My son began at this school in fourth grade, he is now graduating this year. It's been quite the…read morejourney. We appreciate all of the input that the school takes from parents. Thanks SocPrep

As a first year teacher, I was welcomed with open arms. This community is truly like a family. The…read moreimmediate indication is how each student is viewed holistically and not as just a number. There is a true dedication to ensuring that all students are comfortable and heard whether that is academically or emotionally. Students are given a freedom to explore their own passions deeper while also receiving a well-rounded education. Teachers are given the autonomy to cultivate an environment set up for each student. This school is the future of education.

This is such an amazing warm and inviting school! My children have attended for the past several…read moreyears. We are highly impressed with the teachers love, understanding, and dedication to the students. The students really get immersed in the education by hands on experiencing it with art, literature, science, and music. We are very thankfully we found just a wonderful community of parents and students.

This school and community is terrible as a current student this schools education model is just a…read moreworded up controlling communist almost like system and during rec time i saw a girl kicking my friends almost hurting them and i tackled her to get her to stop and when i did she started kicking me and i took it and now i said i will get the administrates and she threatened me and said she would sue me and say i harassed her if i did now everyday i have to take this as basically blackmail and something as the architecture of the school there is a t hallway which only requires 1 person to patrol your always watched in this school and one weird thing is this school is a inc(incorporation) which means they get investor funding and still does fundraisers

Very happy with this school. Have there been some issues? Yep but every school has issues from time…read moreto time. What I do know is their curriculum and teaching is great. Evidence of this My Daughter started Middle School this year and because of her 5 years at Choices was automatically put in the Advanced classes to include GEMS Math and again she is excelling. Let's talk something else that shows how well they educate. My daughter also has been selected and is not part of the Duke TIP program. My youngest went there last year for VPK and is now in Kindergarten. And in little more than a month he is reading books at home already at a higher level than kids his age typically read without help. Do they teach to the test (FSA) yep they do. But So doesn't all schools that receive County Funding. Currently a Nationwide Blue Ribbon School. Strongly recommend the school.

Very good school. My son is in second grade and we still like it. Great, loving and understanding…read moreteachers. I would highly recommend this school

Park Maitland South has been a game changer for our three littles. The small class sizes, the…read moreadvanced curriculum and excellent teachers have been everything our children have needed. From Mrs. Binni to Mrs. Yan, Mrs. Hendershot and Mrs. Bliss all have been very influential for our children. We couldn't ask for a better school!

From the owner: Formerly Parke House Academy, Park Maitland South provides a complete private school experience…read morewith an emphasis on academic, social, emotional, and physical development for students one-year-old through fifth grade. Take a tour and discover the Park Maitland School â€" where wonders never cease.

i really appreciate how New Cov celebrates the holy days like Christmas & Easter. Weeks before the…read moreworship music & teaching fr scripture directs you toward the event. But it is not stopped that weekend as pastor Christopher focuses on the effect that event could produce. Been a believer over 50 years & this attention to these holy events is very special.

Amazing preschool, we couldn't be happier we chose them for our 2 year old daughter! Amazing…read moreteachers and staff, great activities and events. Such a family feel and warm environment. Thank you for taking such great care of our little girl.

We've had an amazing experience with three children at WCPS! I would recommend for any child to…read moreattend! The teachers are loving and caring. Each classroom is accommodating for children and accessible for kids who have special challenges. Our children have been helped in potty training, reading, speaking, and have had a great and nourishing head start to their kindergarten classes! The VPK teachers are phenomenal instructors. One of our children was unmotivated with sight words and her teacher made it a game and patiently helped our child get excited to read. It becomes more difficult when kids are in a classroom twice the size, so even if you can't afford all three years (although it's totally worth it!) VPK is giant benefit! I can not recommend WCPS enough!

While exploring Soldiers Creek Park I discovered an amazing educational resource for the students…read moreof Seminole County. As someone who works with kids, I was interested in learning about this unique and beloved program, the Seminole Environmental Studies Center. Seminole County's first Environmental Studies Center was a 1926 cottage that once served as Oviedo High School's lunch room. In 1976, the county and school district approved an agreement to develop 242 acres at Big Tree East into Soldier's Creek County Park which is part of Spring Hammock Preserve. School district science director Bettie Palmer and long-time Seminole League member Pat Burkett won grants from the U.S. Department of Interior and the Florida Department of Education to start the Environmental Studies Center. The school district paid to move the 1926 cottage to the park. When the environmental center officially opened in 1977, the old lunch room served as an office and classroom. A small staff including Pat Burkett, taught students about native wildlife, the water cycle and the benefits of fire. The following summer, the Department of Interior hired 40 Seminole County teens to work 40 hours a week at minimum wage building trails, boardwalks and a pavilion on the property. The new Soldiers Creek Park was the perfect place for an environmental studies center because of its many different habitats. These include oak palmetto scrub, pine forest, mixed hardwood hammock with magnolias, basswood and sweet gum, hydric hammock, cypress swamp, and a lake. All throughout were small sulfur springs. The old cabin was used until 2004, when the county built a new, 6,500-square foot center named for Pat Burkett who retired that year. Today the program operates as a partnership between the School Board and Seminole County Government. It has grown to include school field trips which are designed for students K-12 to help them learn about the environment and its importance in their lives. Scientific based learning takes place through hands-on, inquiry-based exploration both inside and outside the building. Inside the Center's Natural History Museum students can hold a snake, see an alligator and meet Otus the Eastern Screech Owl. Outdoors there is a learning laboratory. During the fifth grade program, students explore a variety of dry and wet habitats over two days. The popular wet day is known as the Mud Walk and included every habitat in the park. Through the years when budget cuts threatened the program, strong community support has kept the program operating so generations of Seminole County schoolchildren could enjoy the Mud Walk.

Walden is good for a specific type of kid. A kid who needs a smaller, more personalized environment…read morefor academic success without needing a lot of emotional or medical support. One of my friends had an F in math before she went to Walden that they helped her bring up to a B. I am leaving a 3 star review because I had a very mixed experience at Walden, but I recognize that it's a great environment for some students. I went to Walden just a few weeks after being discharged from a therapeutic boarding school in Utah. It was a very rough transition for me, and Walden both helped and hurt. The other students were great, and the small size was much better for an autistic kid than a traditional public school. However, the teachers and administration were not very understanding. I know that they can only do so much to help an emotionally struggling teen, but they could have practiced more of what they taught: empathy. I had issues with showing off, but instead of talking to me about it and correcting me in the moment, administration talked to my parents about expelling me. It would have been different if they'd corrected me and I hadn't changed, but they didn't even try to give me feedback. Academics were decent. Great for kids who need a personalized curriculum. But I noticed that when I transferred to virtual public school, I was learning things that I should have learned in Algebra 1 in Algebra 2. They make it very hard to go to a school with a different curriculum, and that leads to some kids falling behind. They claimed to have extracurriculars that they didn't have. When I was there, they just had a dance class with a very unempathetic and ableist teacher. I was on a med that gave me significant side effects, including heatstroke susceptibility. Towards the end of the school year, we were doing a very physical dance outside, and I noticed symptoms of heat illness. When I asked the dance teacher to take a break, she refused because it was a partner dance and I couldn't leave my partner. She then said that she was proud of me for doing things even when I got hot, despite me saying many times that what she was making me do was a health hazard. I arrived at home that day and crashed on my bed, sleeping for about 2 hours. I now know that what I was experiencing was heat exhaustion. Easily preventable if the dance teacher had allowed me a break. All in all, this school has its pros and cons. Great social environment and personalized academics, but lack of understanding of students who struggle medically and emotionally. Some kids excel at Walden, others don't. If considering this school, make sure your kid is the type to excel there.

We wanted more for our daughter and that's why we chose Walden Community School…read more We wanted her to love learning and to be excited about going to school everyday. On top of that, we wanted her to be safe and in an environment that would give her the freedom that she needs to express herself and learn from her peers. The curriculum is extraordinary and I'm constantly blown away by the critical thinking and creative writing skills that she's been developing at Walden.

Orange County Preparatory Academy opened last fall in the old Page Private School facility. I…read moredecided to transfer my youngest child from the public school she was attending after a few bad years. Getting the postcard in the mail telling me that OCPA was opening was honestly one of the best things that could have happened. Before I switched my daughter I did my research about charter schools and the company that manages OCPA, Charter School Associates. I'd recommend any parents that are considering it do the same research. I found that they had several good schools, and I was hopeful that this new one would follow in those same footsteps. So, as for my review of the school... the beginning of the school year was rough, with the expected growing pains and some unexpected ones. Traffic was a nightmare, the principal left, and loads of other little things. Now, at the half way point in the year it appears that most things have been smoothed out. And I am very happy we switched. I love that this school is a K-8 school (currently to 7th, but 8th is supposed to be added next year). The school is supposed to focus on STEM, and in the fall all grades participated in a school-wide science fair. For a new school they have really hit the ground running with awesome events for the kids. At Halloween they had a trunk-or-treat, which was loads of fun. They also did a storybook day and had a school-wide fairy tale bowl with questions about the stories. The school provides after school tutoring and several clubs. The addition of clubs came later in the year than I would have liked, but we are really happy about the options. My daughter is in the after care program. One huge perk over the public school she was at is that they only charge you for days the child attends. Since my daughter only has to go to after care a few days a week I save money by not having to pay for the whole week like I used to. Since this is a charter school they wear uniforms. They had a few sales events at the school where we could purchase them and I had no problems with the uniform company. So far my daughter really likes wearing the uniform, and it makes getting ready in the morning super easy. That's all I can think of. I'm assuming if you are reading this review you may be thinking about switching to the school, so feel free to send me a note and I'll answer questions.

My children and I have been a member of the OCPA community since its beginning. As such, we've seen…read morethe school make some great strides, especially over this last year in particular. Yes, OCPA does have its positives and negatives, like any other school might. But OCPA's very accessible administration and small classroom sizes lend a very personal touch to each child's learning experience. The principal, Mr Higgins, and fellow administrator, Mr Austin, have been consistent and dedicated contributions to OCPA's improvement this year. Under this new leadership, I have seen more new programming such as organized athletic teams with winning records, various educational/STEM nights, and fun field days, just to name a few that I've personally participated in. I believe the structure and culture that Higgins and Austin have instilled have grown the school's support staff and allowed for some great momentum this year. For that, I give OCPA 4 stars. With only more improvement in OCPA's future, I am sure that it will earn the 5th star sooner than later!

The Pre-K assessment is overkill. They make parents wait in a small library, take your student for…read morean hour-long assessment that over the phone was described by Admissions Director Megan Jones as to see how they interact with other students. Come to find out (after several emails requesting to know more about their request for a SECOND assessment), they are very critical of your child. Preschool Director Betsey Vallery states in her email to me: "[Student] was very interested in the items in our classroom and such a sweet little boy. He did have difficulty following teacher one-step instructions and redirection. For example, when the teacher called [Student] to small group to draw, he ran around the carpet area. The teacher came alongside him and told him to please use his walking feet and modeled her walking feet. This gentle redirection is usually very successful as it's 1:1 in this assessment setting, but he continued to run." [Student] had just turned four only three days prior to the assessment. He's extremely responsive with adult direction, and I find this commentary completely inappropriate. As a former teacher myself, this is not even something that should be a concern. In addition, she states that [Student] didn't know how to write name, draw a self portrait, count to 10 or identify shapes, all of which he's been able to do for more than a year. I wasn't there in the assessment, but I do wonder about the effectiveness of the teacher to inspire participation. I felt that this was not an age-appropriate Pre-K. They want students that already know what they need to know for kindergarten so they don't have to do their jobs in teaching them.

The security guards are rude and disrespectful. there are students walking around in parking lot…read moreduring school hours . It's overcrowded and overwhelming with not enough parking. Teacher ratios are too high for a private school.