Ficino School

"I attended Ficino from year 0 to year 8, and am now thoroughly enjoying my final year as a prefect in the top stream at Auckland Grammar School. I believe that Ficino was extremely instrumental into getting me to where I am today. It was an incredibly unique and useful preparation for everything I have had to face so far at high school, in terms of academics and the arts especially. The curriculum at Ficino is a great prep for high school, focusing not just on maths and english, but also having a very high level, but with the teacher help and input you get from the generally small class sizes still very achievable, history and science courses. This diversity of academic focus is incredibly useful going into high school, where it gives a noticeable edge starting subjects such as social studies and whatever sciences happen to be on offer at the high school you go to, which have many people coming into them at different levels. This can help really take the pressure off in the first year of high school, which is an enormous help to mental health and making new and long-lasting friendships. It is not only those subjects that Ficino excels in, however. A lot of focus on Shakespeare in English, especially in years 7 and 8, results in the language being far less impenetrable, and consequently more enjoyable and easier to study. The maths course too is excellent, covering in depth a range of very useful topics that are invaluable going into high school level courses. The fact that Ficino does exams in the senior years as well is great preparation for any high school, as they become routine and manageable in an environment where you are able to get extremely useful feedback from the teachers, leading to great improvement by the time they are necessary to do when the results matter even more. Furthermore outside of just the academic aspect if the school, there are so many incredible and unique opportunities on offer. The pause and meditation are invaluable in learning to be calm in the face if stress, and consequently improves drastically your ability to react well. The school trips are exciting and interesting and really allow students with a range of interests to shine. Speech competitions improve confidence in public speaking, and a range of itinerate music lessons means that those skills can be more than adequately developed for interest or competition. I honestly believe that I would not be anywhere near where I am today without the opportunities that Ficino, and in a lot of cases Ficino uniquely, offered me, and the support I got from the teachers in all the aspects of academics and even just socially. I feel like Ficino was an incredible experience and I do not regret any of time there for even one second."

"Our son started at Ficino School in the 4th term of his second year of schooling. It is never a easy decision to change your child's school, especially since he had already established good friends where he was. However, we were really concerned with the level of his reading and writing skills, he seemed to be going backwards rather than progressing and he even mentioned that he was feeling unchallenged there and was subsequently having difficulty sleeping. We had heard about Ficino School through some family friends and decided to book in for a school tour. We were absolutely blown away by the ethos of the school and the teaching structure that they follow. But as with all things the crux of it comes down to how your child settles into his school, and so we booked our son for his trial day which is designed so that both the teachers and the prospective student get to test things out, at the end of his trial day as we rolled up to pick him up, we were really pleased to see that he had already made friends and as we later found out from his form teacher, that he had told her that he was "not going to be there the following day, but that he was going to be there after the holidays" In hind sight this was the best decision we could have made for him, he is about to start year 6 at Ficino and has gone from strength to strength from day one at Ficino. he has made some really close friendships there and has gained confidence in his learnings both in class and outside. We have seen him develop a real passion for learning in areas of science, Maths, History Myth and Culture and writing. One of the things as Parents that did really draw us to Ficino from our visit and subsequently having our son go there is the schools value system, which talks of the 5 fundamentals: Truthfulness Obedience Respect Courage Resilience Ficino's commitment and care to their students learning was no better demonstrated than during lockdown, where all the children had a structured day planned out for them, through Zoom sessions through which they had weekly Assembly, fitness classes in the morning, regular class catch up through out the day to keep them all on track with their learning. All of this took the pressure off us to ensure that their learning needs were being met. And even better all their stationery and meals (morning tea and lunches) are provided by the school! All in all we are really happy with Ficino and having seen his growth both on a personal level and academically validates our decision!"

"good school that helps promote out of the box thinking, mindfulness and teamwork. offers a great range of extracurricular activities and teaches a great work ethic in and outside of the classroom"

"DON'T SEND YOUR CHILDREN TO THIS SCHOOL I went here from Year 0 to Year 8. I previously wrote a google review on this school but it was taken down. Here is a compiled version of that review. 1) The teachers are biased and are bullies. For example, I fell off of a chair and the Year 7/8 girls' form teacher started laughing at me and called me crazy. 2) The children attending this school are entitled and horrible. I was bullied during my time here by the same group of people. I was fat shamed, fake friended and mocked. A group of girls also put a large insect in my desk. When I complained to the form teacher in Year 7/8, she gave me no empathy and took their side when they denied the claims of them bullying me. This only encouraged them. 3) A toxic environment is created through the belief 'survival of the fittest'. This means that if you are weak academically, you are neglected. Also, other talents are not nurtured. I did not enjoy my time at this school and always wonder how much better my life would be if I left or had not gone there at all. When I attended this school, I had confidence issues, was socially awkward and was insecure about my appearance. Now that I have moved to a different environment, most of these issues have gone away due to the fact that there aren't people mocking my mannerisms. Don't send your child here because it is important for a child to stay in a safe, caring environment, which is not that of Ficino's environment. It is also important for them not to about the stress of exams/frequent tests and intense assignments, which is something the school starts practising from Year 3. I would give this 0 stars, but you have to give a rating for your comment to post."

"A wonderfully connected school which celebrates tradition, mindfulness, meditation and enhancing education superbly in class yet also beyond the classroom. My two boys have flourished."