Hopkins Elementary School

Dudley has been an excellent school for my child to attend. I chose for her to attend Dudley and I do not regret that decision. The teachers thus far have been excellent. my child started at Dudley in kinder and is going into the 4th grade this school year. I love all the extra-curricular activities that are made available.

So I would to publish a review for my old elementary school, Shields. I used to attend them years ago, don't get me wrong it was a great school. But the fact of the matter is that I've had to wait for almost a week to hear back from someone in regards to seeing if someone could help me obtain my old yearbooks. And guess what, they said that they didn't have them. Excuse me, but how professional is that?! A proper, well done school should have all student files even dating back in the early 2000s! What kind kind of school doesn't keep their students old records and yearbooks??! Do those students not matter??!

Lots of teacher turnover, especially for crucial grade levels like K-2. Teacher & administration communication is lacking. These days Class Dojo is utilized as an effective way to talk to parents. FACTS is another program to keep up with your students grades. You won’t find either at this school. They don’t do baseline testing. How do you know if your child is progressing throughout the year? You don’t. Safety wise- parents are given a code to enter the gate. The cons to this are that anyone could share this information and who knows who could be walking through those gates with access to YOUR child. Parents give their codes to their kids. There is no one to greet your child at the school in the morning. It’s very doom and gloom walking in. Good luck meeting with admin before 8:00 am. No one in the office gets there until right at 8. There are no opportunities to volunteer. No field trips. No grant writing to better the school. They are dismissive and uninterested in any of that. The reply you will get is “we are doing the best we can”, or “we rely on private donations”. Yet, they are uninterested in anything that COULD help them. There is no true library, there is no computer class/time, no art class, no sports. From my understanding, VCS raised money to build a gym, yet can’t furnish it with sports equipment. There are better schools than VCS, especially if you are paying for it. Remember, you are paying for this. For a little bit more money, there are better options.

Everything we do it is very fun

Our family originally chose Trinity for their known academic curriculum and Christian learning environment. We have been very pleased with both, but have also watched our daughter grow in more ways than we could have imagined. While flourishing in all core subjects, she has also learned how to do research and present that research to her teachers and peers (in only 2nd grade). She has learned how to extend a helping hand to her community by participating in service projects the school participates in as a whole. She has been encouraged each day to be responsible, honest, and hard working- all qualities we teach in our home and qualities valued in the real world. The staff at Trinity has come alongside us, as parents, and invested time into helping create not only intelligent children but also children of upstanding character. Joining the Trinity family was one of the best decisions we have made for our child.