Horrible. Rigid, unreasonably structural, not even remotely understanding of different needs. One…read morelittle girl (middle school age) wasn't allowed to leave her classroom to use the restroom. She actually needed to change her menstrual pad, but couldn't! Another child was denied a water fountain break after playing sports. And I could go on... The school is all about control and the headmaster's ego. And about school plays. . Please, keep your children far far away! There are other excellent private schools in our area and we are also fortunate enough to have very good public schools too.

Griffin Academy Preschool…read more We have not started the grade school yet so this is for the preschool only. We were so pleased with the preschool we are enrolling our son here for kindergarten. First and foremost - Don't be put off by the uniforms - this place is not some stuffy boarding school! The sense of community here this program's biggest strength and they work very hard to foster it. To us, it felt like an extended family, which I think is lacking so much in this area. The school provides so many opportunities for parents and family to engage with the school and the other students. It's also a very small preschool and grade school, so everyone gets to know each other. Even the older grade children engage with younger children on certain activities, which further enhances this sense of community across ages. Our child has been at the preschool for the past two years and I'm continually impressed by how well this program is run. It really is in a league of its own. I should note that we tried three other preschools before dining this gem, so we had a lot to compare to. The preschool teachers and admin have been working together for a while (+10 years) so it is a very well run machine. I always felt like my child was cared for and his best interests were at heart. Communication with the school was easy and transparent. The teachers and admin had an open door if I had any questions or wanted to talk more. The curriculum was fun and engaging. I felt like they thoroughly prepared him to enter kindergarten and to be a model young man. Just last week all the kids had caterpillars and watched them turn into butterflies over a few weeks. They constantly have these cool hands-on activities. We have another child and he will definitely be going here. I'm honestly so surprised it's not more popular, it is an incredible preschool program. All preschools in this area are $$$ and this program is no different. It's probably on the higher end, but it is 100% worth it. Cost was a big factor for us, but it's so so many miles ahead of the other schools that it was justified.

*****EDIT**** Nope…read more According to a few of the mothers who I still talk to and have their children attend there, it's honestly not as great... especially for POC . Ps- Audrey O is a faculty member so it's hard to take that review seriously. I appreciate her effort to improve the school's rating, however. *****EDIT***** Apparently the school got a total faculty makeover. Thank god. They caught on to the fact that there were some issues. So I moved my stars up slightly only because my children no longer attend there so I don't know what the environment is like there currently. I am still scarred from what I had to endure there for the few years my son did attend. However, I don't want to take away from the possibility that the school has improved. ************* It got to a point where I sent my child to a private school because I couldn't let my child go another year in this disaster of a school. Before, this school had raving reviews, but in the past few years- it has just been miserable. Many of the teachers here are pleasant but it's the administrative staff that I worry about. They do not seem engaged with their students nor truly care for their academic success. My child tended to have trouble in school and much of it had to do with his struggle with impulse. The teacher has been kind enough to "allow" an evaluation to take place but I have had so much push-back from the staff. I understand that it costs the school a great deal of money when doing an IEP, but it's for the benefit of the child! I just want to ensure that my child is getting the specialized instruction he needs in order to be confident in school. The year prior, he came home comfortable with the idea that he is just "not smart".That shouldn't ever be the case. My husband and I do our best to try and have him tutured at home, help him with reading, and occasionally see a specialist to assist with impulse control. Despite our efforts at home, my child still struggles at school. During my conference with the school however, I was informed by their assistant principle, Mrs. McNamee, that his issues were stemmed from the fact that he gets too much attention at home. What? Then they proceeded to still push back with getting my child any help until they FINALLY settled on having a 504 plan done. I want to give them the benefit of a doubt- but they have left me with the impression that that if your child has any type of disorder, language barrier, or disability- you're in for a world of grief here. Oh and heaven forbid you're a step parent. According to Mrs. McNamee, step parents dont have an opinion.

Braddock Elementary School is definitely a shining gem in Fairfax County. I am in and out of the…read moreschool every day and I can confidently say that the students are happy to be there. As a member of the PTA, I see teachers who go over and beyond for our kids. Parents, including me, are extremely engaged and volunteer countless hours. We are blessed that the administration allows our students the opportunity to participate in a wide range of after school activities that really enrich my kids. The staff and and administration genuinely live what they do and it truly shows. When your kids come home and all they can talk about is school you know you have them in a winning school! I swear that the principal must live there because she is there every single time I am in the school no matter what time of day! I really enjoy getting to talk to the parent liaison who always has time to listen when I need to talk! When my kids are challenged in such a warm, safe, and meaningful way they are on the path to becoming lifelong learners. This school is amazing and serves its widely diverse population well!

My almost-four-year-old son currently attends Griffin Academy. We are working parents and needed…read morefull-day care, and we did a pretty exhaustive search in the area for an affordable preschool. I cannot BELIEVE how lucky we are to have found this place. Let me tell you why you should send your kids here. Even before I talk about my son's experience, I need to mention how well this program is run. Kristine Lee, the preschool director, is one of the warmest, kindest, most competent and professional humans with whom I've had the pleasure of interacting. She was so responsive and helpful throughout our enrollment process that we felt like we were already family members from the first contact. This was not our experience with other preschool programs. Many private preschools, like the one our older daughter attended, have strict arbitrary rules, parent work hour requirements, and intimidating admission processes that (for us) made us feel a tiny bit unwelcome. None of this from Westminster. This private school, with its classical focus, has managed to wrap us in its arms and surround us with a community of funny, warm, and down-to-earth people. It feels EASY, not stressful, to attend school here. As private school first-timers, we had to adjust to uniforms, but it's been no sweat. Teachers. We knew that our son liked his teacher, and that she (and all of the Griffin teachers) had been kind to him, and patient as he adjusted to a full day of school. We were so incredibly impressed when we met her in person at back-to-school night. Beyond having exactly the personality you would want for a preschool teacher (gentle, nurturing, and understanding), Miss Horner brings incredible expertise and professional knowledge to her job as classroom teacher. I myself am a board-certified teacher, so I have some clue about what they do, and my son's teacher is at the top of her game. Literally every aspect of her students' experience seems to have been designed with their development in mind. Everything in the classroom is accessible to the children, with the goal of fostering their independence, improving their fine and gross motor skills, and promoting harmony. The children are taught to greet each other respectfully, refer to their classmates as "friends", and express appreciation frequently. We toured other schools in our search, and at some well-known schools, we were dismayed to notice that the teachers did not seem to have a loving relationship with their students. My son's teachers LOVE him, and it shows. This was the single most important thing that we as parents were looking for. Every child deserves to experience preschool in a class like my son's, and we cannot overstate how fortunate we feel to have landed here. Here are some other fun things that we love: - They go on field trips (on the Westminster bus!) on almost a monthly basis. That is so many out-of-class experiences! - Each classroom has an imaginative play area that changes monthly (post office! garden! cave! grocery store!). - You can pack your child's lunch, OR order hot lunch from their service! Or both! - Excite Soccer offers a short after-school class on Thursdays, and our son goes to this and LOVES it. - French. Library. Music. Science. Our preschooler's schedule is as varied and rich as our 1st-grader's. My son is a wiggly little boy. Was I worried that he wouldn't have enough opportunity to move and play in the course of his rigorous classical education? I was. I've got one word for you: GYMNASIUM. If you can show me another preschool where kids get to run around a huge gym first thing every single morning, I'll be astonished. My guy comes home happy and tired every day. I'm typing all of this because when we were looking for preschools, there weren't a lot of parent reviews to read, and parents need to know that this wonderful option is available. Look no further!

Our son went to Griffin Academy for preschool and he attended some of the Griffin camps (winter,…read morespring, summer.) Griffin Academy is part of the Westminster School, however, it is on a different campus and it is run by a different headmaster. So first, I must say that this review is for Griffin Academy not Westminster as we do not have any experience with Westminster directly. The best part of Griffin Academy is the teaching staff (actually, all of the staff) and the facilities. If you take a tour of the facilities I have no doubt you will be very impressed. Having an indoor gym-type of space in the winter was hugely beneficial. Also, the teaching staff was excellent, and I mean really excellent. My son had a primary teacher who he adored and then he did rotate through other teachers who teach specialty subjects, and they all got to know him and I was really impressed with all of them. The expectations, educationally, were set very high which works well for my son and our family because I felt that he was pushed just the right amount. The class sizes are small so the teachers are really able to work with the kids at the level that they are at. They also worked a lot on his manners and his social interactions. My son came out of Griffin at age 4, able to sight read entire books on his own, silently, to himself. So educationally, I cannot fault Griffin at all; I was very impressed. Our son was definitely not bored, which is a big thing for us. The hours that they provide childcare/school for are also very good for working parents, as they provide a variety of options to allow the parents to be able to choose and manage the hours of school and childcare that they need. The price was also surprisingly much more affordable than a lot of other preschools. The only reason I am not giving the school 5 stars is because, just out of bad luck, is our son really didn't have that many other boys in his class, so unfortunately a lot of the stereotypical boy activities, he was not able to partake in to the fullest extent of what he would have preferred, so I ended up having to enroll him in some outside extracurricular activities (karate, etc.) just to kind of make up that deficit. The class he was in was almost all girls. However, as I say, I realize that experience was probably just unique to us and unfortunate due to the way the classes broke down. The reason that is a big deal to me is my son needs a lot of physical activity to get his energy out and that really requires him basically running around like a maniac playing soccer, etc. He is already at the age where he doesn't want to play what he thinks of as girly games so that was a bit of an issue during the school times, was not having enough physical activity for his liking. (***During the camps sessions it was a better mixture of boys and girls so this problem actually completely went away for us during all of the Griffin camp sessions.) The only other pretty minor complaint I had about the school was at times I felt they were a bit too strict on some things that I myself am pretty relaxed on - especially the "clean your plate" mentality, I am not really that into. On the flip side, his manners were much improved and he is able to do a lot more on his own and for himself than he was when he went into Griffin, so I have mixed feelings about that. All in all, I would really recommend Griffin, it is a very good preschool, and when our daughter is old enough we will probably be sending our daughter there.

Life Changing! This was our first year at Oakwood, and despite COVID, it was by far the best year…read moreof school that my daughter has ever had. She thrived academically, emotionally and socially. She now loves to read and write stories, and she is happy to do her homework everyday, with out any prodding from me. Best of all, she now believes in herself and her ability to learn. They handled the distance learning brought on by COVID beautifully, and she was able to keep learning and engaging with her class and teachers all the way through the end of school. My only regret is that I didn't start her at Oakwood two years earlier.

Incredible School. I attended Oakwood School for nine years because I got diagnosed with Dyslexia,…read moreDyscalculia and some executive functioning issues when I was seven years old. Oakwood school's owners and staff have been wonderful throughout my education. Had it not been for Oakwood School I would have never been able to graduate from High School and graduate from Northern Va Community College with an Associates degree of science with a Major in General Studies. I give Oakwood School Five Stars because the teachers work very hard to teach and inspire their students.

Of all public elementary schools in this community, Annandale Terrace is the true shining gem of…read morethe community. The teachers and administrative staff are attentive and up to date with their students. I have never experienced any issues with anyone regarding 504 plans or IEPs. In addition, the principle seems incredibly knowledgeable- which is refreshing. She demonstrates true concern for the betterment of her students and ensures that their best interest is at heart. The teachers I've encountered have been nothing short of encouraging and motivating. This school provided such a positive experience. I knocked off one star only because of the constant calls we received in the evenings regarding fundraisers, PTA meetings, etc. it wasn't all that big of a deal at first but it eventually got to me (so Sorry! I am Sure there was a way to opt out but we didn't know how)! Otherwise, we were happy to have had our son attend ATES.

Pinecrest is a little gem in the heart of Annandale. The small student to teacher ratios ensure…read morethat each child is nurtured and taught in an environment where they can have their needs met. The teachers are warm, caring, and provide exciting and challenging curriculum while helping maintain a creative environment. The motto "This is Community" could not be more true as parent and teachers work together, are involved and always looking out for the best interest of the children. Pinecrest also has a wonderful Mindfulness program that is implemented in every classroom on a daily basis! It's a wonderful and warm place to have your children learn and thrive!

As an educator I know a quality school when I see it. Pinecrest School (as well as their summer…read morecamp- Pinecrest Summer Pavilion) is an incredibly unique learning environment, with a school community like no other. I often think how much I would have loved going to school there as child. Pinecrest's leadership and staff are highly qualified and incredibly talented. The class sizes are small and the students truly LOVE their school. There is a genuine joy of learning that takes place at Pinecrest from both the students and the staff. The energy at Pinecrest is buzzing with creativity, comfort and community. It is a true gem of Northern VA.

Great elementary school. The Principal, Barb Messinger, is dedicated and very involved in all…read moreaspects of school operations. The faculty is top notch, with many experienced teachers who know the latest and greatest motivational and educational methods. The use of technology in the classroom is impressive.

I can't say enough good things about this school!The principal is a dynamic and strong and teachers…read moreare awesome!! We moved here because of schools and totally happy with Canterbury Woods elementary School! Thanks a lot for your hard work! you are the BEST

Ok - so I went here in the late 70s and early 80s, but I still have fond memories, and for the…read morerecord one of my teachers, Ms. Moke, still works here. I remember her quite fondly. The education was stellar, and it prepared me extremely well for my future in junior high school. I have fond memories of mooning my first grade teacher at the encouragement of a fellow student, and afternoon meetings in The Pod, where on at least one occasion the anti-smoking people came to pass around chunks of blackened lung inside plastic to scare us away from that filthy habit. It worked. There was also a safety video depicting kids being taken on stretchers into ambulances... because naughty kids who threw things had injured them. My fondest memory of this place, however, was of the air raids. Once monthly or so, we'd practice the end of times when the air raid signal went off and we'd go into the halls, line up against the walls, duck and cover, expecting chunks of the ceiling to rain down upon our heads. Ahh. Those were good times. I secretly hope that they're still showing that little turtle movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixy5FBLnh7o and practicing those air raids. 'Cuz ya never know...

This is by far the worst school I have ever had the privilege of tell to "f" off! Usually, when…read moreyou tell a school "hey let some other child have the privilege of dealing with your classy busy bodies" they actually leave you alone. Well not this school. I am still a month (+) later being harassed by this school and the old hen busy bodies that run it! To add insult to injury here, I fought to get my child into this school only to be treated so horribly and harassed each and every day for the month that he was there.! Now I am having to fight just to get them to leave us alone. Apparently.... class and good breeding does not run amongst these busy bodies! The mere motto "live and let live" really needs to be stressed to these people. If someone does not wish for their child to go here show some class and part with respect. Do not continue to harass them months later, because you are jealous of their happiness. Live and let live people. Not everyone will find this school good and just because you don't want your homes to decrease in value or you don't want to get involved with your kids education does not make this a good school. That says more about you. This is a public school and somewhere along the way someone has misinformed them and left them with the thought that they are "special". What ever fairy dust was sprinkled by what ever fairy, the people in this neighborhood should really ban together and dust it off! You are a PUBLIC school and not a good one! No never ever would I recommend them, not even to a bug.