Shannondale Elementary School

I recently graduated from this school, and I’m going into 6th grade. I love the teachers here. They are very supportive, and some offer challenges ( which I believe you never learn if you aren’t challenged). Now, for anyone looking for a school where bullying never occurs this probably isn’t the school. In the lower grades ( pre-k through 3rd) bullying is rare and when it occurs it’s always dealt with almost immediately. However, for those older grades bullying happens more and it often doesn’t get dealt with as quickly ( sometimes not at all if minor). Also, most of the students here don’t care about their grades which often results in being more prone to bullying and having an anti social nerd reputation ( which I had but I loved it). For most kids, this is emotionally devastating; however it’s mainly in 4th and 5th grade. So, any grade under that should be fine. The school also uses group punishment rather than focusing on the kids who are genuinely causing problems. This happens in all grades, but mainly in 5th grade. It made me feel bad, but it was fine because it’s often used even more heavily in middle and high school; so now I don’t mind. When it comes to student population, there’s about 100 students per grade so 20 students per teacher. So If you want a small school with 10-15 students per class THIS IS NOT YOUR SCHOOL!!! Otherwise, I think it’s a great school and yes kids can sometimes be mean but it’s normally dealt with and by the end of it no harm is done. Now, I am going to give you a brief description of THE WORST DAY I had. “I walked into school and a girl gave me the L. I was walking to class and I tripped. I was late, so I was still wearing my backpack. When I walked in, the teacher scolded me about being late. Then later in the day, my whole class had to walk laps at recess because 5 kids in my class were bad for all class. Then after recess, my other teacher yelled at us ( I mean really yelled) and told us about respect.”As you can see, this is a generally good school and that happened in 5th grade, so it’s not like physical bullying happens often; I went there for 4 years and I was a anti social nerd who wouldn’t even be friends with most of the girls. And I? I was never physically bullied. Others were, but only those in the social groups that didn’t care about grades and never took accountability AKA: GO RITTA RANGERS!!!

Great overall school that often gets overlooked. The faculty and parents are extremely involved. As a family not originally from Knoxville, we were extremely lucky to find this school.

My teacher here taught me how to the art of beat box!!!!!!!!

My daughter attended NWMS for 5 years, and in that time, we saw her go from being an enthusiastic and curious learner to hating anything academic, especially school. She didn't learn to read, and, in fact, the school encouraged us to get her tested for learning disabilities and ADHD (this is very common - they suggest most kids get tested and/or seek counseling because it is ALWAYS the kid's problem, and not the school's problem - according to them, of course). We had to get tutoring outside of school because the school is not equipped to offer any help or additional assistance. I will also add that they teach from a whole language approach instead of teaching phonics, and as a result, most students there suffer from "dyslexia" and have reading struggles for years. And if that isn't enough to deter you, the teachers and staff say that they use positive discipline, but children as young as 3 are put in time out in the hall (alone), yelled at by adults, and/or sent to the admin's office, and children are sent home and kicked out routinely. Bullying is a huge problem, with students not being encouraged to share or include others, and the teachers favor some kids over others. They wanted to send my daughter home for acting out some after we had a new baby - she was attempting to get attention from friends by talking during work time, nothing crazy! She has been attending another Montessori school in the area and learned to read, fluently and at grade level, in one year due to proper instruction. Her new school said it was obvious she had school trauma from attending NWMS, and that they frequently see that with kids who switch from NWMS. Heed my advice and make a better choice for your child.

I’am very happy to have my children in this school