St Mary Catholic School

St. Mary has been a great school for our children to attend. The teachers from preschool to kindergarten are very professional. They are kind and very caring for all of the children in their care. The preschool program meets the needs of children ages 3, 4, and 5 giving them a great foundation for kindergarten. While children are given a readiness test for kindergarten, 99% are very ready and do extremely well on this test. For those students who score low, parents are given the opportunity to have their child retested later in the school year or in late summer. The Kindergarten is a full day that really prepared my students for the next level of learning. I would totally recommend St. Mary School in Pinckney to anyone interested in a quality education for their children.

Very disappointed. The parish has some very nice people, but dealing with the school on a pre-school to kindergarten level has not gone well. The pre school program is fine in and of itself, and the teacher and support staff are wonderful. The room is mixed ages 3-5 which makes it more like a day care setting, as opposed to a junior kindergarten -which is what your child will need to be accepted to kindergarten here. The age differences in the same room make it difficult for the teacher, or any teacher, to focus on what the 4 year old's specifically need in order to be accepted to this school at the kindergarten level. It is a wonderful pre school room for socialization, growth, introductions to Catholicism, and academic fundamentals. The teachers and helpers are caring and attentive. However, the kindergarten expectations warrant more than what can be taught in the current setting. They have an assessment, which turns out is less of an assessment and more of a placement exam, that they administer 6 months prior to kindergarten. Parents are not present at the assessment. I was told it takes about 10, sometimes 15 minutes. If your child fails it, you are not accepted to the kindergarten class. I initially thought that this assessment was a helpful tool to identify strengths, and weaknesses that could be developed over the summer. This is not the case. If your child fails you are not allowed to re test or have a different test, to see how they have matured over the 6 month period. The assessment expects the child to have an established correct writing grasp, be able to print their first and last names clearly, neatly, appropriately sized, and with the use of proper capitalization and lower case letters. They also ask the child to draw a man, which should have a very clear head, body, arms, legs, and facial features. Additionally, the children have to answer questions. Some of the questions included are: Which is larger a dog or a cat? Which is larger a cow or a pig? How do you light up a cloudy day? The first is ignorant, because it's not black and white- some cats are larger than some dogs. Furthermore, as a parent you are not allowed a copy of the assessment. They will review it with you. If you ask for it you will receive the well rehearsed response of, "It is school policy to not release copies of any formal assessments. We are able to give you details of the scoring, however we do not send home the questions itself as we have had families in the past teach the to tests to improve scores. This screening is not a screening that another school would use for placement purposes as it is tailored to our school. " So basically you are not allowed to have a copy of your child's first formal academic assessment. Furthermore, if your child fails it, you are not accepted to attend school there, but you still can't have it because you might have your child study it. Heaven forbid you wanted to use an assessment as a learning tool. No that's not allowed. My other concern is with the Kindergarten Teacher herself. My child had one interaction with her after the assessment. My child was talking to her for five minutes or so regarding a beloved pet, and at the end of my child telling her the pet's life story, she asked the teacher, "Do you like my pet?" The teacher responded with a very snide, "How do I know if I like your pet or not , I don't know it". Seriously, this is the response to a four year old's innocent question- from someone that is supposed to nurture and teach my child. Also, during my written correspondence with this teacher, she couldn't even spell my child's name correctly. It's not a difficult one either, and she had just been "assessed". Needless to say, my child failed the assessment- the name was not printed clearly, and the letters are messy, and the writing grasp is not there yet. The man looked more like a snowman, and questions were answered incorrectly or not satisfactorily. All in all, I think it's a blessing in disguise. Thank God we are not sending our child here.