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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My child is a senior at SSFS and I would not recommend this school at all.

First, the administration doesn't care about the concerns of students or parents. Administrators will nod sympathetically as you speak, tell you they will get back to you, then send an email essentially closing the door in your face. No discussion, no explanation. Everything from bullying to misappropriation of funds gets whitewashed.

Second, the school lacks academic rigor. This may be acceptable for students who struggle academically, but high achievers will not get any support at SSFS. As long as students meet the very low academic standards set by teachers, very few provide any individuation for high achievers. When students matriculate, they are given a basic math test to determine what math class to enroll in. But all the other classes are standard for everyone and regardless of how advanced a student is, they will need to dumb down to the school's low standards. And there are very few classes to choose from compared to most private schools.

Third, the school gives lip service to its Quaker identity but does not embody Quaker values. While the school promotes the Quaker slogan of "Let your lives speak," they will not support students who actually do let their lives speak. For example, my student and his history teacher were interested in starting an academic journal that would be run through the history department. Student did extensive research and wrote a detailed proposal explaining the purpose, function, and goals of the journal and that he would be volunteering his time to run the journal at absolutely no cost to the school. While it would benefit the school to have an academic journal associated with it, student was told he could not attempt to create this journal because while he was competent enough to make the journal successful, once he graduated they thought it would fail. Rather than promote this opportunity as a positive way to encourage other students to "let their lives speak," the message they gave to student (and anyone who would follow) was don't attempt anything because even though you might be successful, others might fail, so don't even try. Additionally, student joined the debate team and became the captain, but there was no coach. He and his debate partner excelled despite not having a coach. The partner's father gave the school $10,000 for the purpose of hiring a coach. It is now a year later, and the school has still not hired a debate coach, nor does it intend to. This student graduated, never getting the coach his family paid for. Moreover, these kids had traveled on their own to debate at Harvard's National tournament and the school even refused to use a small portion of that money to cover the registration fee, let alone all the other costs associated with attending the tournament. And they traveled alone because, of course, they had no coach. As with the academic journal, the school knows that once the high achieving students are gone, there will be no pressure for the school to support students in "letting their lives speak." The school is happy to take money from families, but not fulfill its promises.

Fourth, while the school describes its disciplinary system as based on Quaker values, it is characterized by favoritism, inconsistency, and ineffectiveness. The school ignores bullying when the student perpetrators are favored by the Deans - thus enabling bullying on campus. When the disciplinary system does act, it is ineffective. While the school pretends to promote the Quaker value of reflection, instead, it removes the student from a full day of classes to sit and watch a 10 minute speech by Steve Jobs and answer comprehension questions.

Fifth, the school has had a practice of hiring staff that have clearly engaged in illicit behavior.

Sixth, some teachers think it is okay to spread rumors about students - even rumors that are entirely untrue.

Seventh, teachers (like parents) are alienated by administrative policies. Last year, student was the Torch (student government) representative to the faculty. From his position, he came to realize how disenfranchised and marginalized the teachers are from school policy. He also realized how ineffective and unproductive Torch is as a student government. This is why he turned down the opportunity to continue with Torch.The disenfranchisement of students and faculty leads me to my next point.

There is an extremely high attrition rate among students and faculty alike.

Moreover, in four years, there have been four different Heads of Upper School. These heads are leaving because they obviously know something that the administration is not disclosing to its families. And last July the Head of School was abruptly fired. Although no explanation was given, rumors of illicit behavior spread. The school has serious problems and there is no indication it is improving.[/quote]

I say this w kindness, pp-do your child a favor and ask that this be removed. I’m another upper school parent and while I don’t know who your child is based on this I’m sure any teacher ( or kid) reading this would. It’s really a disservice to your child to post your/their personal gripes about the school in such an identifiable way.[/quote]

I would suggest she edit out the Torch part but the other comments are really very general. Thank you for posting both PPs.[/quote]

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