I attended Pinewood a couple years ago. I am now at an elite university on the East Coast…read more I think that Pinewood is excellent because the teachers are able to provide you with one-on-one attention. Very good for college recs obviously. Public school ones might be very general... Anyways, teachers will help you during lunch and even after school, when they are not being paid. I think it's cool how they have math help hours after school with Mr. Green (if he even works there). My favorite math teacher was Ms. Walters (Genius lady :) ) Overall, the homework is not that excessive, and, more often than not, if we are ahead of the material, we can use the time to work on assignments for a portion of the class. The English department is good, however, I would appreciate it if they would have been stricter on us. Honestly, the longest paper I ever wrote was a 10 page paper for AP US Gov, and we allocated class time to write it. In English the longest paper was about 5 pages. I wish that the length and standards for papers would increase as one takes more advanced courses. The English department prepares you well for writing 25 minute essays for AP exams, but does not prepare you for 10-20 page papers you have to write as a college freshman at top colleges (Ivy leagues, top LAC, or top UC's). Please add a writing intensive course for seniors that IS NOT GRADED, that way students can learn to write college level papers without feeling so much pressure. Just make it a graduation requirement. The Spanish language department seemed to be more demanding than the French language department. I think because Ms. Schmidt was very very strict. I think she retired now. However, Mr. Tezlaff and Madame Daniel were/are very approachable and would always practice French with you whenever you need. They want you to succeed on the National French Contest and do well on AP French! Merci beaucoup mes professeurs. If your child does have a learning disability, the school will accommodate with longer test times, separate exam rooms, and sometimes extra hours of help with a teacher, so long as you can provide a paper verifying the disability. Also, of course disability is confidential information and students are not let known of classmates' disability. It is very common for children at PW to suffer from social anxiety, test anxiety, and depression though. Extracurriculars such as sports were really fun and the coaches (thanks Craig and Jackee) are really passionate! My main complaint is that the school lacks racial diversity. Of course this is because those who can afford the school are primarily White and Asian (South Asian as well as East Asian). When there were black and brown students (some of whom are on academic/athletic scholarship) many would feel ostracized and out of place and often leave after freshman year. Please provide counseling services/ extra funding for students of color. I specifically remember always having to pay tons of money for new uniforms (they would change each season) and new equipment. I would have appreciated it if there was fund that could help scholarship students with sports/extracurricular fees.

I went to Pinewood during the 80's, from kindergarten through sixth grade. I am still good friends…read morewith several people from my class, none of who stayed at Pinewood through high school. I say this because we feel like the best education we got, and the hardest we ever worked in K-12, was during our Pinewood years. What stands out to me is the fact that Pinewood did a wonderful job of enabling us to develop academically as well as artistically. They found a balance between the phonics-based Carden method, daily reading groups, math, science, and social studies classes, and the singing, drama, P.E., and art classes. Whenever I see Beatrix Potter books I flash back to 1st grade, and what would I do without my vast collection of oil paintings and clay sculptures of horses made during seven years of art, or my memories of being in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "The Velveteen Rabbit" on the Pinewood stage. Pinewood was also strict in the sense that we feared the "demerit" and worse, "getting ten" which meant you had earned ten demerits that week and would have to see the principal. I think from that we learned responsibility and how to respect others, from our peers to our teachers. From following others in my class through Facebook updates and periodic announcements in the Los Altos Town Crier, I know many of us have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and earn PhDs in subjects like bioengineering, computer science (or English- me- maybe that's liability to the Pinewood reputation, hah). However, most of us also came from the kind of high achieving, upper middle class, occasionally dysfunctional families that make those kind of achievements seem average, and admittedly, I was a little bit of a snob coming out of Pinewood, thinking only bad students would "have" to go to a UC instead of an Ivy. In those ways, Pinewood isolated us from the realities that not every kid could have their own pony or live in their own estate, and that could certainly be held against the school, our parents, and us. Knowing what the tuition is now, I don't know how people can afford to send one, let alone multiple, kid(s) there, and I wonder if the class-based elitism is still pervasive. Weighing those two sides of the coin- the fantastic academic and artistic education against the narrow exposure to others from any other socio-economic or religious backgrounds (most of the kids in my class were from the dominant Pinewood Mormon families)- a Pinewood education might not be the right choice for everyone. However, I am still grateful for the academic foundation I received there, and the real world came anyway, after I left Pinewood.

An amazing school!…read more Our daughter couldn't be happier with the amazing teachers and rigorous curriculum

Educationally great, but socially out of control. There is rampant bullying and helpless…read moreadministration

As a parent, I have seen concerning things said about Los Altos High School. I have heard concerns…read moreof inappropriate relationships in school. Racism seems like a big problem and there is not much action on the staff's part to resolve the problems this kind of inequality creates. I had to pull my child out of this school, she was having a very hard time socializing with the kids and getting along with teachers. Do better Los Altos.

Daughter is now a Junior. Principal Wynne Satterwhite is…read moreoutstanding - I seldom meet such a hard worker. I know she works long hours and have amazing memory for many of her students!! Her counselors, teachers (e.g. Messner, Arias, Russo,Blach,Wei,Cathy) badminton coaches all deserve medals of honor!! Daughter started 2017. She liked all the teachers. Great facilities. All teachers I met seem dedicated and nice. I like their "Challenge Day" where kids are taught to be nice to fellow classmates. I'm glad I volunteered for the 3 days they brought pioneers/captains of different industries to educate kids about their professions and how they succeed in life and how to avoid bullying by appreciating fellow students, some of whom are hurting inside. I learned a lot from these lectures.

Admittedly compared to Blach... the Blach facility is much better, but Egan itself is a great…read moreschool and I love it. I disagree with the other review, junior high was awesome and the faculty at Egan is outstanding; I graduated in 2008 and I still go back to say hello to old teachers who've now become old friends. Some of the facilities are fairly nice relative to Cupertino middle schools such as our gym, but the track is definitely lacking since it's still a dirt track. Lots of traffic here around 3pm on Portola, so watch out for that. A lot of great things going on at this school--it's also at the forefront of technology usage in the area.

Here, School hot lunch is more expensive than private schools, I don't know why. Otherwise it's an…read moreok school.

The state of the running track at this establishment is subpar. It is worn down to the asphalt…read moreunderneath in many places. I hope it gets redone soon.

This is a very nice school with a big campus. Teachers and students are both helpful here. This is…read morea high school but it looks more like a college.

These past four years of having my children attend MCS have been the best school years as parents…read moreand for our children so far in our lives. We thank the staff, parents, and students for being so supportive of our children during their attendance.

My daughter just graduated from Miramonte. Great school! Very friendly staff and caring teachers…read more Amazing principal!

My children have attended The Waldorf School of the Peninsula for the past four years. While many…read moreof the teachers are caring, dedicated, and deeply invested in their students' growth, the same cannot be said for the school's leadership and administration. Unfortunately, the administration is dysfunctional, lacks transparency, and demonstrates poor alignment in priorities and resource allocation. The school has a large population of neurodivergent students, yet the current educational support structure is alarmingly inadequate. This year, the entire "educational support team" for the Mountain View campus (grades 6-12) -- consisting of ONLY one learning specialist and one counselor -- has been stretched even further to cover the Los Altos campus (grades Kindergarten-5). The administration claims to have a "robust educational support team". However, a staff of 2 people is far from robust and is completely insufficient to serve the needs of the entire school (Kindergarten - 12th grade). Despite my repeated efforts to raise this concern with the administration, they failed to take any meaningful action. While the teaching staff genuinely care about their students, the lack of administrative competence and adequate support services significantly undermines the school's ability to meet the needs of all learners. There are many excellent public and private schools in the area that are far better equipped to support diverse students. Your child deserves that level of care and commitment.

I am a student who attended multiple private schools and public schools, usually,…read morepublic school: 6th grade: 6th grade math, pre algebra if you pass skip test 7th grade: pre algebra, algebra 1 if you pass skip test 8th grade: algebra 1, geometry if you're good enough private schools, like stratford and challenger: 6th grade: pre algebra 7th grade: algebra 1 8th grade: geometry waldorf: 7th grade: pre algebra 8th grade: algebra 1, pre algebra if you fail too many test or is struggling so Waldorf is clearly behind in math. They just give a book to read for English, and they don't give you a standardized curriculum for testing , and most topics like grammar(phrases, part of speech), reading comprehension and vocabulary is not included. They don't even have history class. Science class is just doing science experiments that don't follow a standardized course. Not only they don't have a standardized course but the experiments are usually something to learn a long time ago, eg refraction or reflection. On top of behind in most classes, they also spend too much time on arts, music, dance that are optional classes to take in high school. And they have a fundraising thing for 8th grade that took up all the time for learning and it is mandatory. So Waldorf, therefore is not a good place to spend your time and money on if you're serious about education, GPA, and getting into a good college

As an Educational Consultant I have great confidence in Bowman School. The academics are strong…read morebut without pressure. Bowman provides such a level of individualized attention it is an excellent school for many kinds of learners. The faculty turnover is low, leading to consistency and strong relationships. The Montessori philosophy promotes learning how to learn and a passion for lifelong learning. Graduates of Bowman have a long history of success as they continue their educational journies. The year round schedule and flexibility of hours make it an ideal school for working parents.

Parents need to be prepare: this school has been expand from one campus into 4 in past few years,…read morewhich explains why tuition raised 6% - 7% each year. There will be a plan for high school expanding and ask for high donation on top of tuition raise. Good luck.

I cannot speak highly enough of Los Altos Christian School and the difference it has made in our…read morefamily. Both of our children transferred to LACS in the middle of the school year, and we saw a positive difference very quickly. One of our children needed significant learning support after several difficult academic years, including the impact of remote learning during the pandemic. Despite receiving support through an IEP in public school, he had fallen behind academically and lost much of his confidence. When he joined the Learning Support Program at LACS, the change was remarkable. The difference between his experience before and after coming to LACS felt like night and day. With smaller classes, individualized support, encouragement, and teachers who truly took the time to understand how he learned, we began seeing progress almost immediately. His confidence grew, his academics improved dramatically, and despite transferring in the middle of the school year, he was able to finish that first year strong. By the time he graduated from LACS, the child who had once struggled so much academically had become a confident and successful student. He graduated with multiple awards, an achievement certificate, and a scholarship. Seeing how far he had come was incredibly meaningful to our family and showed us what can happen when a child receives the right support, encouragement, and opportunities. Our other child came to LACS with very different academic needs. He had been an above-average student in public school before the pandemic and is naturally a high achiever. LACS helped him regain his academic momentum and continue to thrive academically, making the Principal's Honor Roll--the school's highest academic recognition for students earning a 4.0 or above--multiple times, along with receiving several other academic awards and recognitions. Seeing him achieve so much and regain his confidence has been incredibly encouraging for our whole family. One of the things I appreciate most about LACS is that it can be a wonderful environment for different kinds of learners. Our two children had very different academic needs, yet both were able to grow and succeed. Whether a student needs additional learning support or is a high-achieving student ready for greater challenges, our experience has been that the teachers take the time to know each child individually and help them reach their potential. The teachers, faculty, and staff genuinely care about each child and family. Whenever we have brought forward a concern or request, we have felt heard and taken seriously. The faculty and staff have gone above and beyond to support not only our children but our entire family. LACS has also given our children so much more than academics. They have had opportunities to participate in music, leadership, sports, and many extracurricular activities, build wonderful and lasting friendships, and experience amazing field trips and educational travel, including Washington, D.C., and the East Coast. There are so many opportunities for students to discover their interests, develop their gifts, try new things, and become involved in their school community. We have also really enjoyed the wonderful school and community events throughout the year. LACS creates many opportunities for families to be involved and get to know one another. Parents have many opportunities to volunteer and chaperone field trips, which has allowed us to be part of some of our children's experiences and create special memories alongside them. The sense of community among students, parents, teachers, and staff is something we truly value. Most importantly for our family, LACS is Christ-centered. As a Christian parent, I deeply value a school where faith is not simply another subject but is woven into the students' education, relationships, character development, and everyday life. At the same time, families from different backgrounds are welcomed, which contributes to the warm and caring community we have experienced. Choosing LACS has been one of the best educational decisions we have made for our children, and we only wish we had made the move sooner. LACS has truly been such a blessing to our family. I am incredibly grateful for the teachers, staff, programs, opportunities, friendships, and loving Christian community that have helped both of our children grow academically, personally, and spiritually. I wholeheartedly recommend Los Altos Christian School to families looking for strong academics, individualized attention, wonderful opportunities for children and families to get involved, a caring community, and a Christ-centered education.

Our family has had such a wonderful experience at LACS. From the very beginning, it was clear that…read morethe staff truly care about each student--not just academically, but spiritually and emotionally as well. The teachers are incredibly dedicated, creating a nurturing environment where children feel supported, encouraged, and inspired to grow. Our son has absolutely thrived here. He has gained confidence, developed strong character, and built meaningful friendships within a community that emphasizes kindness, respect, and faith. The integration of Christian values into everyday learning has made a lasting impact on him, helping shape not only his education but also who he is becoming as a person. What stands out most is the sense of community. Families, teachers, and staff work together in such a positive and uplifting way. There's a genuine feeling of belonging that makes this school truly special. We are so grateful for the love, guidance, and commitment the staff pour into their students every day. This school has been a blessing to our family, and we wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone seeking a supportive, values-centered education.

Very gifted and dedicated teachers. They really tailor to what the student needs. Cannot recommend…read morehighly enough. Can accelerate the pace for faster than average learners, or adjust those who need more support. Both our children loved it and attended 1-3 years full time. Have recommended to other families who now go full time and say their student loves learning again. Our students have been very successful in college, too.

My son who is neurodivergent graduated from School of Independent Learners this year. We decided on…read moreSIL after considering various options that did not need his needs. We are very pleased with the quality of education that he received. The 1:1 model of instruction worked very well for him due to his unique needs. The teachers are passionate about what they do and this helped develop a love of learning. The principal Ms. Pham is caring and always available to help. Overall our experience was a very positive one, and I highly recommend SIL.