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[quote=Anonymous]My daughter just finished kindergarten at ATS. We love it. We chose it over our really good neighborhood school for two reasons: (1) we are thinking of moving in a few years so an option school would mean more stability for our kids snd allow us to look beyond our neighborhood and b) being immigrants we loved how diverse the school is as opposed to our neighborhood school. We have had a great experience so far. My daughter’s writing skills have improved tremendously and they really do emphasize the basics. She loves her teacher who she thinks is hilarious so there is lots of love and fun in the school as well. Admittedly it’s not for everyone. My husband and I both went to private schools with uniforms so the dress code (which we haven’t experienced yet) isn’t an issue for us. Neither is the more structured learning environment (again a feature of the private schools we went to). There is a lot of homework (around 30 minutes a day) which I find annoying but not annoying enough to pull her out of ATS.  Then again it’s probably why my daughter’s writing abilities improved so much. I wonder if I would have seen the same benefit with homework had school been in person (I’m assuming they would do more writing in the classroom with in person learning). One thing that excites me about next year is their emphasis on music and the arts which makes my daughter loves. My second will be in kindergarten at ATS next year so I’m curious as to whether my perspective on the school changes when it is in person.

ATS is not perfect. When compared to our neighborhood school class sizes are better. I also wish they would emphasize outdoor learning more, the way they do in Campbell and to a certain extent our neighborhood school. I wish APS would do a comprehensive evaluation of all its schools and incorporate the successful parts of each school’s curriculum into all of APS schools. Clearly ATS is doing something special when it comes to reading and writing (also the high expectations it has of students seems to make a huge difference).

We are considering leaving ATS for a private school that would offer my daughter a bilingual education in my country of origin’s language. We never bothered to consider the school before since it’s 25 minutes away but we talked to a parent with kids there and she told us that her kids are now able to converse in both languages which would be my dream. Apparently there are still a few spots open so we just applied. If we do end up leaving we will be sad to leave ATS and it’s no way a reflection on what we think of the school. For ppl considering ATS, I would say give it a try. If you absolutely hate it you can always pull your kid out. [/quote]

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