Our son is currently in kindergarten at Marin Waldorf School, where there are two teachers for…read moresixteen students. He can be shy, but he quickly formed strong bonds with his teachers and made friends faster than we expected. Within the first week, we noticed a real shift. He became more confident, independent, and better regulated at home. It truly felt like he had been longing for something he finally found. The school's emphasis on rhythm, storytelling, singing, nature, practical work, and the seasons suits him beautifully. He especially loves starting each morning with a short run near the ancient oak tree before circle time. The time spent outdoors has been incredibly grounding for him. The campus spans ten acres, with plenty of space for the younger children to explore and a separate area for the grade school students. The parent community has also been a wonderful surprise. Families are welcomed with coffee and tea at drop-off, which creates space to connect with other parents and the staff. There are also parent groups, music evenings, lectures, and seasonal festivals throughout the year. Most importantly, our child is genuinely excited to go to school each morning. As busy working parents, we feel very grateful to have found this school. We would wholeheartedly recommend Marin Waldorf School to families looking for a warm, nurturing, and thoughtfully run early childhood program.

This is an amazing school! Very respectful of childhood, development, and allowing students to be…read morethemselves. Emphasis on creativity and healthy relationships amongst the students, teachers and families. A great community that is supportive and striving.

The blue is a little faded. The bridge is pretty close to just straight up falling down. All things…read moreconsidered. It's ok

One of the most beautiful campus architectures of any high school I've ever seen. The layout is…read moreamazing, the facilities look brand new and updated, and the sports programs (especially the Basketball team) are prestigious and other-worldly. The neighborhood around it is rather an eyesore, especially with the surrounding hills, but the school itself is beautiful.

I'm current student at Dominican University of California. Each week I go into two classes here to…read moredo my student observations. First I want to say how hard these teachers work at this school. They have so much passion for teaching and that is something i have not seen in other schools I have been to. I appreciate the six grade math teacher Mr.Promis a lot. He is very knowledgeable and kind to each of his students. As well as Ms.Ryan in the SPED department. She is so kind and respectful to each of her students. Both of these teachers bring qualities of a wonderful teacher. I inspire to be them -José

Our boys are thriving at this school, they are exposed to a number of different elective courses,…read moreclubs and athletic programs. They went from a small elementary school of 300 kids to the larger DMS student body and have made a lot of new friends. They feel safe and well supported by the amazing staff at DMS

As a parent with more than one child at Mark Day School, what continues to stand out most is how…read moredeeply the school truly knows each student. Beyond academics, teachers take the time to understand who children are--their strengths, challenges, interests, and values--and help them discover how they want to contribute to the world around them. Mark Day School builds on basic structures of academic knowledge acquisition and focuses on something far more meaningful: developing thoughtful, reflective, engaged humans. The culture encourages students to think critically, speak confidently, and act with empathy and purpose. Public speaking, collaboration, and self-awareness are woven naturally into daily life, not treated as add-ons. The result is a community of children who are not only capable learners, but genuinely wonderful people--curious, grounded, and a joy to be around. Mark Day has a rare ability to shape students who will contribute to society in meaningful, positive ways, and as a parent, that gives me tremendous confidence in the education my children are receiving.

We were a new 6th grade family joining the MDS community. Our son was previously at Highlands…read moreChristian Schools in San Bruno from 18 months old (They have a wonderful toddler daycare) to the 5th grade. It was great for our son to be entering the 6th grade at a new school with another dozen or so new children from outside schools. The summer buddy family program gave us an opportunity to meet other rising 6th graders and their families. We cannot thanks these parents enough for the warm welcome prior to the start of the school year. In the 6th grade the kids are given their own laptops to be used throughout Middle School. The 6th grade 4 day Outdoor Ed trip to Pinnacle National Park fell on our sons birthday. It was his first time away without any parent chaperones and he loved it. The school dealt with COVID-19 by following the science and took great precautions to ensure the safety of the children. In late March 2019 there was a 2 week teacher training then the kids were back in school via Zoom. We continued to use distance learning in the 7th grade until the winter break when he returned to the classroom. He is now in the 8th grade and we feel grateful to MDS for keeping our kids and community safe. The teachers, administrators and staff are 100% vaccinated as are the students age 12 and older. The kids ages 5-11 are now catching up to reach 100% vaccinated. The high level of education and life experiences our son is getting at MDS has exceeded our expectation. He has made new friends and is excited to be looking at the next chapter of his education, High School. We highly recommend this independent school.

I'm always careful to speak out about Oak Hill School because my son isn't a "typical" attendee…read more He's ADD and not neurotypical, but never tested as on the spectrum. We went through four different public school Special Ed systems in different districts, tried multiple interventions and strategies, but his engagement with the curriculum in public school had ground to a halt by the time he reached seventh grade. Knowing he was out-of-the-box, I started looking for a place where he could thrive on his own terms. He's curious and inventive, but not one for marching to anyone else's drum. The public school system kept trying to "break" him, to make him conform - and I understand why! They have many students and they can't cater to each individual, but if you're trying to "break" my younger son, you'd better come to the table with a lifetime supply of patience and endurance because I've lived with him for seventeen years now and I've yet to see a crack in his persistence. It took eight months to entreat the district for a transfer. Since he didn't test as on the spectrum, they questioned why I thought it was a good fit for him, but within weeks, he was engaging with the teacher and staff. Over the last three years, he's gone from wholly unresponsive in public school to developing his own ice cream business with a fellow student, budgeting and making the product, participating in a Sonoma State University survey of non-neurotypical students to provide feedback for NASA's research on an astronomy course, participating in a student internship at a local restaurant and engaging with his fellow students. The staff and faculty is indeed like a family, as one of the other reviewers said. Only maybe better than most families. I can't speak from her perspective, but from my own, it's a place of tremendous acceptance. A place where the students are valued for their gifts, where they're encouraged to advocate for themselves and aided in expanding into their potential. Finding Oak Hill has truly been a turning point for our family. I found it at a point where I'd begun to despair that my son wouldn't make it out of the public school system in one piece, when the hurdle of high school graduation had felt remote and improbable. He's now approximately a year and a half from graduation and we've discussed college options. He's interested in science and engineering. Finding the right school for our children is SUCH a personal decision and one's experience can vary so much from the next. Many of the schools where my sons struggled were highly ranked. Quite a few of them offered programs I might've loved when I was their ages, but hypotheticals don't translate to the individual needs of our kids. All I can say is, Oak Hill is an incredible place with a staff and faculty of warm, thoughtful people and my son has become more thoughtful and engaged through his association with them.

This has been a wonderful school for my son John. He's struggled for many years, and we found the…read morefaculty to be wildly supportive. Charlie Beavis in particular has been an incredible counselor for John, both academically and spiritually. The positivity and light that radiates throughout the campus has been undeniable. We definitely made the right decision looking back over the past few years.

The sheer enjoyment of giving an opinion to my high school as an adult seems so beautifully…read morecathartic, and so wrong. Just perfect, so me. Why is Tam so much more fly than when I went there? It's not like I went to school in the dark ages. I'm not forty. I'm not embarassed to tell anyone that I'm 26 years of age and that I was class of 2000. That school, for the area that we are in was incredibly ghetto in my opinion a few years back. Our science classes had no new equipment and so we would be stuck with twenty year old beakers that you couldn't read the measurements on. The glass on the tubes seemed so thin I was always terrified it would break in my hands when I put them in the centrifuge (oh yeah, sorry, we didn't have a centrifuge, bummer). My drama department, for whom I will represent until I die, holla CTE, holla, had productions in a ghetto side room attached to the gym which we called "the black box". Folding chairs half falling apart and duck taped stage boxes were what we used to create "lavish" productions and blocking. But I guess maybe we had it better. We needed to create bigger and larger concepts in order to make the meager surroundings fantastic to our audience. We had to work harder. The back parking lot was filled with potholes, which would damage my car. Hence, the fact I was that asshole student that parked my nice car in Mead theatre (yes, right in Mead theatre to those that know it) and for some reason got away with it. Must have been that crazy rockstar mentality of "fuck you, and who gives a fuck" that I had back then, and still retain to this current day. Some of my teachers were incredible, hence the four stars, that's just for you guys! I had some inspirational teachers that literally changed my life like Dr. Cruz and Susan Brashear. They helped to make me believe in myself and were my home away from home while going through those difficult formative years which I try to keep telling them have never really gone away. My high school reunion is coming up soon. I'll be interested to see all those people that I never really liked that tried to cheat off of my science and foreign language tests, who I never let. It wasn't my fault that they didn't study or get it. I'll have to re-dye my hair the color it is now, pink, which is the color it was in school 8 years ago. Oh, and show up in my Ferrari with one of my sexy high school teachers that they'll probably assume I was sleeping with in school (did I? hmmmm......) as my date so that I can really come back and throw 'em through a loop. I do have a note to my science teacher at Tam though. You know who you are, the one that told me that I would never become of anything, and that I was cheating beacuse I didn't need to study like the other kids, because I understood it and it came second nature to me. The one that told me I should be a writer and not a veterinarian. Well hey there, I was top of my class in Boston in sciences. So eat that shit bitch! See staff of Tamalpais High School!!!! I haven't changed a bit. I just have a better car, more authority, I'm more obnoxious, and have a better laywer.

I went to high school here and it was not as pretty as it is now. What lucky kids, and they…read moreprobably don't know how good they have it. Talk about an institution for learning.

We transferred here after two years in a local public school and cannot be happier. The campus is…read moreextraordinary and filled with beauty all around, from the redwoods to the babbling stream. Education with purpose is not only their motto but one they truly live up to. The community and staff are down to earth and kind and inclusive and educated and driven and all around wonderful. They truly shape the minds and the character of the students to be sharp, creative, and conscientious members of society.

so I just want to review their hiring process. I was asked to do two not in person interviews that…read moreseemed great. then they told me I had to go to the campus and they expected me to be there from 7:50-1:30 on a work day interviewing with different school admin. I did as much as could because like most people I actually have to work a job that pays. After spending 4 hours there I told them I'm sorry I have to get to my other job. You would think that investing that much time would result in being hired. But no it did not. All I can say is any other place would have respected a persons time and not wasted half of their day. they would have gotten all the people together and had a panel interview. so I mean all I can say is that I feel really disrespected by this staff. Who does that? I dunno. if you like bougie people that clearly do not mind wasting your time this is the perfect location for you. And sorry I do have to say this because you must be an extreme elitist to think wasting half a work day doesn't impact the average joe. it does. if someone who has helped open wellness centers and is on the 40 under 40 list for the north bay business journal isn't good enough for them, then who is? thanks! Not only this but the person in charge Stacy Cohen, left me several times during this 4 hour stink to wait on the admin who had not received any copy of this interview schedule from the day before. She had emailed me the night before this schedule telling me she had been sick on her travels but when I got there and she was coughing all over the place she continue to tell me she wasn't sick. One of the people she had set up to interview me never even showed up. They were not even on the campus that day. So I sat for an hour of my time waiting for someone who isn't there to show up in a library while I could have been at my actual job. So not only is this snobby elitist behavior but inconsiderate and rude. If this is what you want from your admin staff of your school please go here. Not to mention being extremely combative over things that made no sense. She apparently got angered when I shared an answers from one of her staff as if this was my opinion. A major lack of ability to take any criticism, it was an extremely unprofessional interview in which at the end I still offered to come back another day to meet with these other people who could not be there that day and since I was leaving. Instead they just waited till after the holiday weekend to tell me no thanks.

MA is a great college prep school in the Bay Area!…read more Great location near downtown San Rafael! Amazing school grounds and facilities! Excellent teachers who have a love of learning and want to share these passion with students! Great sports and a NEW AQUATIC CENTER has been built! Truly has a school campus feel in an urban environment! You student will be equipped for that next stage in school!

Ma is a pretty good school and you should definitely look at yelp reviews to decide what high…read moreschool you're going to.

Hmmm....do I admit I went here? I'm certainly not going to give my graduation year!!…read more Oh, okay. The good: Excellent academics, great facility, gorgeous grounds, awesome teachers. My biology teacher even officiated at my wedding (love you Marty!). Lots of smart kids, lots of artistic kids, I suppose some athletes, but I was SO not one of them. The not-so-good: Yup, it's a snobby private high school in Marin. Lots of kids got really nice cars for their 16th birthdays, lots of entitled rich kids. But I wouldn't say I was ostracized for driving a 1983 volvo wagon... Because it's small, there isn't a lot of social diversity, and very little ethnic/socioeconomic diversity. And I don't even want to think how much it costs to go there now, or how much it will be in (gulp) 2018 when my son heads off to high school. I can guarantee the only way we'll afford to send him is is if he gets some alumni-kid scholarship!

What an incredible school! I've had the privilege now twice to attend a school performance because…read morewe have a friend on staff. What I wouldn't give to have attended a school like this. The grounds are immaculate. It has so much charm and none of the pompousness you may expect from a place like this. The performances we saw were very well done and so much fun to watch. The only down side is I have to start saving now because my 5 year old says she wants to go here when she's older.

Graduated SRHS in 1972 and to this day I still have the fondest memories..In my freshman year of 68…read moreit was still uptight but by 69 all hell broke lose..We were smoking pot all over the campus, teachers, principle and deans were cool with it..Sometimes at lunch break we would have a keg of beer out on the soccer field..Teachers were great and we all went on to become successful..I'm still close friends with many and I was part of the 420 gang..Wish I could relive it again..

A school with issues that STILL produces fine kids prepared for college…read more San Rafael High School is a long standing (by long I mean founded in 1888) high school with tons of history. All students that graduate from here end up LOVING this school. I myself graduated in 2007 and I still have very fond memories of this school. Pros: A handful of teachers STRIVE and WORK non-stop to see these kids succeed. During high school I had EXTREME money problems and a professor even offered me 400 bucks to help me get by. I didn't take the money but, just goes to show you the lengths they'll go for their students. The music program is arguably one of the best for a public school (I mean, they even have their own recording studio and broadcasting station.) Furthermore, its a REAL school. You see your jocks, weirdos and gang-bangers all going here. It's not an isolated school and your child experiences true life. Also many ESL students go to SRHS and thus this school has large english department. From beginning English all the way up to AP english. Many school don't offer that. I personally fell in love with this school and will hopefully send my kids here someday. Cons: the school is so old that it was falling apart when I left. I believe now they are renovating it and it has gotten better. The school has many issues including a high turnover rate of teachers, seems like every year 5 teacher quit and 5 more are hired. Keep an eye on this school and don't listen to just the negative word-of-mouth comments.