teams and connect with others (even or especially those that don't think or identify as they do!) - and that's a direct result of the focus on social and emotional development in the classroom and more broadly in the school. They're curious to root out patterns and systems that impact our world and the people in it, because they've been exposed to Fayerweather's rich curriculum and the critical thinking lens the teachers apply to it.Now situated in a competitive and academically challenging high school, our older child is academically ambitious, eager to partner with peers and teachers, and comfortable in their own skin. Our younger child is making the most of their last years at Fayerweather, finding voice and collaboration through creative ventures like the Unit Play, and digging into complex curricula like Shakespeare's Macbeth, Orwell's Animal Farm, and an interdisciplinary study of the history and science of regional cuisines. We're grateful we chose Fayerweather and are excited to see where this learning foundation takes our kids next!

I'm a parent of a current 1st grader who's been there since Kindergarten. We do not speak French at home, but our child took to it very quickly and has an excellent pronunciation. Within the first year she was fully comprehending the teacher's lessons and communicating in short sentences. In addition to the bilingual classroom, I credit this to the excellent FSL teachers who support new students and help their fluency develop. Another thing that drew us to the school was the introduction of a third language at a young age; in addition to French she has decided to focus on Mandarin and is excited about that as well. ISB cultivated a joy of learning and going to school in our child. She likes to show off what she's learned, particularly writing, reading, and math. It's been inspiring to see the first grade teachers build on this love of learning, and already I can see her making further gains in those areas. We have not yet experienced many extracurricular activities at ISB, but they do have clubs you can sign your child up for (things like cooking, karate, math games and many others) which the children enjoy, and also a very flexible a-la-carte afterschool care which we make liberal use of. We see ourselves staying at ISB for a long time to come!