Prince William Academy

Having just moved into the area I was nervous about finding a place for my almost 1-​year-​old and I came across Prince William Academy. I was initially looking for a daycare but found this school where my son can grow right into the elementary grades. I appreciated the time and attention they showed me since I was new to the community. I asked to speak to current parents and they shared contact information with me and the parents with whom I spoke were very honest with me. The transparency was nice and much appreciated. I’ve been more than happy with how I was treated and the kind of program my son is enrolled in.

My son started at Prince William Academy 2 weeks before beginning Kindergarten (Aug 2015). It was a great idea suggested by the staff and other parents. The suggestion wasn’t for 2 weeks specifically, but I thought that it was a good enough head start for him to get familiar with his new school before starting the Kindergarten program. Formerly, he attended Little Lambs, Inc. in Woodbridge for preschool, which did a great job preparing him for the elementary level. I’m so happy with our experience with Prince William Academy. The staff, parents and students are great and they strive for a high standard of excellence. I’m in constant contact with his teacher through email and in person, and the school’s administration is always reachable in person, by phone and email. Both Kindergarten teachers are amazing. My son broke his arm during labor day weekend at the beginning of the school year and my husband and I were so concerned with him falling behind, but they made sure that he didn’t miss a beat. The kept him engaged while caring for his safety during his intense healing process. The parents association really tries to get parents involved in all aspects of the school. It’s an environment that makes you want to get involved and volunteer (even though we are all super busy working parents). Academically, my son is learning at a 1^st and 2^nd grade level with reading, math and language arts. He is learning computer technology, art, science, and additional languages like Spanish (which he started back at Little Lambs, Inc.) and Mandarin. I love the standard that his teacher sets for the classroom. She is pleasant, kind, caring, patient and effective with her teaching methods. She recognizes each of the special gifts that the students bring to the class and tries to cultivate and enhance their confidence. This allows the students to want to learn and try new things. He also attends the after care program that is mostly administered by the actual teachers and they help him with his homework. Of course, the cost of the tuition was a factor that my family had to consider with everything else we have going on, but I’m writing this to say that we made a great choice with Prince William Academy. You have to try it for yourself. Stop by for a visit… the parents and staff are always there to welcome you and address your questions.
From: A parent with no regrets with choosing Prince William Academy Private school.

On my son’s 1^st day of 1^st grade (08/2014)and as a new student at the school, it was utter choas. No organization, no welcome back to school signs or balloons, nothing. We have always taught or son to say good morning to the teachers on his way to class every day, put on a good attitude, smile and start your day positive… and he does. We must have passed a half dozen teachers on the way to his classroom and not one of them said good morning back to him. I was livid.
This place was going to charge us $ 960 per month and that was how his school year was starting. That didn’t work for my husband and I. We had expectations of a much happier and organized environment filled with educators who wanted to be there.
There were other clues that I should have given more attention to, but none of them jumped out until after dropping him off on that memorable first & LAST day at Prince William Academy. For example, why such a high staff turnover? Why advertise the students may take French when there is no French teacher? And, just because verbal communication is so very important, I have to share (without naming names) that it really bothered me that a staff member had to seek assistance with answering a question I had. For $ 960 a month, I expect all staff to know how to say, «I’ll ask for you». I do not expect to hear“I’ll AXE.“
Needless to say, we pulled him out the same day. .after stopping to see if another private school in the area had a 1^st grade spot. They had just one. Maybe it was divine intervention. Who knows? But, I do know they say the Pledge of Allegiance, give thanks before meals and still have time and desire to speak to the kids — all the while giving a good education.
Oh, and the school supply list? ?? Insane. It had about 20+ items on it and among the multiples of all items on the list… a LAPTOP. But, only one laptop. Don’t forget the overpriced uniforms.
They kept our deposit, the prorated tuition for August and all of September’s tuition. Expensive, but a small price (in the long run) to pay for a happy and well-​rounded child who won’t have bad memories from Prince William Academy.

Disclaimer; My review is based on my personal experience only I know many parents are happy with PWA. Those parents happiest at PWA seem to be those that have had children in the school since pre-​k or kindergarten. My daughter attended PWA for 1^st grade and the first 3 months of 2^nd grade. I had hoped 2^nd grade would be better than 1^st. In hindsight I should have paid attention to the number of teachers that were fired or left the school with no notice. If your child begins PWA in Pre-​K they will do fine. Unfortunately my daughter started in 1^st grade after attending a public school for kindergarten where she did great. The curriculum at PWA keeps students 1 year ahead of public schools and by the end of 1^st grade the kids were doing double digit multiplication. My daughter was only able to do the work with tutoring, and constant drilling of numbers, Tiger Mom I am not, her stress level towards the end of the year from trying to keep up was frightening. I realized after talking to her teacher that they were giving them standardized tests in 1^st grade. While the belief was the kids didn’t know they were testing when asked they knew and thought they had to pass the test or stay in 1^st grade. We found our options at that time limited to ones that were not right for us at the time. We began the 2^nd grade cautiously optimistic. The first week the students went from classes of 7 and 8 with separate teachers to 1 class of 15; moving from separate classrooms upstairs to 1 combined classroom downstairs. Less than 2 weeks later the kids were moved back upstairs to adjoining classrooms and a co-​teaching method with 2 teachers. A week or 2 later one of the 2^nd grade teachers quit with no notice, based on what I had seen I did not blame the teacher. One teacher was now in charge of 15 2^nd grade students. While this number seems small in comparison to public schools it didn’t work. A substitute, former 3^rd grade teacher, now retired, and a great teacher from what I had known was brought in to fill the gap with the students until they could hire someone. During this period candidates were interviewed and would teach a lesson in the classroom. On more than one occasion my daughter thought they had hired someone and she wasn’t the only 2^nd grader who misunderstood the process. On November 22 the remaining second grade teacher was let go, with no notice. Parents were notified via email the Friday night before Thanksgiving at 5:30 p.m. At that time I realized I had to find a more stable environment for my daughter to complete the school year. We removed her at Thanksgiving break 3-​days later. I realized after we left that the report card we were provided had comments from someone else in the school and not the teacher that had spent all but the last 3-​days in the classroom with her. I confirmed with the teacher that she did not write the comments. I contacted her after I looked at the comments and knew it was not her handwriting from previous comments written on my daughters homework. The comments were good, but the fact that I wasn’t told about someone else writing the comments or who wrote them didn’t sit well with me at all. The comments were not signed, but the assumption would be her teacher would write the comments for the grading period. A long term substitute was brought in to teach until a new teacher could be hired and it is my understanding that a new teacher has since been hired and began teaching December 9. For the sake of the other students I hope she is able to stay the remainder of the school year. Parents who have had children at PWA since pre-​k are happy and I completely understand. If your child begins the curriculum at 4 or 5 they will be fine; if you are willing and/​or able to tutor your child or pay someone to tutor your child you will more than likely have success. If your child does not find public school challenging this would also be a good fit. This did not work for us and again this is only the experience of my family. The concept of the school is great, but at this time it is only a concept. While differentiated learning was one of the things we thought we would like about the school it is not utilized. I’m not sure it’s understood. Parent’s are asked to provide laptops; last year the kids did very little with the laptops aside from play games on breaks or in after care. This year it’s much better and more supervision is provided while students use laptops. I struggled with posting this review and realized I should provide it so parents can make an informed decision. I certainly wouldn’t base my decision on 1 comment and unfortunately more information was not available to me at the time I enrolled my daughter. The principal this year, Dr. Slade is great. If she were to have more control over the day to day operation of the school things may have worked.