Pinecrest School

I currently have three children attending Pinecrest School. We could not be more thrilled with our experience within the Pinecrest community. Academically speaking, the education is top notch. The teachers are dynamic and creative and really understand the different learning styles of each individual student. Our children are not just excelling academically, they are actually excited about learning. Pinecrest is a true family. The motto "This is Community" is absolutely evident in every interaction between students, staff, and parents. The kind, supportive atmosphere helps to nurture and develop students into life long learners that care about the world around them. Perhaps most importantly, my children absolutely love school. They wake up excited to go to Pinecrest, and every day at pick-up time they tell me without fail, "I had a great day!" To me, there is no better compliment to a program than to have children that are so happy, enthusiastic, and engaged.

We toured our public school (twice) and several private schools before settling on Pinecrest. We liked the full-day academic kindergarten, after-care (now before-care also available), and reasonable tuition. The fact that our son didn’t want to leave his evaluation won us over completely. We were overjoyed with our first year. Every day I would think “we were so lucky to find this place,” so, we re-enrolled each year and started our younger son in the preschool program. Although our oldest was accepted into the FCPS AP program we thought Pinecrest would do a better job challenging and preparing him for future academic success. He attended through 6th grade and is well prepared for advanced courses in middle school. The school is small but leadership does a great job of encouraging socialization. (Note: another plus is that the student body is very diverse.) Preschoolers are mostly kept separate (except attending and even putting on their own assemblies!) but there are lots of ways the K – 6 kids help and mentor one another. There are plenty of social and academic opportunities for the kids to interact with lots of different groups. Every child knows all the other kids and every teacher knows every student. I have found all the teachers to be dedicated, professional, caring, accessible and accommodating. They easily adapt lessons to student interest, usually covering more ground than public school curricula with small class sizes and no SOLs. How well the teachers instruct and care for the students is a direct testament to the Head of School. She provides wonderful vision and oversees implementation of routine and new efforts alike. I used to wonder why anyone would choose a private elementary school. Now that I see how these foundational years have shaped the kind of learners and people my kids have become, I understand. I have no doubt that we made the right decision with Pinecrest. I only wish more people could experience the same.