St Pius X Church

"I am writing to express my serious concerns regarding the administrative environment at Leith Walk Elementary Middle School. Despite the school's proximity to my home, I have found the quality of instruction and the staff's approach to student development to be inadequate. More critically, I am currently engaged in a dispute with the school principal regarding inaccurate information documented in my son’s permanent record. Despite my advocacy, the administration has refused to address or remove this false narrative. I urge other parents to proactively review their children’s files to ensure accuracy. It is my firm belief that the current administrative leadership prioritizes staff interests over the well-being and fair treatment of students. My son deserves an environment where he is not defined by false labels and where he has the opportunity to truly thrive."

Having two lower school students since pre-primary, we have been very happy with the school, extended day program, extracurriculars, and camp (Summer at Friends)! We especially appreciate the supportive nature of the teachers and staff - students are encouraged to collaborate and focus on executive functioning over competition and test scores. Our students enjoy many of the lower school after-school clubs, which focus on music, art, and outdoor time. The school has a wonderful art program and in-school and after-school music program, with opportunities for many instruments and solo/group music programs.

Our oldest son is completing his first year at the school (Pre-K) and has had a fantastic experience. It's been a joy to watch him come home each day with new skills, new experiences, new friends, and new stories to tell. While many say their kids dont share anything with them on the way home, my son started telling me about the lifecycle of trees, the names of the planets, and what his friends like to eat for lunch. Throughout the application and admissions process, we were told that the school would take care of our boys and welcome them to their community, and each promise has been realized. My wife and I spend our weekends on the playground with our boys, we have made friends with the other parents, and our boys are proud to be Gilman students!

Bryn Mawr is a very good school. The homework load may be a lot but, it has very good teachers and Academics.

This school is an absolute disgrace and has shown us that not only are the teachers and leadership unprepared to truly care for or educate children, but the facility itself is outdated, dirty, and starved of resources. Walking inside feels like stepping back into the 1970s — peeling paint, old equipment, and a clear lack of investment into the learning environment. It’s obvious money is not being put into this school, and the children are the ones suffering for it. Our 6-year-old has been bullied daily by multiple classmates — pinched, hit, called names, and even had food thrown on him — and instead of taking accountability, the school’s response was to brush our concerns aside or flip the blame back onto him. Our 4-year-old had his hand slammed in the door twice in one week, came home in clothes we didn’t send him in, had his belongings repeatedly go missing, and even told us that his teacher puts him in the corner as punishment, which no parent was ever informed of. The “smiley face/sad face” daily reports they send home are meaningless, often showing 15+ sad faces with no explanation, yet the one time a substitute was there his chart was full of smiles, proving the problem isn’t the child, it’s the teacher. Leadership is no better: the charter manager literally conducted a meeting with us while driving, phone cutting in and out, asking us to repeat information we had already laid out in detailed emails, while her assistant sat on camera with a nasty, uninterested look, cutting us off any time we tried to speak. It was one of the most unprofessional, embarrassing displays we’ve ever experienced from supposed “leaders.” The entire system here feels dismissive, chaotic, and outdated — the school is not safe, not modern, and not built to support children in 2025. We’ve already pulled our 4-year-old out permanently, and if the bullying of our 6-year-old continues, we’ll pull him too and make sure every parent, every attorney, and every news outlet hears the truth about what goes on in this school.