Came here for a field trip and the staff was great in the sense that they had everything so…read moreorganized for the students attending the field trip!!

Katherine Johnson Middle School (known affectionately as KJ by students) was formerly Lanier Middle…read moreSchool. It was renamed in 2020, for NASA mathematician, Katherine Johnson, exemplifying the school's focus on values and equity. The school's teachers and faculty worked hard to get my 7th grader acclimated to the middle school environment and made the transition very smooth. My child has come home singing the praises of multiple teachers. I'm very grateful for their support and guidance as we all know these teen years can pose many challenges.

I've known the school owner/director at CMS for 30 years. My 2 kids went there back when the…read morelocation was in Herndon, and my granddaughter just graduated their preschool program a couple of weeks ago. You will not find a better Montessori preschool for your little ones! Everyone who works at CMS treats the children like they are their own. They have so many engaging and specialty programs and a terrific summer session, too! Multiple staff members have been there for a long time (two decades or more), and every one is highly trained and competent. The school itself is clean and organized, with large classrooms that are set up to encourage learning and exploration. The huge playground is tree-covered and always monitored. There are fun family activities sprinkled in throughout the year like a kid's carnival and spring tea where parents are invited. If you're looking for a place where your children will enjoy learning and be valued as individuals, you will surely find a home at Community Montessori School.

I have two kids at CMS (3 years old and baby is 7 months old) and I couldn't be happier with their…read moredevelopment and learning experience. The staff is very friendly and the teachers are helpful and experienced. My son transferred from a church preschool and within a month, he could hold a pencil correctly and trace letters. I recommend this to any family that is looking for a safe, happy, family-oriented, learning experience for their child.

The teachers are very supportive of the students, and they provide great encouragement.read more

We toured many preschools before and even attended another one. My child love this school the best…read more The teachers are truly experienced and wonderful. They really care for the children with their heart and we get wonderful arts each week. We also made friends that we still keep in touch with after preschool from this place. The classes are in a small size so that each child get the attention they deserve. I also love their play based learning because at this age, I think it's more important for them to have fun while learning and my child knows his A B C's and learn to write his name from this school. If you want your child to love school and ask to go on weekends (lol), this is the place!!

From Hero to Zero. Our daughter attended this school July…read more2020 - Nov 2021, and unfortunately what started as a great experience and a happy child running to school each morning became a place looking to save money at the expense of anything and most importantly children's physical and emotional well-being. We've been patient and understanding over the past few months with the school's shortcomings, hoping these were all temporary issues, but came to believe that with the current management there is not much hope for the situation to improve. My husband gave this school 5 stars rating last year on Google - a year later we no longer feel this way. Between February 2021 and October 2021 I can name 10 people (staff) who quit. Even though high turnover is pretty typical for this industry, it is definitely a warning sign when people quit in double digits in less than a year's time frame. At some point management shared that they had a hard time finding people to fill open positions as "no one was coming to interviews''. Check the reviews from ex-employees on Indeed.com, you will understand why. The unanimity of the reviews and the issues specified is astounding. When we joined, the school was proudly advertising having their own chef on premises who was preparing fresh nutritious meals. Fast forward to summer/fall 2021 - there is no more chef, there is frozen cheap food from outside supplier. At some point our daughter started having stomach issues and we attribute it to the poor quality of food she was getting throughout the day. The epitome of how school was saving on food was when they denied my daughter her 5pm snack when I picked her up at 4:45 citing concerns for staff and students health as a reason. How handing out a prepackaged bag of crackers to kids on their way out before 5pm would be a health concern to anyone is still a mystery to us. Not to mention, that the weekly tuition included 5 meals a day, and handing the prepackaged snack does not require much extra work for anyone and was never an issue until recently. Last year kids were engaged in all sorts of activities - scientific experiments, gardening, cookie elections on Election Day, Halloween events for families. It surely felt like the school was putting effort into making their students' time meaningful, exciting and engaging. Over the past few months this all went to zero too. Not a single day of waterplay during hot summer days - the kids and the teachers were just stuck inside. Nothing for Halloween or any other holiday they put on the monthly calendar. Their daily activities started being repetitive and primitive. Lately whenever we asked our daughter about her day at preschool she would mostly share with us who was hurt during the day and who needed ice because they were hurt. We reached out to the teachers who left and asked their experience and their opinion on the situation. After what was shared with us, it becomes quite understandable why school stopped being a pleasurable experience for our daughter on all counts. If the teachers are overworked, overstressed, underpaid, not given an opportunity to take bio breaks when needed, not provided with materials to be able to do fun educational activities with the kids, how do you expect the teachers to provide high quality education? As great as they were, our teachers looked exhausted by the time we dropped our daughter off in the morning - how can you expect them to go above and beyond when they are constantly stressed and tired? We spoke with other families about their experience and heard more stories, including using timeout as a discipline method and management not communicating transmittable diseases going in other classes. We are very grateful to the teachers that our daughter had during her time at Primrose Reston, but we are very sad and disappointed in the management and how they made once great school the one that not just employees, but families started fleeing.

We paid a premium for childhood development and in the two years we've been there it has become a…read morepoorly managed daycare. We had no other choice but to abruptly pull our kids out in fear for their mental health, lack of classroom structure and control, lack of communication from management and overall a careless, heartless environment. After a slew of red flags I connected the dots and believe the mental health, and potentially physical health, of the children in this school are not prioritized. Until the current management is no longer associated with this business I would not trust my children going here. The teachers are the only opportunity you have for your child to have a good experience, and all of them end up leaving. Just look at Indeed.com reviews. The owner uses Covid as an excuse for everything when really it is just very poor management. After months of vague or unresponsive communication regarding curriculum and class structure I started digging. Through the children in the classroom and other parents I learned that my daughters teacher allowed several girls to call themselves and each other "bad girls". The teacher confirmed she knew this was going on to my face the day we pulled them out. I also learned there is a table dedicated to timeout, when ownership states time out is never used to discipline. Over a six week period I asked my daughter the same questions on her experience at school; "Who did you play with, who was kind to you, who were you kind to...", and began seeing concerning patterns of negative self talk, resistance to answer and anger. I talked to other parents and several were also having other issues ie. their younger kids being covered in pee at pick up repetitively, lack of kindness to their upset daughter, teachers being too rough, etc. The straw that broke my back was the night my usually sweet, upbeat almost 4 year old told me on the brink of tears that she was a "bad girl". This is where my one-star review begins. Primrose teachers can not babysit for kids that attend the school. I started asking teachers that had left about their experiences and why they left and OMG I CANT EVEN TELL YOU how mad I became. Teachers don't have enough material to perform the activities planned for each day, much less have necessary training from leadership. Then I learned MORE about the lack of support from leadership ie. not coming when they needed to go to the bathroom, editing the daily reports and incident reports, I could go on and on. The teachers are over worked, under paid and stressed. A year ago the school highlighted their onsite chef and fresh food prepared daily. Now the food is whatever is cheapest for the business. Everything feels like that. Cheap cheap cheap. They stopped putting effort into keeping this school what it used to be. They did nothing for 2021 graduation or Halloween. Since 2020 they have done nothing to help parents meet each other or connect. The owner sits in their office with no mask, with their dog, and requires anyone three and older to wear a mask for the entire day. We are so grateful to have had good teachers while we did, they shielded us from all of this...but once we were no longer with them (Sept 2021) it got bad QUICKLY. Oh, and it's way over priced. $3,000 a month for two kids? Now I'm pivoting work to homeschool till we find a better spot for my amazing kids. This school is NOT what Primrose corporate says it offers. There a million other schools in our area, keep looking!!!

PLEASE READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES…read more This school is the worst school I've ever seen. first of all they give way too much homework. the homework is so much that i have to do the homework for the whole day! And the homework is way too hard that we had to hire a tutor to come every day! Second of all is uniform. The uniform in this school is so uncomfortable and we have to buy about 20 uniform and they don't even give us money to buy the uniform. Third of all is the costs. The school is so so so! Expensive even with the uniform and the tutor and the lunch menus and the monthly payments and the stuff for the science fair and the school supplies! Fourth of all is the size. The school is sooo small that every grade has one classroom. And the staff is so little there's not enough of them. and so is the school playground. The school playground is in a parking lot and we have to play carefully and stop playing just because of the cars. And there's only a tiny playground that's a house playground that doesn't even have a swing and only first and second graders can use it!. Fifth of all, is teaching. the teachers DO NOT EVEN TEACH they just test us all the time and rely on textbooks and the teachers call their family members and even put their country song to not let us focus. And finally Sixth of all is dismissal. they don't have busses because it's a broke school and they dismiss Students with a website that is always rigged when i see my car they don't call it and i have to wait 7-10 minutes. and when students are called their names are still on the screen. I am so so so upset and disappointed for what this school has done! the whole school is lying about their best private school, trust me! And don't attend this school or believe in the 5 star reviews. I had experience and i hate this school! take your kids out of this school if you want them to graduate! If you don't know what school to go to then go to bull run elementary school. who would make such a school like this!

I have 2 kids been this school 2 years ago, then I moved my house little far, I had to take my kids…read morefrom pinnacle to public. It has been 2 years but still my kids ask me to send them pinnacle academy again. They loved that school a lot, now I heard they move new location which is closer right now, and we decided to send kids back pinnacle academy for next year again. I definitely recommend pinnacle academy for everyone.

The head of the school told us repeatedly that there are 2 kinds of children in the world: those…read morewho belong at the school and those who don't. She told us her own children would not have done well at the school. This is after repeatedly badgering us to withdraw our child from primary care after 1 week because he did not clean up his 'materials' from his 'work' and had trouble sitting still in circle time. Maybe this is some people's idea of a good education but sounds foreign to the Montessori method. We found such a more welcoming and amazing Montessori school just a few minutes down the road where our child prospered and is now excelling in elementary.

We absolutely love SHMS!! Our two children have attended since they were 18 months old (my oldest…read moreis entering Kindergarten at SHMS this fall!). The staff and teachers are warm, caring and kind but also encourage academic growth in a challenging and developmentally appropriate way. It was the perfect way to start their schooling! We love SHMS and highly highly suggest it!! I wish there were more stars to give this special place!!

I am a member of the class of 2025 and I want to share what four years here have felt like from the…read moreinside. The biggest problem is consistency. Rules exist in the handbook but they rarely get enforced in daily life. Students notice this quickly. When deadlines get ignored and consequences rarely follow, effort drops. Many classmates stopped studying because they know they will still pass. Instead of learning material, a lot of students copy work from each other or rely on AI tools to finish assignments and even quizzes. The environment slowly trains people to aim for completion instead of understanding. Teaching quality also varies a lot. Some teachers explain clearly and care about whether students understand. Others rush through slides, assign work without context, and move on whether anyone gets it or not. When students feel lost and no one checks in, they stop asking questions. Over time classes turn into grade management instead of education. Students memorize short term facts, submit work, and forget it immediately after. Lunch is another daily frustration. Prices are high compared to portion size and quality. Meals often feel closer to convenience food than something prepared fresh. I got sick after eating there once and several friends have said the same. The cafeteria also only has two microwaves. Because many students bring food from home, lines stack up fast. Waiting ten minutes is normal and arguments happen over who was first. I have seen people push in front of others and threaten them over a place in line. Staff rarely step in unless it becomes loud. Substance use happens more often than people expect from a private school. Students leave class claiming they need the restroom and go vape or smoke. It is common knowledge which bathrooms people use for this. Yet students almost never get caught. When problems do surface, they tend to disappear quietly. Discipline does not always feel equal either. Some students face harsh punishment while others seem protected. There are also situations where administration response feels more focused on avoiding attention than addressing behavior. Incidents get handled internally and rarely discussed openly with the student body. Because of this, rumors spread and trust drops. Students start believing rules depend on who you are instead of what you did. Tuition is another major concern. The yearly cost is close to college level unless families meet certain religious qualifications for a lower rate. At the same time, resources inside the school do not always match the price. The campus added a new building recently and money feels tight in other areas. Programs shrink, teachers leave, and students notice classes getting larger or combined. From the outside the school looks structured and high achieving. Tours highlight facilities, uniforms, and college acceptance banners. Daily life feels different. Many students focus on getting by instead of improving. Cheating is common, discipline feels uneven, and basic services like lunch and supervision struggle to keep up. After four years here, my honest view is simple. The school has potential and some great teachers, but the overall experience does not match the cost or reputation. Families looking at it should talk to current students and not rely only on appearances.

Let me preface this by saying that I am a senior at PVI in the class of '25. I am not writing this…read moreout of hate, but of experience. Most of the teachers here never enforce rules, nor do they teach in a way that students can easily understand. This latency leads to many students developing (if not already developed) an entitlement ideology, which leads to them using things like chatgpt in order to cheat on assignments and tests because they don't feel like they need to complete them. The cafeteria food is overpriced, not safe for regular consumption, and not that good. I got food poisoning one day because I had something from the cafeteria. They also only have 2 microwaves in the cafeteria for those who wish to reheat food, leading people to either over-pack microwaves or wait upwards of 10 minutes at a time to get their food. I was even threated by another student that he would "slime me" because I wouldn't give him my spot in the microwave line. They have a large drug problem, kids often get out of classes to smoke or vape or huff in the bathrooms, and are not usually caught. The only way this doesn't get out to the public is because they are scarily good at covering up the bad stuff here. During my freshman year one of the male juniors had sex with a female freshman in one of the confessionals and when the school administration found out, only the freshman was expelled and the situation was covered up. The charge what is worth of a college (More than $22k per year), unless you are both baptized and confirmed (I believe it is around $12k per year). They are in a great state of debt due to their latest purchase of a new building and will do anything (including firing a teacher) in order to avoid getting sued. All in all, do not go to this school. Its education prowess is at the same level as a regular, public high school. Most of its students cheat on tests and do not care about having sex or doing drugs at school. It costs outrageous amounts of money and will cover up any discourse in its property. It is all empty looks with nothing going on behind the scenes

Our grandson was painfully shy around adults and other children even after 2 years of preschool…read more  His parents were afraid distance learning kindergarten would be a disaster for him.  They enrolled him in kindergarten at Dominion and what a difference in a year!  Now he helps add up the scores when we play UNO and writes them down.  He reads the road signs to us when we travel.  But what really amazed us was the kindergarten graduation, when he was able to stand up in front of the assembly and read.  It wasn't the reading--all of the children had a chance to show off what they had learned.  It was the fact that he could speak in front of strangers, and afterward it warmed my heart to see him running around the playground with a pack of little boys.  He has gained so much confidence and I know that my son and daughter-in-law are very happy with the care and education our grandson received at Dominion.

THIS is THE best kept secret in NOVA education. They've been quietly building a tremendous…read moreeducation platform. There are 2 separate campuses-- one on Vale Rd for the lower school and one in Isaac Newton Square in Reston for mid/hi school. (If you have kids in both they run a shuttle.) GREAT bang for your buck-- particularly in mid and high school!!! (And there is plenty of assistance money to go around.) This is a CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN education. (Google classical education model for the pedagogy explanation.) The MIDDLE and HIGH school should be considered by any family who wants their kid to be a problem solver with strong reasoning, logic, writing, data synthesizing, presentation, morality-based skills. It certainly teaches from a Christian world view but the method allows kids to learn why they think what they think and to question and understand. It is still pretty small-- but it is Up and Coming. Check out the web site for the list of schools their kids get into and without all the hours of homework and drudgery you see in the traditional model schools-- The Ivies, UVA, Tech, Bucknell, --the list goes on. WHY are these kids getting in when others do not? -- The Classical Education model coupled with the Harkness instructional model (think Socratic/Phillips Exeter.) Don't miss out on their information sessions and take the tour and put your kid there for the shadow day. Your student will notice the difference in the quality of education and caliber of instructors. The instructors really are key in making kids take responsibility and own their own work product, habits etc. Engage a high schooler in a conversation. They will knock off your socks: eye contact, ease of conversation, graceful self-assurance, interest in and ability to discuss the world. (And that all comes through in those college applications and interviews!) Moreover, they are compassionate, aware of others, fun loving, accepting of others and dedicated to integrating the values of their faith into their lives and work. It really is a great combination. The lower school provides a good education. Small classes, conservative Christian ethos, very involved parents (some a little over the top but all seem to care about every kid there and you don't see the competition between parents you see so many places). Principal and teachers know every single kid and family and truly are knit into the families. Seems to work really well for kids who don't mind a fairly traditional classroom environment and homework. Instead of American Idol, these kids learn the basics through study of the ancient world and church history from a staff who cares about and prays with and for them. It has a throwback feel to it that is nice in today's world of shoving kids into too much too soon. Are there problems? Of course! Helicopter parents? Welcome to NOVA! I do think the administration here does a better job than most of hand holding those parents and taking their issues in stride. Lots of volunteer opportunities? You betcha! But the ethos is changing to better accommodate dual working families. The community overall is very accepting and is genuinely caring and supportive. Pretty much everybody in the community takes their walk with The Lord very seriously and incorporates that true essence in their dealings with their kids, the school and other parents. Does my child go there? Yes- and is quick to point out how strongly he feels about the quality of education he receives. Why only 4 stars? Because they haven't completed their metamorphosis to the level of excellence that I know they can achieve. They have new, strong, capable leadership to get them there. Make no mistake, they have already achieved excellence well worth considering for your student.