Our 5 year old daughter has been at Little Laurels and Laurel Academy since she was 2 years old…read more(toddler room through Kindergarten) and we have absolutely loved the school. Our daughter has thrived in the small classroom environment, and we have found the teachers and administration to be thoughtful, organized and wonderfully responsive. When our little one was ready to move into Kindergarten a bit early, the teachers and administrators communicated proactively with us, and helped make sure the transition was smooth. I feel so grateful to have been a part of this community, and strongly recommend the school.

I cannot say enough great things about this school. The amount of attention the kids (and parents)…read morereceive, the positivity from teachers and staff, the cool events put on by the school, and the after school extra-curriculars they offer....I'm so thankful we decided to send our Kindergartner here. She's thriving and LOVES school. Thanks for all you do, Laurel Academy!!

Brighton School is wonderful and we love it!!!!!…read more I've had my kids at Brighton for at least eleven years? I've lose count. My son attended Brighton from first through eighth grade and my daughter started in preschool and is now in sixth grade. My kids are completely different and they have both absolutely thrived at Brighton. Brighton does an awesome job of providing an excellent well-rounded education for many different types of learners and kids. Brighton offers an excellent academic program, but also offers an amazing drama program with Mr. DC, some great sports programs, after school extracurriculars, yearly overnight field trips that get longer with each grade level and culminate in a 10 day East Coast trip for the 8th graders, etc. The greatest asset to Brighton is its staff. Brighton attracts some truly talented, caring and highly invested staff and teachers. There are teachers at Brighton who have truly changed the course of my childrens' lives. Ms. (formerly Gabriel) Savage is my daughter's idol. Ms. Savage is the perfect role model for my child, as she is strong, confident, smart, kind and encouraging. My daughter is a gymnast and she has talked to my daughter about mental blocks. She is a great teacher but she clearly cares about her students in a way that goes beyond what her job requires. Her assistant Ms. Carrie is also so caring, patient and kind. Ms. Durbin is another teacher that made a real difference in my daughter's life. Ms. Durbin was like a second mother to my daughter, or my daughter's stand-in mother at school. My daughter has always had a ton of anxiety about overnight field trips, but knowing that Ms. Durbin would be on the field trip always made her feel better. Ms. Durbin knew when to be serious and get the class under control but could also be so silly and have fun with the class. Mr. DiLorenzo is another incredible asset to the Brighton community. Mr. D. was my child's third grade teacher, and he was an incredibly gifted educator then, and now he is the head of the middle school. Mr. D. can be so fun and silly with the kids, but he also knows when to be serious and address serious issues. My son had an awesome middle school experience at Brighton and during his years there built up a community of friends who carried over into the same high school. Ms. Livingston has been serving the Brighton middle school for years in various capacities and she is AMAZING!!!! She is currently teaching math and she is an awesome math teacher, but she also handles a lot of the administrative stuff for the middle school. She's very friendly, great with the kids, great with the parents, and easy to get along with. Ms. Bodnar, according to my 17 year old son, is "the GOAT" (greatest of all time). Ms. Bodnar teachers study skills and math (I think) but she connects with the kids in a way that few others do. My son emphatically thinks that she is the best teacher at Brighton. Ms. Thaler is also a great language arts teacher. She definitely knows what she is doing and I appreciate that she actually challenges the kids. This is Ms. Parks Lobbs' first year as Head of School, but she has been involved with other parts of the school for years and she appears to be 100% in charge of what is happening and in control of things. As a very long-time parent of Brighton who has observed three separate Heads of School, I think Ms. Parks Lobb is doing a great job. There are a lot of other amazing staff members at Brighton who I am going to forget to mention. We love Coach Matt, who is the kindest, funniest guy to have around. He always greets my daughter in the morning with the biggest smile and it makes me feel so good about dropping her off. He also love Coach Brandon, who has been there for years and is super well loved by all the kids. He made the summer camp a blast for my daughter. We really loved Ms. Becca, who is a former aide who is no longer there. We wish the school brought her back. My son had Ms. Schippers for both hers and his first year at Brighton (first grade) and she made him feel super welcome and safe. I don't remember the full names of my daughter's pre-K teacher and aide (the aide was Sarah) but they were both so amazing! Oh yeah, the parents, kids and community at Brighton are also awesome. Both my kids have made amazing friends and we have done all the playdates, the sleepovers, the skate nights (thanks, PTO!), all of it. My son has friends he literally made in FIRST GRADE and now are JUNIORS in high school and they are part of the same friend group and in some of the same advanced classes. My daughter and her best friends met years ago, some as far back as preschool. I've known those parents just as long. The parents are great and the PTO is currently thriving. I've never been involved in the PTO, but I am very, very grateful for the amazing parents who run it and all that they do. Best money we ever spent!

We've been at Brighton for five years after coming from public school, and our experience has been…read morewonderful. With 3 kids who have spanned the range if preschool, elementary, and middle school, I can say the middle school especially has exceeded expectations. Initially, I was nervous because of its smaller size, but it's been fabulous, the teachers embrace the middle school years while preparing students for real-world situations. We've had the honor of having both Ms. Shippers and Ms. Savage twice. Ms. Shippers has years of experience yet brings fresh enthusiasm every day, and Ms. Savage's connection with the kids is remarkable. Brighton truly offers a nurturing, dynamic environment we're so grateful for!

I,went to school in the Shoreline School Disterect and it was gr8t!! Their really, really, gr8t…read more The Teacher's, sport's programs etc.

Our kids have been to Birch Tree (BTA) over the past 4 years. We've had an amazing experience, and…read morerecently realized how exceptional it is compared to other daycares. We took for granted the high quality care and high standards set by the management and staff. We took a short break and moved our youngest to another daycare for a month just to be closer to our house (national chain daycare in Kenmore), and it was literally night and day. The other daycare was subpar in quality and extremely short staffed, even though the tuition was comparable. We decided to move them back to Birch Tree, and drive the extra miles. What we love about Birch Tree is the management, warm and caring teachers who give lots of hugs, home cooked food, facilities, quality education, classroom camera and Bright Wheel App. Despite the locations expansion, BTA still feels locally owned and the owner Natalie and head of schools Jessica are very much involved in all of their schools. You will still see them in-person floating around the different locations. They generally know all student's names, and the local staff are always friendly and greating parents. They hold their staff to high standards and also expect the same of parents. Kids are well behaved, they wear inside vs outside shoes. Food is better than my home cooked meals, classrooms are modern with high ceilings and large windows, and all teachers have open communication with parents via the instant messaging feature. The admin staff is also on top of communication, and they have an abundance of teachers and admin staff. They also offer weekly PE, music, and Spanish classes which are all included in the price. They also offer parents night-out occasionally, and host events and weekly summer field trips for pre-k. You can do 3, 4, or 5 days a week. Speaking with staff, they enjoy working there and say that there's opportunity for them to grow and take on different roles within the school or office. Other parents we've met have moved from other daycares to go to BTA and seem very happy with BTA. They have well prepared our oldest for kindergarten and we are so thankful. None of these things we observed with the national chain daycare.

Wonderful place for kids to learn and thrive! Truly appreciate the work they put in and my child is…read moregrowing and learning a great deal as he prepares for kindergarten and elementary school!

We had our kids at Evergreen for four years. Most of the teachers were top notch, the curriculum…read morewas great, and the campus was very open and almost like a little college. We made a lot of great parent friendships as well. Ms. Judith, Kathleen, and Debra in PS, PK, and 1st grade were absolutely awesome and did an amazing job with our boys. The school also has great financial resources with very generous families supporting continued investment in the physical plant and new programs. One thing we wished were different might have been the level of competition between the kids to be first or best at everything and the impact that started to have on our oldest (who was beginning to only want to pursue things where he could be #1). I don't think the school encourages that (on the contrary, I think they encourage all the kids to always try) but it could be the natural dynamic of any school that only has gifted children. Some of our friends' kids also encountered challenges around bullying; it wasn't rampant though and could have been the reality of how kids interact at that age. On a related note, our biggest advice is to be aware of the sibling admissions policy. Our youngest was admitted to and attended Evergreen PS or PK and was doing great according to all the teacher evaluations. However, after two tests, his top IQ score was in the 90th percentile and as such was short of the 95th percentile cutoff. We were then told he could not continue to Kindergarten (even though the PK teacher strongly recommended he advance to Kindergarten). It made for a really stressful and emotional year for us and while we respect the School's right to set these kinds of policies, it seemed at odds with the values of community, inclusion, and social and emotional intelligence -- especially since the testing data was very inconsistent and in the gray area.

A top notch school for highly capable learners, with a world class faculty, great values, and an…read morestellar campus.

I can't say enough good things about the Preschool here. They truly love families and children of…read moreall different backgrounds. Children in care here will be loved, happy and well prepared for starting Elementary when they complete Pre-K. They have a rich arts program, skilled teachers and administrators, and have FAR more diversity than what you will find at any other school on THIS campus. If I was grading just the preschool it would be 4-5 stars. Unfortunately, my experience with Kings goes beyond the preschool, but my praise of this school ends there. The school has made some effort to try and address their serious issues with race over the last year and a half, but from a student writing Whites Only over a school faucet two years ago, to bigoted parents getting angry that the new, very qualified Vice Principal, made things "all about race", simply because she told families she had a passion for race and reconciliation; their seems to be an abundance of families who chose this school to stay away from diversity and race relations. The school has very little black and latina diversity, so they have started disproportionately exploiting those children's images on marketing to give the appearance of diversity that simply isnt there. The school also is unable to help students with special learning needs, such as dyslexia. I've watched several families who love the school pour countless dollars into Kings for special reading help only to have to pull their child just to get the appropriate learning help through a public school. The school also made big changes at the beginning of the 2019 year to "clarify" previously unstated positions on a number of social issues that are not universally agreed upon within the Christian church. The one that made the headlines (because teachers were forced to quit if they wouldnt fall under the authority of the school and express agreement with Kings position) was that Kings staff must profess to believe that Homosexuality is unnatural. They also made clear that they will continue to teach this to their students unapologetically (see attached picture from their 11th grade textbook, just one example of why bullying is such a problem here). The CEO and administration like to "prove" they still love gay people by telling you about their gay sister or brother in law. Ugg telling gay kids their natural sexual orientation is unnatural and dangerous, not loving. The school also has big problems with parental cliques, exclusivity and elitism. The school holds all PTA meetings and many parent informational meetings or Principal discussions, during the day, making it difficult for working parents to be involved with PTA, ask questions or have their voices be heard. This was a common complaint I heard from working parents. Finally, parents should be aware that the CEO of CRISTA, the former head of "Sound the Alarm" and a lead Supporter and Activist for Referendum 65 in 2006 (which fought to repeal a law that protected people from being discriminated against based on sexual orientation) has made it her lifes work to fight against the "normalization" of homosexuality and as such, has brought the same agenda to Kings schools. Her leadership and direction are taking the school in a scary direction. I thought my kids would be here for the long haul, so pulling my oldest mid year was an emotional decision. My daughter starts K next year so we decided to let her finish at the preschool this year so she wouldn't need to start 2 new schools in less than a year. I love so many of the teachers and families here; I just wish I had known all these things before we chose Kings, since they dont align with our values and we wouldn't have had to put our son through such a rough transition mid-year. Clarity can be a gift, so I hope this gives some clarity to other parents making enrollment decisions right now, so they do so with their eyes wide open.

I was disappointed in the King's School Admission Process. Prior to ever meeting my 5yr old son, or…read moremyself in person the school reached out to schedule an "urgent call" to ask questions about my son's father who passed away 2 years ago after losing his battle with cancer. My son's father did make an unethical decision prior to my son ever being born but is deceased, so it was difficult to understand why this school would be asking about him, as naturally he would not be a part of the schooling process. With my son being mixed race, I did communicate to the school that I thought it was very odd to be asked about that, and my initial concerns I had about the online reviews surrounding race and the lack of inclusion at Kings including students and staff.  It's very important for me that my son is raised in a Christian environment, and the main reason we reach out to include Kings in our initial search. Then we have the in person  "interview" and I followed up with admissions via email following the interview to understand when we would find out if/when my son is accepted.  I explained he was already accepted at 2 other schools and we're trying to decide between the 3 schools.  Then 4 days ago I received an email that my son was awarded a small amount of financial aid for the 2023/2024 school year at Kings, so naturally I thought he was accepted.  Then today I get a call from the Elementary Principal that Kings is not accepting my son due to the quality of his handwriting/writing his name, and that had he attended their pre-school vs. the montessori school he has been in since he was 2yrs old, that his "fine motor skills" for his handwriting would be much better.  I followed up to ask why the Kindergarten skills assessment is done 7 months before the school year starts vs some of the other schools who complete theirs in August, and they said they do re-assess students in August sometimes. I do believe that God has a path for each of us and clearly our path is not Kings.  It will always leave me to wonder if my sons deceased father and the fact that he is mixed race had more to do with his path at Kings then we will know.  Inclusion will remain an issue at Kings if judgements are passed and God does not lead the admissions staff to look at a young, innocent 5yr old little boy and say we are going to work with him on his hand writing vs rejected his access to a quality Christian Education because he didn't write his name good enough. Sending my prayers to the admissions team for inclusion not just based on race but on little kids still mastering writing their name at 5yrs old.

Welcoming people at this church. Small congregation of well under 200. Decent diversity although a…read moremmajority of elderly. Beautiful building. Accomidating for folks with disabilities. Spacious on the inside. Clean bathroom. The sermon was low key but meaningful. Coffee and tea after the service was a nice meeting and greet.

There's a negative review up there from a student named Jack, who happens to be my son. He was…read morebeing a turd and fooling around in class. As his dad, I can honestly say that my kids have had a very positive experience at this school.