North Wall Schools

"Both of our kids have had good experiences and with their food allergies (ingestion and contact) the school has been proactive in communication and help"

"We were attracted to North Wall because of the outdoor green areas. We liked our child’s teacher as a person but she was a new teacher and lacked mentorship. Very little prep time for curriculum development, no ongoing education or training of teachers and staff. There was no social emotional learning curriculum or visual calendars-- really basic stuff for the population that they claim to serve. The “gifted” teacher disciplined kindergarten and 1st graders for fidgeting. She actually left but they had no apparent plans for restarting the gifted program. Very poor communication about changes with substitute teaching or infections. School did not respond to multiple requests to share with other parents that a stomach virus was spreading in the school that had about a week incubation period and was very contagious. Ended up having a camping trip from hell because of it and they still wouldn't tell any of the parents or even respond to the request. There were safety issues, like a fire in a shed that wasn't communicated to parents; we only found out because the children informed us. After we expressed concerns about several near accidents with confusion in the parking lot about the right of way exiting the southern part of the lot and turning right vs people traveling south and turning left, they never followed up. They only provided contact information of other families to parents serving on the board. A lot of worksheets, poor organization, lots of chaos, focus on holidays, especially Christian ones, despite claiming they didn’t push that. Lack of receptivity to feedback. They leave the front gate unlocked and didn't change the code for the entire time we were there. Really odd lack of communication and follow-through. ZERO social emotional learning curriculum. We know three other sets of parent who withdrew their children due to dissatisfaction with similar concerns. The one great thing is they are willing to allow parents to have their own aides/supports in the school. We were so relieved to say goodbye to North Wall and go places where it has been so much easier on all these fronts. We can’t believe how good it feels to have our child in a different school."

"Both of our children attend NWS and love it. The classroom environments are safe and allow room for engagements. You can tell that the staff is very engaging and that they truly love working there with the kids! The true test of talking to our children about school has proven nothing short of a successful decision to continued year-round enrollment."

"We have attended North Wall Schools for almost five years now and have truly loved every minute! The classroom and office staff are key to how delighted we feel. No matter how great the school it is always hard to trust other people with your child, especially when your child can not yet communicate. Some safety measures I have appreciated include the fact that any person picking up my child with my written permission is still ID'd to verify identity. Secondly, The layout of the building, doors, windows, staffing rotation do a great job of making sure my child is not only supervised, but not left "alone" with anyone for a long period of time. And while background checks and careful selection of staff is crucial for preventing harm to children, the physical layout of the campus is one of the few schools I have ever seen that make me confident every measure has been taken to ensure the safety of my child. And the campus is simply beautiful to die for. Tree houses, play equipment, nature trails, apple trees, running water, and chimes are just a few of the amenities. (Although I so wish I had been around when the two story house ping pong ball contraption worked. Could it ever be fixed?) The Christmas Program, Holiday parties, Open Houses and other celebrations are highlights of our year. I see a wide range of cultures, religious, and races within the school community. (Although my child does have like five super blonde classmates balanced out with a variety of children - random chance.) Despite the school having a non-denominational Christian bent I have always felt that all religious are respected, cultures from around the world celebrated, and religion never pushed upon any child. A refreshing break from the public school system that shies away from celebration. I was around for the peanut incident reviewer Amber S. mentions in the last post. If she had only been around to see the phenomenal reaction to what "may" have been a breech in a nut free policy. (As the parent of a child who struggled to gain weight I was continually frustrated that my child could not consume "nut free but processed in a plant that may contain nut" products that improved my child's health because the school has such a strict policy and reads labels all the time!) I also suspect that she did not relay the seriousness of her child's allergy. Nut allergies vary greatly. In any school where a child has a nut allergy that can be picked up from nut oils on toys, large signs are placed on the classroom doors indicating a nut free zone to reinforce the importance. This is something any parent of a serious nut allergy would have discussed before letting their child attend. I am sure she takes better preparations for her child now. But I sympathize, life threatening issues that impact your child suck. Main point, North Walls Schools has always responded to any suggestion or request I or any other parent has made swiftly and with the greatest professionalism."

"I would not recommend North Wall Schools if you have a child with a severe food allergy. We trusted the claims that the school was nut free, while products that clearly stated they may contain peanuts were being used in his classroom. We understand that avoiding all allergen exposure can be very difficult but we assumed that common sense measures, such as reading labels would be taken. The staff did not seem to be aware of cross contamination issues and used contaminated items for class manipulatives. Just because an allergen isn’t directly ingested does not mean that it will not trigger an anaphylactic reaction and even a skin reaction can be traumatic to an allergic child. (And just because it isn’t intended to be eaten, a child may rub their eyes, nose, or put their fingers in their mouth which puts them at risk for a life threatening reaction.) We feel fortunate that we became aware of the situation before our son suffered a reaction. It was a very disappointing first experience with school for him and the administration was completely unapologetic."