I think Woodbury elementary school is the best place because they have yummyfood! they are so…read morehelpful! Woodbury, I think you are the best school to go to

Our kids attended Woodbury from 2016-2022. Both of them started in K through 4th and 6th grade…read morerespectively. During our years here we were told stories from other parents about unethical practices by the principal Alan Battenfield, everything from him being racist, sexist and abusing his powers. I was not quick to judge since I had no personal interactions with him. I would also say that 9/10 students have an unfavorable opinion of him, but hey these are children. However at the start of the 2022 school year I would come to have my first interaction with the principal and school office assistant Veronica Escalante. Both of which would show their true colors and prove the level of corruption at the school as reported by other parents to be true. To learn more about my family's personal story in how unethical school administrators are at Woodbury as well as the school districts findings investigating my claim against the principal and office assistant, please see my petition on change.org https://www.change.org/WoodburyIrvine Bringing awareness to the systemic level of corruption in school leadership at Woodbury Elementary School in the irvine unified school district. If something like this could happen to us, it can happen to anyone, for any reason, just to perpetuate their narrative.

I really wish reaching out to the district was worth it but sadly it isn't. They have zero interest…read morein what goes in their schools. The way some teachers treat students is alarming but since they aren't there to witness it there's nothing they will do. As a whole the leadership and district at these "prestigious" Irvine schools is very disappointing. You're lucky if you get a call back from someone here.

Just look at the reviews for this office. Dose not answer phones. When you you do get to talk to…read morethe receptionist they are unhelpful. Doesn't have any idea of what or where or who. Not friendly at all, hurry to get you of the phone "I don't know, I don't have any information". Then why have a contact or phone number at all if they just tell you to find email by yourself. Horrible horrible. The schools can be good if you keep up with the program. Anything you have questions about is most likely going to be through email but never responsive. Please DO BETTER!

They are awesome because of there awesome staff and teachers!!!!!!!!!! They know what they are…read moredoing and how to teach. They have the best teaching

Terrible administrative staff. More training needed for them so they know the school guidelines and…read morehandbook thoroughly. Administrative staff should be more respectful to students and parents. More inclusive in students who are of minority race at school. Main administrative staff with these issues are the principal and vice principal. Also, teachers should be more accountable for their actions and stand by what they say if questioned. Counseling staff are not very helpful, dismissive and condescending.

Terrible school. My last review was removed however it does not violate any yelp policies because…read morethis review is not critiquing COVID-19 policies. I am critiquing the way that this school handled this particular issue regarding my daughter. Rather than informing parents that masking would temporarily return, they instead tied an adult sized mask to my 2 year olds face that was so large, that it went from her eyes to her neck. The school claims they notified parents however many other parents at the time with me were confused and wondering as to why they were also not informed. Had I been informed I would have gladly put a child mask on my toddler. I had no issue with the mask but wanted to at least get eye to eye with her so I could assure her everything was going to be okay because she was born in 2020 and was terrified of masks literally her entire life and needed to comfort her and reassure her. They instead tied the adult mask to her face and carried her away. I immediately removed her from the school because of how this was handled. Again, to the yelp moderators that are going to flag this again, I am NOT against the masks! The principal rudely told me, I'm sorry we don't agree with your masking philosophy. I'm not against the masks! I'm against the way that you handled this incident with a 2 year old! I proceeded to leave a bad review to which I was called multiple times by their staff asking to remove it. I will not. Yelp, this review violates no policies. Never again New Horizons.

Terrible school. Charged us for entire year in advance, then refused to provide services per…read morecontract. Victimizes your children...and pretend they are Islamic but they know nothing about Islam...or for that matter humanity! Discriminatory and retaliating. The school claims they are a non profit, but they do not provide tax deduction to the donors. PER CALIFORNIA LAW THEY ARE OBLIGATED TO PROVIDE TAX DEDUCTION TO ALL PARENTS WHO PAY THEM. They are a fraud!!!

This high school hosted the CSBC band and Colorguard semi finals yesterday. They were great hosts…read moreand very accommodating. Thank you very much! And everyone LOVES those giant chocolate chip cookies you sell! That's all I kept hearing about in the stands.

Our daughter graduated IHS in 2019. We have included her input in this review. IHS has good STEM…read morewith strong sports, extracurriculars, and counseling and exceptional arts. With so many students and about 30 students per class, a mid-range student may get lost in the crowd. They may not receive the necessary support - unless they excel, fail, or cause a disciplinary issue. As in any other school, parents should continuously advocate for their student. Destinations: The Class of 2019 had about 530 students and 366 students told IHS where they were going. 132 graduates went to IVC, 29 to other community colleges, 36 to Cal State system, 76 to UC system, 37 to private universities in CA, 3 to technical/vocational schools, 46 to out of state universities, 4 to foreign universities, and 3 to serve in the military. Most students who go to IVC then transfer into the Cal State or UC system. STEM may be a little weaker at IHS than at University HS or Northwood HS but is still good enough for a student to excel. Unfortunately, IHS taught biology one year, chemistry next year, and then physics. The biology and chemistry experiences were poor enough to put our daughter off STEM before she could even try physics! The biology notes had been photocopied for many years and were barely readable. The biology teacher at the time no longer works at IHS. To improve chemistry, give explosive demonstration(s) throughout the year and not during the final exam! Parents and students should choose a HS with an integrated-science schedule, in which a little of each science is taught each semester. Math teaching was somewhat uninspired but it's a difficult subject to make interesting and relatable to everyday needs. There were many good teachers. Mrs. Peck teaches European history to a high standard with dry humor and is a student favorite! Mrs. Harrington teaches Social Studies well. Ms. Lux teaches Ceramics well and encourages those who are less artistically inclined. Mr. Munsell is a charismatic English teacher and popular with students. Mr. Phillips teaches keyboarding and PE well. Mr. Szczudlak teaches Adult Living well; we recommend the course which teaches financial skills. Assistant Principal King is helpful. My daughter did not like the Korean teacher's teaching style. They spent many months in classes before even attempting to speak Korean. The teacher poorly balanced the needs of students who spoke Korean at home with the needs of the 20% of students who never had Korean before. Class had good Korean movies screenings and occasional tasty barbecue! It was fun to be the student assistant for the upstairs office and to support Ms. Kamai and Ms. Russell. It was very hard for parents to find out about upcoming school events such as choir performances, plays, or concerts. That was regrettable because the performing arts events were consistently great. That improved somewhat after the Principal began to send out a school newsletter. Hard to find schedule info on the website. In general, the school website is very busy and difficult to navigate. Among high schools in Irvine, only IHS uses an alternating-block schedule with 90-min periods. Every day of the week differs from week to week. For example, the schedule for Friday differs depending whether it is Week A or Week B. Students become used to it, but it is annoying for parents, more complicated than typical college or work schedules, and offers no clear advantage. The idea is to replicate college schedule and get students used to longer classes. We liked the late start on Mondays.

Our son was attending a large public high school when the COVID-19 pandemic started. This highly…read morerated public high school quickly transitioned to an online learning environment, but only provided one synchronous lecture per week for each class. As our son, and many of his classmates, fell further and further behind in their online classes, we repeatedly reached out to the school administration, including the principal, as did the parents of our son's school friends. However, the school's administration was uniformly unresponsive to our concerns. So, we decided to take our son out of the public school system, and place him in a private school. Our son transferred to Pacific Academy during his junior year of high school. I really can't say enough good things about our experience at Pacific Academy over the past almost two years. Everyone from the principal to the teachers and administrative staff have all been amazing. They are all very passionate about their mission to educate their students, as well as to help their students grow and develop into well-rounded young men and women. The small class sizes allow for a very personalized approach to teaching, and both the teachers and the principal are very interactive and collaborative with parents. The quality of teaching in all of our son's classes has been exceptional, and all of his teachers have welcomed engagement with us. (Unlike at the public high school our son previously attended.) I would especially like to recognize the principal at Pacific Academy, Keith Corpus, and the Director of Student Affairs, Jasmine Hsu. Their dedication, compassion, and empathy towards their students, and their families, has been extraordinary. They have both also been tremendously supportive as students, parents, and teachers have all worked together to manage the enormous (and ever-changing) impact of the pandemic. Honestly, we have come to view Mr. Corpus and Ms. Hsu as if they were part of our family, and we are so grateful to them for their dedication and commitment to their students, including our son. My only regret is that we did not transfer our son to Pacific Academy sooner. We love this school, and its faculty and staff, and we are so grateful that our son has been able to attend Pacific Academy!

This school hired unprofessional teachers like Ms Kuo in 4th grade who wasn't a certificated…read moreteacher and was very mean to kids. It is unacceptable that they allow their teachers to use language abuse on our kids! Principal didn't even care about the issue. Very disappointing.

Good morning/afternoon/evening my good readers, Today we…read moreface the final review of well-known University High-school, which I know you have all been waiting for because of the significance of it. From the pristine art on the walls to the treacherous steep hills, there are many goods and bads to write about. To start, our arrival: "It's a school," one student explained to me, with not many strong feelings. Perhaps they didn't admire the money that went into creating this, what some people might call glorious, school? Or they had no idea of the danger ahead... We blew dandelions for a while, which were luckily in abundance. We hoped for good luck in our marching which we would perform in just an hour. Trees around the parking lot shaded us and added to the beautiful view, which was created with pink and blue contrasting colors and a tiny moon. This was especially cherished during the moment before we stepped onto the field, with a crow flying gracefully through the high sky. The most terrible element of our time at this school was the hill. This hill which brought immense struggle and buckets of sweat. With this addition to our problems the ending amount of stars could in no way be five or even four. Waiting for food was a different struggle, instead of something of the school fighting against us in our venture back to the buses (the hill), we were instead found with the pain of waiting. Signage was minimal and people were forced to yelling at others about where to go. "People aren't picking up their food," a person at a food stand told us. There also definitely should have been a sign towards the restrooms as well. Thank you for taking time out of your day to thoroughly read this review, ultimately making yourself more knowledgeable of the true marching band ways. Dearest, marching band pro performers

I would not recommend attending this school, especially if you come from a difficult or emotionally…read moreunstable home environment. In my experience, it was not an easy place to survive. Looking back, I believe I would have been happier at Woodbridge or Irvine High, where I likely could have earned higher grades and reduced the extreme stress of constantly studying until 3:00 AM while still feeling unable to keep up. Without tutoring or outside academic support, I often felt like I was on my own. There was very little individualized help available to bridge the gap between what students were expected to do and what was actually taught. When students needed concepts explained from the beginning, it sometimes felt like their questions were treated as frustrating rather than as a normal part of learning. If your main goal is maximizing your GPA and chances at highly selective colleges, I would carefully consider whether this environment is the right fit. Many students assume that attending a highly competitive school automatically provides an advantage in admissions, but a rigorous environment does not always lead to better outcomes if strict grading makes maintaining a strong GPA significantly harder. Students who might have earned mostly A's elsewhere may receive lower grades here. Another challenge was that students were often expected to perform advanced analysis without enough instruction. In English classes, we were sometimes expected to analyze entire literary works and identify themes, symbolism, and deeper meanings after limited explanation of the concepts. For students who had never been taught literary analysis before, it could feel like being asked to produce advanced work without first being given the foundation to succeed. While independent thinking is valuable, students still need guidance, examples, and support before being expected to analyze complex material at a high level. The expectation to "figure it out" with limited instruction made learning especially difficult for students adjusting to advanced academic English. This was also challenging for students from different educational backgrounds. Some students grew up in households where English was not the primary language, where parents could not help with English reading and writing, or where they had less exposure to English books and academic support growing up. Even bilingual students can struggle with advanced academic English because speaking a language does not always mean having the same comfort with complex writing and analysis. The combination of difficult coursework and the bell curve grading system sometimes made it feel like success depended heavily on prior exposure, outside support, or the ability to independently figure out advanced concepts. The environment could feel less like students were supported individually and more like they were competing against each other. Many teachers were very strict and unforgiving, with little understanding of challenges students faced outside of school. It often felt like the focus was on maintaining the bell curve and creating difficult exams, sometimes covering material beyond what was explicitly taught. Some students could feel overlooked or discouraged, while the highest-performing students received the most recognition. In my experience, some AP and Honors teachers were also unsupportive, and there were moments when students were embarrassed or called out in front of the class rather than being guided privately. There was very little patience for students who did not understand something the first time, and the pace often felt too fast for students who needed more explanation. There were also situations that felt unnecessarily humiliating. For example, there was a time when a teacher believed they had caught students cheating and angrily accused them in front of the entire class before fully confirming what happened. Even if there had been cheating, I believe it should have been handled privately and professionally rather than through public humiliation. In a high-pressure environment where students compete for grades, public accusations can have lasting effects because classmates may form judgments without knowing the full story. For students dealing with difficult situations at home, asking for help was not always simple. It can be hard to open up when you are unsure whether others will understand or whether sharing personal struggles will actually lead to meaningful support. Some students may feel like they have to silently manage their challenges while still meeting the same academic expectations. The one positive I took away was that the school pushed me to develop strong critical-thinking skills. It taught me to analyze concepts from different perspectives, question assumptions, & think more deeply about ideas, which helped shape the way I view the world and approach complex topics later in life. However, the emotional cost and stress were not worth the practical benefits.

My daughter has been struggling her whole life in school and we finally get her into Mardan School…read moreand she's having an amazing time. She's finally getting the support she needs and the education she deserves thank you to her teachers Mr. John and Mr. Zack thank you so much erin! You are so kind and helpful. Thank you Bonnie for everything thing you do thank you so much

I can't say enough about how amazing Mardan is. This school and the staff forever changed my sons…read morelife. Prior to coming here , he hated school , had a ton of behavioral issues and was so unhappy and school was just awful for him. We have been here for 4 years now. He loves school , he's thriving and it's absolutely remarkable to see how much he's changed and grown. The staff is amazing and I'll forever be grateful to have found this school. They truly do care about our children and they go above and beyond every day to make this environment a positive one for my son. I highly recommend Mardan if you're needing an alternative to public school , especially for children with special needs.