Berkeley Heights Elementary School

My child is excited about going to school. That makes me happy. He likes his teacher and his friends.

We have a student that is being HELD back from learning. She is at the very top of her learning curve, the only child currently in the “gifted” program, tests at 99 percentile, yet they REFUSE to give support to further her learning. They literally suggested “just waiting until she gets to the 3rd grade school to let them handle this”. If it was a chile on the other end of the curve, they’d do something. ARE YOU SERIOUSLY THIS LAZY?—concerned grandparent

Me and my parents regret ever going to this school. I came to this school in 3rd grade, and the three years I had of elementary school was decent. Once I started middle school there, it was absolute hell. The middle school teachers except for a few were horrible, and made my experience there a nightmare. I was heavily bullied, and even though I brought it to teachers, nothing was done. Then when students brought up fake accusations about me, staff set up a meeting with my parents and pretty much did a police investigation on me. I won’t name any names because I don’t want to damage any reputations, but here was a number of things that happened. In a religion class in 7th grade, I took my glasses off to wipe them with my shirt, when my religion teacher called me a narcissist out of nowhere. Me and my parents brought it up with the school, and she was let off with a simple apology. My sister (who also went to the school) had a lot of seizures at one point, and when asking the teacher to go to the nurse after a big seizure, the teacher said “I hope you feel better” and did the sign of the cross. I was shamed by my religion teacher for not being Catholic multiple times, even though I was still a Christian. I’ve been given demerits (which was the punishment system the school used, don’t know if they still use it or not) for doing the littlest things or even nothing at all. I could go on and on. I finally escaped that place and started public school, and it has been amazing. I’m no longer shamed for not being catholic, and the staff actually respects me. Parents that are thinking about sending their child to this school, save your money, and by all means, DO NOT send your child to this school.

RKS does its best to personalize education for its students. The allow students to work ahead in higher level workbooks to met students needs, but also in turn allow students some flexibility in meeting their education goals. For example, one of the things I loved about RKS was while our son was in Kindergarten/1st grade he was given multiple attempts at his sight and spelling words. Instead of pushing to the next list if he'd not learned them all, he was allowed to repeat until he passed without 100% learned. Whereas his classmates were not held back by this. He had classmates in Kindergarten who completed their K level words early and moved to 1st grade words. Same in 1st grade, their were students starting the year on 2nd or even 3rd grade words while my son was able to move through at his own speed (on grade level). RKS never stole my son's love of learning. They've always kept he at grade level or above on every subject. Plus the detailed learning they provided about the bible blew our minds, our son would come home and give detail stories on the old testament characters they were learning about in school. If learning the bible is an important value you have for your children, RKS will not let you down! I highly recommend RKS to any family in Berkeley County looking for a biblical based school that also offers a high quality education!