I can't say enough amazing things about Prospect Sierra. Our family feels incredibly grateful to…read morehave found this school and be a part of this wonderful community. Prospect Sierra is a truly exceptional elementary school (K-4 at lower and 5-8 at upper) that fosters a welcoming and vibrant community where diversity is celebrated both among students and faculty. There is a strong emphasis on emotional intelligence woven throughout their curriculum which feels balanced with their focus on academics. The school provides a warm and nurturing environment for holistic development and has the support of learning specialists, a wonderful school psychologist, etc. The faculty is beyond exceptional and in my opinion what sets Prospect Sierra apart. The teachers and administration are all dedicated educators that embody PS's commitment to leading with respect and joy and creating an environment that fosters a love for learning. My daughter is genuinely excited and happy to go to school every day! Prospect Sierra has a very well-rounded enrichment curriculum that creates a rich and engaging learning experience. Specialty classes include drama, music, art, Co-Lab, and Spanish to name a few. With two teachers in each classroom we certainly feel the personalized attention and extra support. The afterschool program is also wonderful and my daughter has enjoyed participating in the afterschool program classes such as cooking, legos, chess, judo, etc.! The campus and the physical spaces including the classrooms and enrichment rooms are beautiful. The school does an exceptional job with communicating with the parents (via emails, a fabulous newsletter, etc) and there are plenty of opportunities for families to get involved (as much or as little as they want to!) including volunteering in the specialty classes, driving for field trips or leading a school committee. The school is also extremely committed to diversity which is woven throughout the curriculum. As part of the professional development, they recently sent a large number of the faculty to a POCC conference, there are family cohorts and racial cohorts for students including a Black, AAPI, LatinX, Pride and Swana cohort and lots of cultural celebrations throughout the year. Beyond 5 stars! We have had the best experience and pinch ourselves everyday that PS is a part of our family and our child's development.

My children love this school, and at the end of each day, they do not want to leave!…read more This is a well-resourced, beautiful school perched at the top of the El Cerrito Hills. The school culture, which has become our home culture, is one of overt and active kindness. My children learn in an environment of safety and celebration of difference, and from my perspective, the school's administrators actively seek to build community wherever possible, and the faculty actively work to remove all barriers to learning.

After leaving my son's other middle school this was so much better. There was this cool ass mother…read morefucker named Memphis Razack and made my sons week during the sick ass Washington DC field trip. Luxury hotel and cool sights as I saw with the different photos my son sent

I volunteered at King Middle School through the Be-A-Scientist program when I was a graduate…read morestudent (Ph.D.) in geophysics (volcanoes and planetary interiors) at the University of California, Berkeley. I participated in the program during autumn semester in 2015. As part of the program I was assigned a group of four 7th grade students to bring the scientific method to life through interactive and hands-on experiment design and execution. We, Be-A-Scientist volunteers, came in on a near weekly/bi-weekly basis to make progress in each student's project. The week's session was always in the theme of one of the steps of the scientific method. This way by the end of the semester the students had designed and performed their own scientific study/experiments according to the scientific method. Each session we went over each student's project discussing it as a small group so they could get feedback from others in the group and hone their communication skills. They also wrote up what they were doing, sometimes including drawing graphs/plots, and if it was a week dedicated to the 'experiment' step in the scientific method they performed experiment trials/experiments. I enjoyed that we were able to develop an experiment for each individual student and thoroughly enjoyed the experiments my students decided upon. One tested different substances on slices of bread to see which generated the most bacteria, one wiped different surfaces with Q-tips to see which yielded the most bacteria, one tested different potting mixtures to see which was best for growing plants, and one dried different fruits to see which one evaporated the most moisture. Some of the results from these projects, such as Q-tips wiped on the wall having less bacteria than Q-tips out of the container, were down right shocking. All of the students in my group were great, expressing mush enthusiasm for the task(s) at hand and each had their own distinct inquisitive style. I have only good memories of my time volunteering with these students and at King Middle School. If you are a visitor here, like I was, there is a main office where you need to sign-in when you arrive to the school and sign-out when you leave. This way the school can keep track of who you are, why you are here, when you are here, and what classroom(s)/teacher(s)'s classes you are visiting while you are here. We were allowed to use only the faculty/staff restrooms when were volunteering.

I used to go to this school and it was one of the best if i must say, the teachers were amazing and…read morevery helpful, the other staff were very nice and easy to talk to. The students got along very well with one another and the teachers. I would recommend this school to everyone .

Dear parents who drive your kids to this school: Why do you insist on double parking on both sides…read moreof the street when you drop your kids off in the morning? You're creating a traffic jam in the mornings (I can't go around you when there are three cars in a row doing this, and some other idiot has decided to double park in the opposite direction).. and it's DANGEROUS when you send your kids running across the middle of the street rather than having them use the crosswalk. Please pull over at the end of the block where there's more curb space.

If there was an option to give 0 stars I would. I want to share my experience to any parents whose…read morechildren are entering middle school in hopes that you will change your mind and look into different middle schools. Due to this situation, for the upcoming school year my grandson will be attending Willard middle school for 7th grade. I've been meaning to share this for some time now but since my grandson will no longer attend long fellow here it goes. There's a particular staff member / teacher at the school, she typically wears a UC Berkeley sweater and a bucket hat and sunglasses. who has consistently treating my grandson in an unnecessarily aggressive manner during pickup. She yells at him to get off his bike and gets in his face and tried to take the bike away from him and tells him to walk the bike and not to ride it ( also in the mornings ) which has made both him and me uncomfortable. It reached the point where I had to start parking and walking over just to help with his bike, and yet she continues to complain. I understand the need for rules and safety, but there are far better ways to communicate with children especially with kindness and patience. To the new students coming in and parents good luck if you come across this staff member or teacher I hope this behavior is addressed as it does not reflect the supportive environment we expect from educators.

LOVE IT great school and its great teacher nice love it great school nice parking lot for play…read moreground

very unsafe stabbings and fights everyday horrible for kids close them down…read morethis is not a good school there is a high number of fight videos and a lot of our children are getting hurt in these schools

I have visited this campus over that last four years, the campus is clean and the layout is easy…read morebecause it's really small compare to others. The gym looks nice, the adjacent restrooms for visitors are destroyed. The students really love to reek havoc on their own school. The staff are great to work with.

Personally, when I started my daughter in this school district I was very apprehensive. Her kinder…read moreyear was in private school and most of her first year was at a Charter School in the south bay. I wasn't a fan of public schools growing up - even less when doing research for my daughter. I handpicked this district because it's one of the best in California and it hasn't disappointed. I find that everyone I come in contact with at her school, Berkeley Arts Magnet, is oriented to her ultimate success as an individual. I feel very lucky that my daughter goes to this school and I intend to stay here. Also, the process of getting into Berkeley Unified School District isn't easy, there's a lot that has to get done and the ladies at the school district were wonderful. They made navigating a large task reasonably painless and for that I am grateful!

Great school! Amazing programs, academics, and sports. Most teachers really care. Good principal.read more

Review #095 - 2020…read more My son attended Miramonte HS for all four years so I'm sure he has no way of comparing it to other high schools since all his cousins make fun of him for being "privileged". I went to Richmond High School for four years--so as a mother, I'd never want to send my child to anywhere that I felt uncomfortable with. My son has mentioned that he liked most of his teachers, minus a few that he wished he never had to be in their classes. Academic-wise, Orinda is known for having some of the best schools; but I have to admit that most parents that send their kids to Orinda schools are a little pretentious. They believe that their kids are "privileged" so they try to be accepting of "under privileged" kids and allow them into the schools even when they don't live in our neighborhood. I appreciate their so called "kindness", but I worked my butt off as a parent to get out of Richmond (one of the worse neighborhoods in California) just so I can own a home in Orinda--not so someone can feel sorry for me for being from the hood, but I digress. My son's social distancing graduation on June 1st, 2020, definitely had me in tears because all the staff members did a wonderful job of putting everything together even though it wasn't easy going through the pandemic. Overall, I'm still undecided as to whether I want my 4-year old to attend Orinda schools.

As public schools go, this is a good one to consider despite the less-than-attractive architecture…read morethat greets prospective parents when visiting. We originally were disappointed with our assignment here (let's put it this way: Berkeley asked us to make our top 3 choices for schools where our kids would go. We did not get choice #1, #2, or #3. Welcome to Berkeley...) The school has an amazing garden which has been up and running since before 1908 (they have photos which document the life of this garden). The gardening teacher is cool! Her name is Tara and she is swell! The cooking classes use food grown in the garden and the lunches are all 100% ORGANIC!!! No weird stuff, no hormones in the milk, no growth hormones/antibiotics, etc. Every single kid gets a 100% organic Universal Breakfast at 10:00 each morning regardless of family income. It's a given, like PE (duh! Kids need exercise and good food in order to learn...we can't count on the government to figure that out. Remember Reagan telling us all that ketchup counted as a vegetable....) Anyway, sorry about the tangent, I just think this is such a cool arrangement. Here's the greatest part of the whole thing (for me, anyway). Every Monday morning there is an assembly welcoming the kids back to school and encouraging parents to stay. There is a teacher, Mr. Ted Watson, who is AMAZING!!! He leads the kids in campy songs that make me laugh so hard I almost pee my pants (imagine the average 3rd grader). My all-time favorite song is "The Weeny Man". Here's some lyrics and you decide: I know a weeny man He runs a weeny stand He sells most everything from hot dogs on down. Someday I'll join his life I'll be his weeny-wife. Hot Dog!! I love the Weeny Man!!! Well, there's more but you get the gist...Who wouldn't love this?! This teacher gives me faith that teachers can be fun, cool, get kids' attention, and have fun learning. Hot Dog!! I love the teachers at this school! The principal is cool, too. If you live in Berkeley, and you're bummed you didn't get into the fancy school on the hill (you know which one...), please give Washington a chance. It has a lot to offer. 4 Stars b/c some of the teachers need to retire or just quit teaching, most are good tho'. The cafeteria ladies remain humorless despite the high quality food offered.

I volunteered for Ms. Talbott's class a few years back and I had the most wonderful experience…read moreever. Ms. Talbott is one of the leading teachers at Washington Elementary in equity, forward thinking and compassionate teaching. The school board should model their philosophy after her teaching standards and practices. My work schedule does not permit me to volunteer anymore but for all of the parents out there looking for a stellar Kindergarten teacher at Washington, try to get into Ms. Talbott's class.