This school used to live up to it's claims of meeting the child where they are, educating the whole…read morechild, fostering their individuality, etc. In the past few years I have experienced a tremendous decline in their ability to hold true to this, sadly. I give it an average star rating because these days is just a costly version of any typical, yet capable public school with the addition of arrogance in their approach.

All three of our children attended The Orchard School. We are very pleased with the education they…read morereceived and so are they. I've often tried to sift through all our years and determine what they most learned/received at Orchard and if I had to pick one attribute (and there are many), I'd pick confidence. They are all confident public speakers. For example, when my daughter was a junior in high school, she won an award that required her to speak at a dinner with over 400 people present. I tried several times to get her to practice and review her speech in advance, knowing that the previous recipient had a professional speech writer. In frustration, one evening she said, "Mom, I went to Orchard. Don't worry." She delivered a flawless speech without notes. They are all confident about their ability to learn. Orchard likes to say they help create lifelong learners and they do. Each of our children knows how to learn and they like to learn. They are all confident expressing themselves to anyone. In high school, their teachers observed that unlike many shy teens they were not afraid to ask questions and advocate for themselves or for others. And, this has continued throughout their college and post-graduate years. Orchard invites and teaches children how to respectfully approach adults. At Orchard, education is not just about science, English, history, etc. While these are important, it's also about helping develop good people and preparing them for the future.

We were very excited to have gotten in and joined this school. But quickly discovered that the…read moreschool was not willing to deal with and help our son who was in the prek classroom. He went through a phase of behavioral issues and instead of dealing with them, the school kindly asked us to stop coming, even though we had paid tuition through the year (which was not refunded). After some meetings about what we were going to do and them about moving forward they had no plan in place and it became very evident that they love the students, but only if they are easy for them. They treated us all very badly and made our 4 year old extremely confused. Stefanie was less than desirable to work with and had her puppet Rae do all of her dirty work for her. After two months of not "inviting" our son back after we were working with him at home and a child therapist, we decided to pull him out indefinitely. Would not recommend this very yuppie school to anyone. Kids need guidance and help and if you want them to fail you like they did us, then by all means sign them up. Good luck.

My family lived in Columbus, IN for three years, when I was in 2nd - 4th grade. Because the local…read morepublic schools had a poor reputation, my parents enrolled me in the elementary school at ABC Stewart and my brother in the pre-school. Although I was pretty young at the time and only attended for a few years, I look back at ABC Stewart as being an amazing experience that has positively impacted me in adulthood. ABC Stewart's elementary school is a small, intimate environment. The years I attended the total population ranged from 60 to 90-something students, and the younger grades usually had more people than the older grades. This allowed for a highly personalized learning environment. Although the default was to be grouped by grade, Stewart School allowed us to learn at our own pace. For example, I was ahead of my grade in spelling and English classes, so I was allowed to work with the higher grades for those periods. For math and science, where I was grade level, I returned back to my peers. ABC Stewart is not a true Montessori school but uses many Montessori aspects. We had traditional classes part of the day, but the other part (the fun half!) was independent study. In independent study we could travel from classroom to classroom and learn the subject of our choice. (There was a system in place to make sure kids didn't spend all the time in one subject.) I loved independent study and feel the system instills an enjoyment of learning I didn't get when I was older and in public schools. ABC Stewart Elementary is truly a nurturing and caring environment with great teachers who genuinely love their jobs. Mrs. Carmichael, the founder, is a visionary who is committed to the students, parents, and keeping the school great. If you're stuck in the Columbus area and have kids, I would definitely send them here.

My daughter started John Strange this year after spending her first three years in a Charter…read moreSchool. Her transition has been outstanding. This was a Grade A school when my sixteen year old went beginning her second grade year of school. The technology is top of the line. My youngest has only 22 students in her class, allowing individual interaction with each child. The teachers are incredible and love their job. Ms. Arduini, the Art teacher, is still there and recognized my oldest when we went to register her younger sister. The principal knows my daughter by name. There is diversity throughout the school and differences in culture are recognized. I just attended the awards ceremony to watch my daughter accept her award for Honor Roll and Citizenship (5 of out 5 for behavior). It was easy to get in, organized exclusively for the grade you were seeing and we were able to spend time and take pictures. As she got out of the car this morning for school, the principal said hello to her by name. Washington Township at its finest!

Can't say enough about how happy we have been with John Strange Elementary. My daughter has been…read morethere for 5 years now and this is my son's second year. We have had the most dedicated and wonderful teachers each year. The kids have been given the gift of passion to learn by this staff. They have a wonderful music teacher who puts her heart and soul into their arts programs. They put on some wonderful plays. The only complaints I have are across the board for all schools- lunch and recess are not long enough. I think it's important to focus on health a little more and i think encouraging kids to gobble down food and limiting exercise is part of the nationwide obesity problem. I think this school does the most with all the resources they have. I would love to see all schools and teachers have more money and tools to fix many of the problems that are faced in all of our schools.

Our family has been a part of CCS since the fall of 2019 when we enrolled our then 3 year old. We…read morenow have both of our children as active students in the school. We have always felt like we were dropping our children off at a second home when sending them to school. Multiple staff members will nurture your children - from office staff, to cafeteria staff, to custodial staff, and of course all of the teaching staff. When our children are down, they offer support and prayer. When our children are succeeding, they are celebrating successes alongside us. The athletic department is top notch and ccs offers an array of sports to all who are interested in participating. Ccs holds chapel every Wednesday morning, bringing in various speakers and music to meet the students where they are individually. If you ever consider sending your children, I strongly suggest you reach out to the school office to schedule a tour. Also spend time with families that are actively enrolled so that they can share their real life experiences with you. We won't send our children anywhere else!

Terrible school. Does not accommodate for children with severe disabilities. Teachers and…read moreAdministrators are rude and hateful towards kids that act differently. Does not communicate well with parents.

Would like to take this as an opportunity to thank that staff at this school for all their efforts…read morein passing out the school lunches. And trying to lift the spirits of the neighborhood.

Geeze Louise, I wish something could be done about this overly obscene amount of traffic letting…read moreout of the lot. It's CRAZY!! And a lot of people are just drivers driving by, but they are in the mix with the cars pulling out of the school. It's absolutely insane, I tell you!! Lol I was sitting at the front waiting to pull out for 20+ minutes, because the traffic is hellacious. Don't get me wrong, we love our Garden City and this doesn't have anything to do with the school per say. It just isn't a great intersection. I hope one day, maybe one day, we can get with the program and take turns! Lol Who am I kidding?