Encinitas Country Day School

The philosophy and idea behind the school is enticing. The idea, ""Montessori education, your child will now love going to school"". It held up for 4th grade, but for 5th grade it turned into a nightmare. My son was so excited to go back to school after the summer. By the 3rd day he came home in tears with a weekend assignment he did not understand - to write a blog - but on paper. Apparently the teacher was going to type it up later - I found this out by going to the school, and this was just the start. Also, the rules changed from 4th grade. The school loses a lot of kids in 5th grade, so to change that, they wanted to make it more ""academic"". School starts at 8:45 but if kids get there at 8:30 they cannot play with other kids, but need to come in to class and start ""working on their own"". I could go on, but it is absurd. more

We have been extremely disappointed with ECDS. Our children went to the preschool which we loved so the Manchester campus seemed like a natural progression. It has high staff turnover. Our sons original teacher resigned two weeks before school and then her replacement resigned six weeks into the school year. There seems to be constant turnover and changes. We spoke to the director about a change she was making to the Tae Kwon Do program and were shocked when she told us that she felt the previous Master and the Master that she was hiring for the next semester had ""major character defects"". Our question was why would she hire anyone she felt had ""major character defects"". We feel that this school teaches at grade level but not beyond. We have decided to take our children out of this school next year and to attend another private school in the area. It seems as though the overall parent moral and level of happiness with the school seems to be lower than many other private schools in the area. Pros: Beautiful Campus Cons: Poorly Managed, High Staff Turnover more