education: 10/10. they spend so much time with you, its directly 1 on 1 and anything you need help…read morewith they will assist you with. the education is so flexible with different teaching methods, whatever helps you learn is how you'll learn it. theres never a boring day and and its never stressful to ask questions or be confused. community: everyone is so kind and nice, its a true community and everyone helps everyone. there is no bullying and absolutely no tolerance for it. unfortunately some kids take advantage of the no bullying and can be annoying, but its overall a really safe community. teachers: each one cares about you, and you can create your own bond with each teacher. they WANT to help you learn and you can feel that. theyre so fun to talk to as a person and teacher, and i love all the teachers there. such kind souls. this school is perfect for neurodivergent kids, or if youre seeking to get away from the stressed out school days and bullys at public school. nobody will judge you and you will find so many friends.

This is the place. If you're reading this, you're wondering what are the right steps when it comes…read moreto helping my child with finding their way in the world. If you're here, you've obviously grown tired of the rote, inflexible education of the masses based on measurements, guidelines, or even politics. If you're considering a different direction and want to know where to find forward-thinking people (educators, parents, and the kids themselves), then you have to give Appamada a good look. It's been said that we live in interesting times and, thanks to a global pandemic, that couldn't be any more true. For our family, as we tried to navigate the challenges that came along with it, we needed to find a school that would work closely our two children, separated by just under two years, and help them learn (of course), grow (definitely), and become the person they were meant to be versus an "institutional follower." Our children are nearly as different as night and day. But, at Appamada, they found individual paths to advancing their education and developing their personalities that we couldn't find elsewhere. This 'home away from home' has been their place of learning for over five years and I can see that the path they are both on, to college and beyond, has been paved nicely, with enlightened thinking, challenges big and small to overcome and learn from, and focused matriculation to help them become the best they can be, but even more importantly, the best they want to be. The staff at Appamada, across all disciplines and includes the program director, the owner, and all associated with the school are truly top-notch individuals whose sole purpose is to help the students flourish. They have repeatedly shown how much they consider and care for the individual student and have demonstrated this through their communications, program adaptation, and customized course scheduling to meet the kids where they are help them recognize where they want to go.

Waldorf is such a wonderful education. Unfortunately if the teacher is not great (or going through…read morepersonal crisis and has a large and demanding class) your child will suffer. Steiner's view was to nurture the soul of the child and unfortunately Austin Waldorf is seeming more budget focused and the teacher for our grade certainly really let us down and did not even have the care for us as a family to speak with us directly. I would avoid this particular Waldorf.

Beautiful campus with beautiful traditions. It is easy to get swept up in the idea of the school…read more Met the most wonderful, involved, and caring parents and a couple of wonderful teachers too. This school, however has absolutely failed my children academically. If you have a child that is neurodiverse, this school cannot meet their needs. If you have a child that is gifted, they will not be able to meet their full potential. The class sizes are at 30-33 in 1st and 2nd grade! My child's teacher assured us multiple times that my child would get the help they need. In the end my child's teacher, who had been his teacher for 1.5 years "strongly encouraged" us to find a new school midyear, with no warning. All of the previous reassurance, that they had resources for his learning needs, from her swept away. Now the same teacher is asking for parent volunteers to go in and teach children, not their own, to read. She cannot meet the needs of these children, yet you will not hear this, when the class size concern is brought up at parent meetings. You will be reassured over and over until your child has fallen so far behind, they need multiple interventions to catch up to where they should be or where they were before they started this school. My daughter was advanced for her age before this school. She requested to go back to homeschooling. She would sit in class, at AWS, with her hand raised and never get any help. She was quiet and not one of the louder children yelling out for help. She said she could not focus and would get pushed around by the boys on the playground. The school purposely holds children back from progressing "too fast." They have reasons for this. The issue is the class sizes hinder the children from moving as quickly as they need to, given the Waldorf methods, when they reach the appropriate age/grade level to do so; and they refuse to change. You will hear promises of expanding the grades to have fewer children in the classroom. This has been a promise for years. They have yet to follow through and deny any issues, even though there are many. The teachers do not fight for their students. The office staff is sweet, but when you get down to the people truly in charge, they only care about money.

We are currently in our 6th year at Regents, and we love it....Regents is a wonderful community and…read moreour family loves it there. The last review posted by Mark REALLY surprised me because I know families who are Catholic and who attend Regents. Also I am of Indian origin and I'm at Regents.... There could be many other reasons why somebody is not accepted at the school.

As someone who has worked in school systems for over 30 years and whose niece and nephew attend…read moreRegents, I have been impressed. I've been impressed by how down to earth everyone I have met there has been. Mostly I am impressed by how sweet and intelligent my niece and nephew are and this is the only school either of them have attended. They are both bright and funny and open minded and kind hearted. I can't imagine more lovely kids and as hugely involved as their parents are, I know from experience that the school gets some of the credit too. I'm sorry to read that the kid who commented has had such a shady experience. I would say by his writing that other than the obvious grammatical errors, he has a promising writing style! Get that while attending Regents?

My experience at Parkside was challenging. The admin was changing over and there was little…read morecommunication, and more than a bit of aggressive interactions with admin. We had a new teacher who was enthusiastic when the students were perfect, and utterly overwhelmed and clueless when the students had challenges. My son has ADHD, and despite telling me they has experience with 2E kids, the teacher thought my son had severe emotional problems when my son would self sooth by going in a corner to be alone for a bit. They also did not communicate in any way the depth of the problems my son was having in school. I finally realized the extent of his issues when I began attending daily to see for myself. They were often rude and childish in response to issues or complaints. They had a history of keeping teachers even after multiple complaints of abusive behavior. Their insistence on parent interaction was amazing, and the singalongs were fabu. But it doesn't make up for the severely subpar teaching, the reusing of the same curriculum every year, the nasty admin, and the overall confusion of vision with a high price tag. Do not recommend this school beyond kindergarten at all!

Our daughter is three and a half, and she just finished her first year of preschool (Primary) at…read moreParkside. We couldn't be more pleased to have her attending this special school. From top to bottom, it's an excellent program with marvelous staff and leadership, and a wonderful community. Some of things we love most about Parkside: it's uniquely and authentically Montessori, which was important to us when we were looking at schools. The teachers (called guides) are loving, creative, and thorough in their teaching methods. We were blown away when barely a month in, our daughter came home singing about all the continents of the world! The 12-acre campus is beautiful and well maintained. The kids get lots of outdoor time and often take hikes together as a class. They learn to value and sing about nature, including our new favorite song, "Chlorophyll" written by the founders. Music is a big part of Parkside life, and at least 1-2 events a week are organized around it (parents are invited to participate as well). We've enjoyed all the opportunities for families to get involved at Parkside and we've made some great friends already. Even through the craziness of the pandemic, Parkside staff led the way with through health protocols and regular communication with Austin Public Health to keep the kids safe and allow school to continue. In short, we've found Parkside to be an amazing, friendly, beautiful place that is nurturing our daughter to her full potential. We highly recommend it!

Toured the school and submitted application and fee. Received absolutely no communication in…read moreresponse even after following up myself.

Had a few hiccups in the beginning with a teacher that's no longer there. The rest of the staff are…read morewonderful and treat the kids with such kindness. I definitely recommend.

After a few years in one of the best-rated public schools in the area, we realized that our…read moredaughter was not thriving in the high structure, high pressure environment that is public education. In an effort to find a schooling alternative that would feed her curiosity and creativity, we embarked on a tour of a handful of private elementary options in the south Austin and Hays County area. Because of the long commute and high financial commitment, Cedars Montessori did not rank high on our preliminary list. During our tour of their beautiful campus, Cedars offered us the opportunity to sit in a classroom and quietly observe our daughter's prospective class. What we experienced was absolutely magical: Three grade levels of children working independently, in partners, and in groups; teachers completely focused on their students; a warm, organized but cozy classroom with seating options to meet every child's needs. If you have ever spent time in a public school classroom, you know that it's usually either silence or chaos. The vibe just felt peaceful and productive. When we took the leap and moved our daughter into Cedars Montessori's Lower Elementary, we were thrilled to watch her love for school blossom. She has lots of opportunities for play and exploration. She's learning valuable skills during wilderness, gardening, and handwork classes. And she's finding an internal motivation toward writing, math, and research projects. We wish this type of learning environment could be available for everyone and feel so immensely privileged to have our child in this program. If you are looking for something different and wonderful, Cedars Montessori is truly an incredible school and a magical place to send your child.

We spent three years here: one in primary and two in lower elementary. We felt so grateful to find…read morethis place our first year. We were very happy with the teacher and the programming, and the school offered many opportunities to build community. At the end of the first year, there was a large change in leadership, and conditions have deteriorated considerably. It became apparent to our family that the administration was no longer acting in the interest of the children. The school is owned and run by a family. It is a for-profit institution with no oversight or accountability. The current leadership's actions indicate the school's purpose is to support themselves and maintain a bizarre class structure for the benefit of the family's children. The nepotism has become so overt that even our young children are expressing examples. Funding favors advertising and recruiting new students over recruiting and retaining qualified staff or providing quality programming. All community-building opportunities have been undermined or dismantled. Parents are shut-out. Communication is abysmal, unprofessional at best. Concerns are gas-lighted. Grownups behave poorly and do not lead by example. There are no benchmarks for academics and children are assessed as behind at other institutions. The teachers withhold recess as punishment. The focus on the outdoors, how much time the children spend outside, the children interacting with animals, how nature is incorporated into the curriculum: it's a facade. Now that we have begun anew at a new school, we remember the excitement and hopefulness that we once had for our children at Cedars before we became habituated to wild disorganization, dysfunction, and dread. Some really amazing families and staff have held on through some very challenging times with memories of what it once was and with hope that things would get better, that our children could still thrive there. Yet the school is rehiring failed staff and even more family. There is now a mass exodus of both students and quality staff, with the realization that our children don't have any more time to waste on selfishness, greed, and gross ineptitude.

Just a quick update to my previous review which is much more detailed. Our son has now been at…read moreRawson Saunders for 2 full years and absolutely loves it. He is learning so much and is very happy. He still struggles with reading, but the blessing is that his learning is not dependent upon his reading. I highly, highly recommend you visit RS if your child is dyslexic.

Fabulous school, where the children's needs come first! The teachers are dedicated to providing…read morequality education with an emphasis on community and achieving goals. Love this school!

We love the Huntington-Surrey School. It is what school should be! The teachers at HS love teaching…read morethere because they can enjoy their profession, without worrying about huge class sizes or standardized testing. Very small class sizes ensure that nobody gets left behind. This is a quality not quantity place. The school has a wonderful, caring environment and we are thrilled that we discovered it.

Huntington Surrey has provided an excellent education to my daughter during her four years of…read moreattendance. The most striking feature of the school is the very small class size and the extraordinary personal attention that each child receives from the school's devoted staff. Nearly all of the teachers have taught at the school for a long period of time. Dr. German has operated the school since the 70's, and has a masterful knowledge of how to work with high school students. Without fail, I found each teacher and advisor to be fully committed to my daughter's education, and meticulous in their assessment of strenghs and weaknesses. More importantly, these teacher had the time to dovetail the curriculum to the needs so carefully determined. I have no doubt that my daughter's success relied upon this very unique approach to education. This small, nurturing environment has afforded my daughter a very enriching high school experience. She blossomed at Huntington Surrey. She leaves well prepared for college, and with happy memories of her high school years. For this, I am very grateful to the school, and to its remarkably-devoted faculty.