Did anyone find primary day too "academic" or structured?

[Anonymous]

Parent of a kindergarten student and we are very happy. Our child is thriving and loves school. We like the teachers and think they are doing a great job. I find these complaints about the home room teachers a little odd though. The kids spend as much or more time with their Specials teachers than their home room teachers. They have a math specialist, reading specialist, phonovisual teacher, STEM teacher, art teacher, music teacher, PE teacher, Spanish teacher, French teacher, and Chinese teacher. These teachers teach all grades. We have had no issues with any of them. People should visit the school before believing the stuff that people allege on this board without supporting facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a kindergarten student and we are very happy. Our child is thriving and loves school. We like the teachers and think they are doing a great job. I find these complaints about the home room teachers a little odd though. The kids spend as much or more time with their Specials teachers than their home room teachers. They have a math specialist, reading specialist, phonovisual teacher, STEM teacher, art teacher, music teacher, PE teacher, Spanish teacher, French teacher, and Chinese teacher. These teachers teach all grades. We have had no issues with any of them. People should visit the school before believing the stuff that people allege on this board without supporting facts.

+1 NP here. both my kids graduated within the last 2 years and we always had great teachers! It’s a wonderful school and both my kids are doing great in their next school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a kindergarten student and we are very happy. Our child is thriving and loves school. We like the teachers and think they are doing a great job. I find these complaints about the home room teachers a little odd though. The kids spend as much or more time with their Specials teachers than their home room teachers. They have a math specialist, reading specialist, phonovisual teacher, STEM teacher, art teacher, music teacher, PE teacher, Spanish teacher, French teacher, and Chinese teacher. These teachers teach all grades. We have had no issues with any of them. People should visit the school before believing the stuff that people allege on this board without supporting facts.

Well that’s totally wrong. They definitely don’t. They spend MOST of their time with homeroom. LOL. The PP obviously doesn’t know anything about the school.

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

Jeff why are all negative feedback comments removed from this thread?

[Anonymous]

Does PDS pay to remove negative comments? I wrote my honest opinion yesterday about the lack of transparency and preferential treatment of donors by the principal and that I quite frankly think he’s a self promoting jerk but it’s gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a kindergarten student and we are very happy. Our child is thriving and loves school. We like the teachers and think they are doing a great job. I find these complaints about the home room teachers a little odd though. The kids spend as much or more time with their Specials teachers than their home room teachers. They have a math specialist, reading specialist, phonovisual teacher, STEM teacher, art teacher, music teacher, PE teacher, Spanish teacher, French teacher, and Chinese teacher. These teachers teach all grades. We have had no issues with any of them. People should visit the school before believing the stuff that people allege on this board without supporting facts.

This is only partially true. The kids do spend time
with specialists, but the homeroom is the core of their community. The math specialist only works with 1/2 of the class at a time and rotates this throughout the yesr, so the homeroom teachers will instruct for math, reading workshop and other subjects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does PDS pay to remove negative comments? I wrote my honest opinion yesterday about the lack of transparency and preferential treatment of donors by the principal and that I quite frankly think he’s a self promoting jerk but it’s gone.

WHAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a kindergarten student and we are very happy. Our child is thriving and loves school. We like the teachers and think they are doing a great job. I find these complaints about the home room teachers a little odd though. The kids spend as much or more time with their Specials teachers than their home room teachers. They have a math specialist, reading specialist, phonovisual teacher, STEM teacher, art teacher, music teacher, PE teacher, Spanish teacher, French teacher, and Chinese teacher. These teachers teach all grades. We have had no issues with any of them. People should visit the school before believing the stuff that people allege on this board without supporting facts.

This is only partially true. The kids do spend time
with specialists, but the homeroom is the core of their community. The math specialist only works with 1/2 of the class at a time and rotates this throughout the yesr, so the homeroom teachers will instruct for math, reading workshop and other subjects.

+1 and current parent here. The kids do spend a lot of time with the specialists; however, a lot of the instruction and social-emotional learning is from the homeroom teachers, which we have been very happy with. Most are kind and nurturing.

[Anonymous]

PDS is a wonderful school!!

The teachers are excellent and make learning fun. Yes, the teachers have high standards for all of the students but that is because they want them all to succeed. If your child needs extra help, the teachers will provide support.

The school is structured in the sense that it isn't a Waldorf or Steiner school, but it's not a military-style boot camp. IMHO, PDS does is the perfect balance of work and play. My son used to come home from school so happy at the end of each day.

No one at the school has that much money with the exception of maybe one or two families so the issue of "big donors" receiving preference isn't that much of an issue. Plus, with the school being so small, I don't see what sort of preferential treatment a family would receive.

The director is nice and his door is always open. He also calls each child to wish him or her a happy birthday and I always found that to be sweet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PDS is a wonderful school!!

The teachers are excellent and make learning fun. Yes, the teachers have high standards for all of the students but that is because they want them all to succeed. If your child needs extra help, the teachers will provide support.

The school is structured in the sense that it isn't a Waldorf or Steiner school, but it's not a military-style boot camp. IMHO, PDS does is the perfect balance of work and play. My son used to come home from school so happy at the end of each day.

No one at the school has that much money with the exception of maybe one or two families so the issue of "big donors" receiving preference isn't that much of an issue. Plus, with the school being so small, I don't see what sort of preferential treatment a family would receive.

The director is nice and his door is always open. He also calls each child to wish him or her a happy birthday and I always found that to be sweet.

NP. I agree with all of this. The head of school is fantastic, caring, and provides lots of support when needed. I have not seen any kind of preferential treatment whatsoever - he is genuinely kind to every family. My DD loves the school and has flourished academically and socially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PDS is a wonderful school!!

The teachers are excellent and make learning fun. Yes, the teachers have high standards for all of the students but that is because they want them all to succeed. If your child needs extra help, the teachers will provide support.

The school is structured in the sense that it isn't a Waldorf or Steiner school, but it's not a military-style boot camp. IMHO, PDS does is the perfect balance of work and play. My son used to come home from school so happy at the end of each day.

No one at the school has that much money with the exception of maybe one or two families so the issue of "big donors" receiving preference isn't that much of an issue. Plus, with the school being so small, I don't see what sort of preferential treatment a family would receive.

The director is nice and his door is always open. He also calls each child to wish him or her a happy birthday and I always found that to be sweet.

Yes, the HOS does reach out on DD and DS birthdays...even on a holiday weekend!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PDS is a wonderful school!!

The teachers are excellent and make learning fun. Yes, the teachers have high standards for all of the students but that is because they want them all to succeed. If your child needs extra help, the teachers will provide support.

The school is structured in the sense that it isn't a Waldorf or Steiner school, but it's not a military-style boot camp. IMHO, PDS does is the perfect balance of work and play. My son used to come home from school so happy at the end of each day.

No one at the school has that much money with the exception of maybe one or two families so the issue of "big donors" receiving preference isn't that much of an issue. Plus, with the school being so small, I don't see what sort of preferential treatment a family would receive.

The director is nice and his door is always open. He also calls each child to wish him or her a happy birthday and I always found that to be sweet.

NP. I agree with all of this. The head of school is fantastic, caring, and provides lots of support when needed. I have not seen any kind of preferential treatment whatsoever - he is genuinely kind to every family. My DD loves the school and has flourished academically and socially.

I think he’s fake and just completely disconnected from the kids. I actually do agree that he treats some parents different from others.

[Anonymous]

The teachers are fantastic. Two children went through and both loved it and loved their teachers. It’s not as warm a school as it used to be but it’s still very loving.

[Anonymous]

I really like and respect the HOS too - I'm not a PDS parent or a teacher, just a teacher at another independent school who has had the chance to interact with and receive mentorship from him.

He seems legitimately genuine and I have always heard good things about PDS. I hope that the posters infighting in this forum can recognize that the school is respected by the wider community.