Great Bridge Intermediate School

My daughter LOVES this school, and her teacher.

We would take our kids to any school in the city over great bridge primary! The principal is the rudest, self absorbed man. He talks over parents and teachers and acts on his own pride. We've seen some great teachers leave the last two years because of him. Our older kids had a great experience here not many years ago. This school should have better leaders here in Great bridge

The school does not have an inclusive philosophy for children with developmental or intellectual delays. They still use self-contained classrooms as the primary placement. Southeastern happened to be our school district, but many of my daughter’s classmates were bussed in from other schools to attend the self-contained class, further separating those students from their peers by not only being in a separate class but also a different school. My daughter was not challenged in this setting, she was not exposed to the same curriculum as her Gen. Ed. peers, even after I obtained the Gen Ed materials from other parents and videoed her doing the work. We eventually pulled her and placed her in a private school where she is 100% included. While the VA DOE does have a published guidebook for inclusion, this school does not follow it. They have not implemented the practices discussed in the guide book such as a written inclusion policy, development of an inclusion advisory team, or universal design learning. I gave this school 2 stars rather than 1 because I believe the teachers did indeed care about my daughter but were not supported by the policies in place, lack of 1:1 aides, and training on inclusive practices. I blame the admin and district rather than the individual teachers.

My children attended CRCA from Pre-K to 1st grade, and unfortunately, their transition to public school was extremely difficult. I initially thought they were doing well academically since I never received negative feedback during parent-teacher conferences, and their report cards were always good. However, I was blindsided when, during the last week of school, my preschooler’s teacher suddenly informed me of multiple issues—far too late to address them. When I questioned this, I was told it was due to teacher turnover and differences in teaching styles.Frequent staff changes were a major problem. Teachers were constantly being fired or leaving, making it difficult for students to adjust and maintain academic progress. Despite the smaller class sizes and supposed one-on-one attention, my children were significantly behind when they entered public school, struggling both academically and with the larger classroom environment.While I appreciated the school’s small, family-oriented atmosphere, the education was severely lacking. Based on our experience, I would not recommend this school.

They do a great job in getting the kids ready for college. They use the Abeka program. My kids have loved it and been there since preschool. The sports there are great do wish they had baseball.