Laura Jeffrey Academy Review

My daughter began LJA midyear, which would be tough on its own, but this was her second school change during this academic year. Her transition to this school was smooth, facilitated by regular communication initiated by teachers and office staff. Any concern, large or small is treated with respect and follow through.

The academic rigor has been an appropriate fit for my daughter as well. LJA staff were receptive to my daughter's advanced needs in math and placed her in a class that offers the right amount of challenge. She has loved the Wellness class and found STEM and LASS work to be engaging. The highest praise I can offer is that she said she felt more comfortable asking questions at LJA. In the past, my daughter has struggled with feeling comfortable speaking up when she was unsure about instructions or content.

This school has been a great fit for our family, and we are looking forward to several more years here!

I wont recommend the school to no one at first they made me believe my child was bad always cussing fighting etc then when I started to complain all of a sudden they mandated reports. My daughter has witnessed girls making out and a sex video surfacing no body mandated that. That is sexual harrassmebt I pulled my child out Christmas break she never liked the school and she even witnessed a teachers shirt open exposing herself while talking to a counselor. These teachers over step their boundaries with parents but let kids be on their phone skipping class tardy to class 10 times a quarter cuss them out and all this withhold information from the parents I wont recommend this school at all

I went to Laura Jeffrey Academy for 5th and 6th grade and they were probably the worst years of my life. The students there we very mean and so rude to the teachers. I was bullied by people I did not even talk to. The teachers are very energetic and passionate about what they are teaching but overall they were not very good teachers. In math it took us about three months to learn something that should have taken 2 weeks, but the teacher waited till everyone knew everything about it before we moved on.

The school environment is terrible. The gym and lunchroom are in the same room and I lose my appetite every time I was in that room because it smelled like sweat. The bathrooms were the worst because half the stalls had broken doors so you could not use the bathroom, there was hardly any ventilation so it smelled terrible all the time. I remember once when the tornado sirens went off the teachers made us stay on the third floor near windows and when we asked if we could go somewhere safer they said no.

To some students this school has great academics and is a great fit for them but this school was one of the worst experiences of my life.

The teaching and curriculum at Laura Jeffrey Academy are designed for scholars to grow intellectually and equally in responsibility for self and others. The school challenges itself to understand what's working or not and update it's program(s) and perspectives. This is in keeping with its' goal of providing multi-dimensional growth and strengths.

As evidence of success, our eighth grade graduates soar in high school.
Provide a great foundation for your scholar's next stage of development with Laura Jeffrey Academy.

Transferring our daughter to LJA was the worst decision for our daughter and we promptly pulled her out within the first quarter of her attendance. The teachers are more focused on embracing social norms than education. They lump children in one big group and force everybody to learn at the same pace regardless of scholar levels and individual learning growth. This school wants everybody to be friends and lack the diversity that we thought our child would be apart of. They don't handle bullying very well at all in fact they actually embrace the child that is the bully. We felt our child was declining in her education instead of flourishing and progressing so we promptly nipped this experience and put her back at her previous school where she is excelling as before. LJA is constantly in your pockets nickle and diming you for uniforms,meals, and not to mention that ludicrous intermission session in between quarters that costs 125$. And for what you ask...so some college junior or senior can get their intern credits by teaching some ridiculous class on things like social media. They're mission statement is incredibly misleading,the students are downright rude and disrespectful to students,teachers and other staff. Glad we pulled our child in the nick of time so this school didn't drag her to far from a good education. I wish I didn't have to give a star at all.

I was a student at Laura Jeffrey Academy for four years. (i Recently graduated 8th grade.) A lot of changes have happened with the school through out those 4 years. in this review i am going to separate my opinions by sections.

Building/Environment:
The building is pretty old so some things are expected (I.E Peeling paint, Water damage, old Holy water fonts, etc.) these things could be easily fixed. Some things that are newer issues which could be fixed were not ; The bathrooms were always really hot , The bathroom stall doors were always loose A/O the opening in them was really wide so people could peek through and see you. for three of the four years i was there not all of the bathroom stalls had pad/tampon boxes in them. the bathrooms had toilet paper on the ceilings from where students had wet the tp and threw it on the ceiling.some of the bathroom's windows had screens missing/popped out and there were a few occasions where birds had got in. The classrooms were either really hot or really cold and it was never the right temperature for the season. They were usually very messy (which is kinda expected in a middle school.) and things were not always in the same spot. In all of the different rooms throughout the school, phallic drawings and messages were all over the walls and furniture as well as people's social media accounts. (also expected for middle school but still.) the classrooms either had tables or desks. The gym/lunchroom (yep, same room) was big but small. there used to be a big net hanging from the ceiling (supposedly for batting cages from the school that used the building before) but since we never used it as batting cage netting, it was just a big inconvenience because sport balls were constantly getting stuck up there. They did take the net down last school year. the gym floor has no lines for sports so when the sports went on it could be confusing. there is a changing room in the gym but no one really uses it. as for lockers they had letter locks. if you left your lock open people would sometimes swap the locks. as for an outdoor/recess area, we had a yard that had a couple of hills and trees but a lot of the tees are being cut down. the computer lab always had a certain smell to it. the computers in the lab rarely all worked and the wifi in the school was really bad so we always got the dinosaur error message but unfortunately the school disabled the dinosaur game so we couldn't play it. overall the entire school has always smelled really bad all the time.

Teachers/Staff:
The staff varied a lot at LJA. Sometimes we would have a really good teacher for a couple of months who would then have to leave the school and be replaced by a really bad teacher. The staff were pretty nice to me but i can't say the same for other students due do different experiences and backgrounds. a lot of the staff were not that great at disciplining disrespectful students. a lot of the teachers did try really hard at their job but a good amount of the staff throughout the years seemed like they hated their job. we switched staff a LOT at LJA. In four years, i had 10 different math teachers not including subs. For my 7th grade year and the beginning of my 8th grade year we had a principal who was kinda creepy. I'm not gonna reveal any names but this person just always gave off a creepy vibe and sometimes this person said things that shouldn't really be said. For the most part, i liked a lot of the staff because about half of them are really supportive in all aspects of my time at LJA.
Since my character limit is getting low, I'm gonna sum up.
The community there was nice and i made a lot of friends and great experiences. as students we use to tell each other that we only went to school to see the people and not for academics. in math class I never really felt like i was being met academically. all of the school trips were really fun. whenever the school gets a grant i don't really think they use the money very smartly. The uniform policy was iffy. So however you take this review, the person who wrote it is fabulous.

I visited this school less than a year ago and I was appalled by the student's behavior. They were rude, disrespectful and downright mean to each other and the staff. Even the staff treated other staff poorly. The reason I'm giving it two stars is because there are a few nice teachers I met, but I would never send my child to this school. ever.

We absolutely LOVE this school. My daughter has grown so much in the year she s been there- academically, but also personally and socially. She has gained confidence and developed as a leader.

The staff is amazing. They truly invest in our children. My daughter needs extra support in reading, but is advanced in math. Her lessons meet her where she is and challenge her to grow. I cannot say enough good about this school.

I'm thinking about sending my daughter here I just love the location

When I think of Laura Jeffrey Academy, that my daughter attended for a middle school, I think of a warm, cozy and homely feeling. It has a really good community with caring and supporting environment.

She has learnt so much and improved in many different ways. Her teachers were very helpful and communicative. Not only did they help her grow academically but also emotionally by building her confidence, by helping her focus on what she could do and what she was good at.

It was a great middle school experience for her!