George Mason Elementary School

Not professional staff. I would not recommend.

My daughter started going to Fairfield this year. She started 5th grade there coming from a different school. The first five months of the school year she had to worry about bullying. Four different times I had to go up to the school. My family is a minority here at Fairfield Court. The principal told me I quote " The kids here don't understand. They hear their parents say it. Its the area that we live in." I don't care if its the area that we live in, my daughter was always told not to see color. Our skin may be white and they may be black but we all bleed red. As a parent I can say that I would not want my child to go to this school, but I can say that about many Richmond Public Schools.

Woodville elementary is a great school. I love the programs they have to offer and the staff is very hands on but, the students are terrible. Myu7 yrs old is bullied everyday in and out of school. He has no friends and try to fit in with the wrong crowd. I spoke with the staff about the situations but nothing has changed.

My son is in 1st grad and 3times since starting Kindergarten , that I know of he’s been harmed or attacked and I didn’t know until days later. First incident he was riding the bus as a kindergarten and bigger kids attacked him. The second time his knees were skinless from falling from running on sidewalk(he told me) from bus, no note no update. The most recent time (2weeks ago) a parent text me and informed me she was sorry her son hurt my son , I was confused because the school never informed me of any incident and my son went to bed early the night prior so we didn’t talk about his day. Well I asked him later that day once parent informed me and she was right, her son threw a chair at my kid and when speaking to the Principal she stated nothing happened, to it didn’t touch him, to days later, confirmed it barely touched him. Smh. Very disheartening to know my child is not safe at school and without being connected to the community and keeping in touch with parents I would’ve never known because as a kid sometimes you forget and in our case he didn’t want me upset , he said.

excellence, school all of the above in family support and emotional support for the children as well as welcoming loving and patient.

Poor communication from administration. Forbidden from talking to the teachers directly unless it’s during a twice a year parent teacher conference. Too much staff rotation during naps and poor record keeping. The owner of the school, Anita, said she doesn’t take action on parent feedback because she has no problem keeping students at the school. No transparency into how your vigils is doing at the school. Any concerns are brushed off as it being a “transitional time period” for your child. You are not allowed to directly talk to the teachers for SIX weeks and then only with Administration present and only during that meeting another parent teacher conference. No one at pick up or drop off at the gate know the Primary children (ages 3-5 years old). Unfortunately if your child is too young to communicate well you won’t know what is happening. Please see the multiple violations for this facility on the social services website (they conduct state inspections).

We had a very unpleasant experience with this establishment. From a revolving door of teachers to the absence of communication from staff and administration, much was lacking at Central. The communication issues were evident from the start. We never received a school calendar or got added to the mailing list upon enrollment, so we were surprised with several school closures in our initial time there. Over the course of roughly six months, the teachers were unable to follow through on the meager commitment of one short note per week to let us know how our child was doing in class. We had no idea what he was doing during the day and eventually he returned home with language and behavior consistent with a complete lack of Montessori principles being used in the classroom. ("I'm a bad kid... I'm going to sit in the corner....etc.) After voicing concern about multiple changes in teacher with no notification, the director told me the new assistant teacher wasn't certified, didn't have the requisite experience, but was "super interested in teaching Montessori." At this point, I started enquiring about our location of waitlists elsewhere. It is clear that Central knows they have parents trapped due to the lack of options for childcare in the area, because they let the disorganization and unprofessionalism continue. We eventually could tell that our child was not receiving the care or education we were promised, so we found a new school where he is absolutely thriving. I sincerely hope that a change in leadership can turn the ride at Central for the sake of the other children and families still enrolled.