About a month ago I attended the 9th Annual Arcadia Edible Garden Tour. We visited some really…read morewonderful home edible gardens in the Arcadia area of Scottsdale, AZ . . . but the one that stood out beyond all the others was this elementary school. Arcadia Neighborhood Learning Center (ANLC) is an elementary school teaching its children where food really does come from - gardens and farms. And that grocery stores are only the middle man. The children have their own gardens - with veggies and flowers. Even the Preschool students have a garden. Once a month they have a visiting local Chef who comes and teaches a small group of students how to prepare food they have grown . . . and how to make it tasty. Young home garden farmers and chefs are being taught how to do it right. The ANLC is part of a 120-year history of the Scottsdale Unified School District - they've been educating our children since 1896 in both creative and traditional skills. And the children love it! If you live in this neighborhood and have young children, they are the lucky ones! Learning to grow and eat their veggies!

My son and daughter have been at Echo Canyon since Pre-K and now they're in 2nd and 4th grade…read more We've had such an amazing experience here. The staff is all so warm and welcoming. The principal and assistant principal are out greeting kids every morning and they know everyone's name, it's impressive! My kids have thrived here, with my daughter in the advanced Math and ELA and my son finding a love of reading. I'm a very involved parent and can say every single person who works at the school is amazing, thoughtful, and truly care about the students. We feel very lucky to have found this great community.

We have 2 kids in Echo Canyon and they both started out in their outstanding Pre-K program. As they…read morehave grown and continued on we have loved all of their teachers and their looping model as well! We live the small school feel, where the students are created by name every morning by the principal and assistant principal. Their beautiful gardens, tortoise habitat and monarch weigh station and some of the features that really set this school apart from the rest. We really couldn't be happier that we found Echo and that it's a part of our families story :)

Beautiful school creative teachers especially Miss Andrea ,very energizing. Teacher creates a…read morefriendly environment focusing on teamwork. Lots of interesting field and nature trips

Awesome community for kids to grow up in. Beautiful piece of land in middle of PV for the the kids…read moreto explore and run around. We love it. It's our 4th year here. :)

Public school but they expect you to shell out money like a private school…read more I have never had a school demand money as much as this school in my entire life. They require 120 hours of community service per parent and demand that you pay cash for hours unmet. Every single event is overpriced. Still you pay for it and then they ask for donations on top of it. Principal seems to rotate every year so any ground they gain is lost the next year. Principal always pawns off issues to the Teacher and the Teacher pawns off issues to the principal. Parking is terrible and super limited but they decided last year to close out most of the parking to install solar panels during the day. Not at night, not on school break but the middle of the school year. Stay far away from this place.

Kids are marked late if they're not through the gate by 7:25, and with the long car line caused by…read morethe school's lack of space, families are forced to arrive by 7:15 just to avoid being penalized. That's misleading and takes away valuable time in the mornings that families could spend together -- and to top it off, staff stand at the gates saying "good morning" while putting kids on the late list, so their day starts with punishment instead of support.

If I could leave zero stars I would due to My son had one of the worst experiences at this school…read more He went through a serious health concern after an incident that happened on campus, and the school failed to take proper action or provide the care and attention the situation deserved. As a parent, it was heartbreaking to see that no real concern or responsibility was taken. Due to the incident, I had to take my son to have a tooth removed. I expected the school to handle the matter seriously and ensure student safety, but unfortunately nothing meaningful was done. I hope no other child or parent has to go through this experience. My son's graduation was a complete mess and extremely disappointing. Every student's name was called and recognized except for my son, even though he was graduating as well. Watching him be completely overlooked during such an important moment was heartbreaking as a parent. What made the situation worse was the lack of accountability and professionalism afterward. There was no face-to-face apology or genuine effort made to correct the situation. A graduation should be a proud and memorable day for every child, and unfortunately this experience was the exact opposite for my son and our family. And for this reason, I will not send my son back. Kindergarten was last year there.

The students are very rude and disrespectful. They don't complete their work and they are rude to…read moretheir fellow staff and student.

We cannot really find anything we don't love about this school. Our daughter did not get in for…read morekindergarten, but we had researched so much and decided to pull her from her current school and put in for 1st grade when we got the call that she was in. We have not regretted it. Of course, she missed her friends from kinder, but the Academy is so well done we never regretted our decision. The campus is done with such purpose and the teachers truly care about the students. So get on it and get on the waitlist asap!

Veritas is hands-down the best school I have been a part of. It has been open for one school year…read moreand my husband and I are very happy that our son was able to be accepted in to the school. It has made such an impact on his on his life. He is so much more structured in his ways of life...and he is only 9. His first year at Veritas was great and he had a phenomenal teacher. I joked with that teacher, Mr. Haley, about him being Kai's teacher every year. It's also nice that parents get many volunteer opportunities so you can engage with your child and his/her class. That kind of engagement even help change my life and gave me weekly volunteer opportunities to be a part of with the children. On another note, it is also very neat that the school also just made a plethora of renovations and added a high school. It's wonderful to such forward progress so fast. I can only imagine what the future holds for this incredible school. I think it's great that the children have to wear uniforms and adhere to a strict appearance policies. Veritas is a classical academy so it really try to enforce that in everything. Not only are "normal" subjects taught like match and science, students choose between Greek and Latin, they read classic novels, learn and practice different genres of art, and they partake in Healthy Hearts. It is a really impressive curriculum. Also, the the extra-curricular activities are amazing: there's ballroom dancing, chess club, running club, sportball, just to name a few. I highly recommend Veritas to any parent who is looking for a well-structured, well-rounded, classical way of teaching. I have already referred many of our family friends to the school and they have set up appointments for next school term. If you have a child, I recommend you do too!

I'm a student who went to this school and the teachers didn't teach very well I suck at reading now…read morebecause of this school

Don't be fooled by the prestige name, the academics here are far from excellent. The school lacks…read morethe robust, advanced curriculum you would expect from a high-end private institution. What they lack in academic rigor, they make up for in donor-pleasing. There is a continuous, undeniable filtering process where the system goes out of its way to pamper wealthy donors.

My experience with Phoenix Country Day was unwelcoming and unsupportive. They portray a school that…read moreis elitist and rude. They recruit simply through wealth and not with heart.