5/2: Update: It's a different school now. The below review no longer relevant. I have no knowledge…read moreof the current school. The most amazing "little school that could". My son just graduated and we were looking back at what he achieved. It's simply incredible. School plays, lego league, chess, debate, technology club, VEX Robotics World Championships competing against high schools in California and of course solar cars, where Woodlands come home with armfuls of prizes. Great teachers who really care and classes sizes you wouldn't believe. (4-6, but not above 8 was our experience). He learned a lot and turned out a most polite young man. Would strong recommend - contact me for any more details!

A hidden gem! We…read moremoved to Castle Pines in January (from out of state) & only recently found Woodlands Academy in Castle Rock. I wish I had found them sooner. My 10 year old had been in the gifted program at her old school, had been doing well & loved school. While Douglas County school district has an open enrollment policy and a ton of charter/magnet schools, you can't actually get into any of them when you move in the middle of the year (in addition to missing the lottery for the following year). Our neighborhood elementary school was awful. I had a bad feeling about it the first time we visited it & have learned my lesson about listening to myself. It got worse over time until I was desperate to find another place (& had to promise my daughter that she would not have to go back there for 5th grade--no matter what--just to get her to be willing to get up & go to school every morning). She never had any homework, including math, and never had any make-up work when she was out sick--including a whole week she was out when we finished moving which the teachers knew about ahead of time. No assignments whatsoever. And there was no communication about anything they were studying or about any tests/projects/grades or anything. Luckily, I happened upon the Woodlands Academy while looking for another school for the following year, having promised my daughter that she would not have to go back to her old school. After applying, she went to shadow at the school to see if she liked it, while also giving them the opportunity to test her to see if she would be a good fit for their academically accelerated program. As it turns out, we were lucky that a new charter school had opened close by and had taken a lot of their students, so they had openings!!! The school was so fabulous I couldn't believe it. Very small classes with lots of one-on-one attention. They have lots of outside activities like going to the opera and hiking local places. It was so impressive that I withdrew my daughter from the local public school and am having her finish out the year there. I wouldn't normally think that would be a good idea, but she wasn't learning anything at her old school, so I couldn't imagine it being negative in any way. She went to shadow and never went back to her old school. Thankfully, the small classes allow the teachers to help catch my daughter up in things that she missed learning during her months in public school (important things that all 4th graders need to know for future school success). She loves going to school again! Now she comes home excited about debate class, learning a foreign language (they offer Spanish, French, German & Latin) and building a battery powered car (the middle schoolers designed solar powered) in technology class. If you are looking for an alternative school choice for an exceptional 1st-8th grader, I highly recommend Woodlands Academy. We are excited to have a great place lined up for next year. If I had found them sooner, or my about to be 8th grader hadn't already gotten into the STEM School & Academy for next year, I would pull her out of her enormous middle school and gladly send her to the Woodlands Academy where she could get the attention she deserves as an above average student who is clearly not getting enough attention focussed on her with her classes of 30+ students at the local middle school (which had great reviews, btw).

I am a graduate of DCHS from the 90's and sent my kiddo here as we live close and I had a good…read moreexperience. However, my son had a terrible time at DC. He is a good student, super social, has great friends, is in student leadership and government and is a great kid. While at DC he had a group of girls use safe to tell as a weapon against him, they had his car vandalized, they posted they wanted him dead on social media and the school did virtually nothing. In fact the school pulled him into the office, searched his body (with no reasoning, I was told this is protocol for being in the office), left him in a room for 4 hours with no bathroom or access to water and then sent him home without contacting his parents not caring what happened to him he left. My jittery teen was near tears, almost had an accident and was lucky to get home safely. This is a small snippet of what we dealt with over the course of a year. Administration is inept at DC in my opinion. I work in another school in the district and have never seen such behavior from a group of adults. I moved my son to Legend and now he is getting straight A's, the admin is lovely and the kids are kind, he's really shining. I wish I could do it all over again. If your not sure about DC do yourself a favor and try searching Instagram for DC related pages where you will find student owned anonymous pages where they post terrible and illegal photos of each other on campus doing horrendous things with the DC logo as their image. DC doesn't seem to care about this happening on their campus. In fact bathrooms at DC are closed right now because students are masturbating into the drains and blocking up the system, don't know about you, but I would rather not send my kids somewhere like this.

I graduated from DCHS in '74, our youngest son graduated this year. We have lived all over the…read morecountry, and of our 4 children, our youngest was the only one to go to the same high school as I did. It is nice to see that standards haven't changed. I loved this high school, way back when it was the only high school in Douglas County, Highlands ranch didn't exist and Dry Creek was a dirt road. The teachers were what made this high school and I feel very fortunate to have gone here. Thank you Mr. Gammon and Mrs White. I miss the "old days" when teachers could reach out and hug you, when you and your best friend decide to "miss the buss" so that you didn't have to take the scheduled test 1st hour, your science teacher sees you walking up front street, stops his car to find out why you are walking, insists you get in the car so you don't miss first hour and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. You certainly wouldn't see that today! Thank you DCHS for the wonderful memories!

I went to this school two years ago and we had a 90 minute delay with 8 inches of snow, then with…read more-4 degrees we had a 90 minute delay.

I can proudly say my class was the first 7th grade class...EVER...at Castle Rock Middle…read moreSchool...and so...the school gets 5 (five) stars out of loyalty and gratitude. If you visit the immaculate school, I believe you may still find the long-ago painted-to-perfection clay tile still in place in the wall in mosaic like fashion (unless these wild preteens busted down this wall established by the elders). I remember making this tile well....in science class and featuring flowers and a hockey stick to represent...ME. The school is constructed out of immaculate..glass and nestled in the Beloved Douglas County Meadows.

My child also experienced bullying over the course of many years. After the principal and school…read morecounselor proved they weren't interested in resolving this problem, we removed our children from ACS. I would never recommend this charter school to any parent.

I am a recently graduated student from acs. Over the 5 years I was at acs I felt like I was not…read moreonly being drowned out by school work but also the disrespect of not only students, but also the teachers/staff. Starting out at the school I noticed a severe case of bullying from other students which I ended up experiencing myself. Some kids were physically hurt and others mentally, and the schools staff failed to punish or take the situation seriously when brought to them. When I was in 6th grade I was being bullied by multiple classmates and when I brought it to the counselor, nothing was resolved nor did she attempt to even speak with the students. I have noticed how much the school lacks in providing a safe environment when it comes to mental health and bullying for students. When I entered middle school the sheer amount of work pressed on us caused constant anxiety of failed grades and teacher relationships. Especially in 8th grade I found myself doing homework from the time I got home till dinner, then starting back up until late at night. Even after spending hours I still couldn't find the time to do it all. Many students found themselves falling behind in classes and not having the time to have fun extracurriculars to enjoy. Spending so long on homework caused a lack of sleep for the students making it harder to focus. Most teachers didn't seem to have the patience for it. If you weren't passing a class many teachers claimed you just didn't have good time management or didn't pay attention, instead of acknowledging how much work they forced on students. Teacher student relationships often struggled from this. However, giving acs one star goes out truly to the few teachers I found at that school that were really helpful and kind. It wasn't until middle school that I found a teacher willing to listen and provide a safe classroom along with stern advice and good teaching that has helped me become who I am now. He will remain an important mentor in my life. I also found that my 6th grade homeroom teacher helped me get through the tough times of that year. If you are planning on sending your children through this school, please prepare to set them up with therapy or consider moving them into online school instead. Most students I attended acs with have left the school with a lower self esteem, self worth, pride, and joy than children leaving 8th grade should. I even know a student in my grade who moved schools halfway through 8th grade year because of student and teacher disrespect. That student recently told me how toxic the acs environment truly was and how much better his new school ended up being. Reconsider sending your kid please.

Little bears is the best! My 3 year old loves going to school so much and since he's started Iv…read moreseen his confidence and independence grow. I feel blessed to have found such a great school with teachers I truly trust.

We found this school through one of our friends and we are so thankful that we did. We absolutely…read morelove miss Shelley & miss Kathleen. They are so good with the kids. Couldn't ask for a better preschool for daughter!!

There isn't much this school has going for it. Take advice from a former student (me, now a…read moresophomore in high school) who had come back to this yelp page to give good feedback for the school and advice for parents thinking about enrolling their student. First, don't base the enrollment of your student off this review but please take note as to what your child might experience at this school. Now, into my insight on this school. Though I had been there only from 1st-6th I had to transfer due to poor ability to put kids in the right classes and an awful 1:35 male to woman staff employment. As you can tell, it is very uncommon to have very little male staff members, and you might be wondering "could this school give more opportunity to succeed for a girl rather than a boy" the answer is yes. many sexist teachers flood the school every year and they seem to have a vendetta against male students. Though this could be blindly overlooked when your student is younger, by 5th grade, it becomes very obvious. Second, the teachers' ability to teach proper lessons is awful. The school hires younger teachers so they can pay them less, in hope to save money. It also seems that training doesn't exist at this school because some teachers seem very clueless as to what new students might need for resources. In all, this school should not be your primary choice but feel free to overlook this comment

AVA has been a great experience for our children. top notch teachers, an active PTO that provides…read moreplenty of volunteer opportunities, strong academic and sports programs are plentiful overlayed with character education at the center of everything. When combined with an amazing principal and school administration that always puts children's needs first, it's easy to see why this school has been voted Best of the Best for the last two years! https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/stories/best-of-the-best-2019,282899

Have been taking my son here for over SEVEN years. Mr. Leo A. encourages my son to push and do…read moremore, which is exactly what my son needs. He has helped him advance a year in school math.

My 9 year old has been doing so/so on his math throughout the years but as we went to the first…read moreparent-teacher conference for the school year last fall, I realize he was not doing so great and I knew his potential could be so much more, I wanted him to excel and enjoy Math as his dreams of being an engineer requires loads of numbers. If he did not enjoy math, how can he later? He was not thrilled about the idea of having to do more homework on a daily basis but I took him to the Kumon center in Castle Rock and after the initial visit he told me how much he liked Mr. Leo and how he could possibly enjoy it after all.. Its been about 5 months since he has been in the program and right before the new year, I received an update from his teacher complimenting how much progress he's made in the last few weeks. My son even came home one day and said "Mom, I got moved to a new math group in class and guess what? Its the smart group!". Hearing those words made me realize that this program is working for him and I only hope he'll continue on this path. I can tell he is more comfortable with numbers, has more confidence on his math homework from school and passes his math assessments with higher scores than I've ever seen. It does take a lot of persistence from us parents to motivate to get the daily worksheets done. We certainly have our good and bad days but Kumon has been great and my son really enjoys going to the center on the assigned days. Mr. Leo has been great and I know he truly cares about my son's knowledge. Thank you for everything Kumon!