St Catherine’s Academy

I attend this school in 1964 and 1965. They taught me many skills I would need later in life. I joined the USAF and reached the grade of CMSGT got an MBA from the University of Tennessee and then entered Civil Service where I attained the grade of GS-​15. Most of my leadership abilities were formed here. Great school!

St. Catherine’s Academy is the best choice I have made for my son. The structure, the brotherhood, and discipline this school provides is extraordinary! My son is very determined to be a better student and self and has taught him many things. I love everything about this school.

This place is magical. It is like Harry potter meets marching, military, excellent academics and music, all rolled into a school for your son! No wands; however, a place where community stands strong in an international way and not to mention a beautiful campus. Sisters that would be your wizards, teach and nurture your sons to be amazing young men! The school is outstanding and many of us with daughters have asked and asked to have St. Catherine’s open an all girls academy!!!

This review is long overdue. This all-​boys school is the best kept secret in the heart of Anaheim. Their month-​long Summer Program and one-​week Leadership Camp is the best experience for boys and we have been sending our son here for 3 Summers in a row. It is a well-​rounded program, with academics, sports, music, religious, and military activities. He even asked me why we didn’t send him sooner. I told him it’s because I didn’t know about it earlier!
This Fall, we finally made the big move from public school to St. Catherine’s for Alexander’s 7^th and 8^th Grade. Although Yorba Linda has some of the best public schools, we decided to commute to St. Catherine’s because we saw how much our son has grown and matured through their Summer program. He has become more respectful, appreciative, and responsible in a short time. We believe he will grow in the right direction under the close guidance of the stellar teachers and staff here. He went from a class size of 32 to 11! With 120 years experience with boys, this school provides just the right amount of discipline and structure that all boys need.
In St. Catherine’s, he has the opportunity to exercise leadership skills and earn promotions and ranks through good behavior. They use positive reinforcement as well as appropriate punishment when rules are not followed. The best part– No more missing homework due to fear of detention and losing of his rank!
Due to their small class sizes, they are able to customize learning for our son. He’s taking algebra with the 8^th graders because his Math teacher said he was ready. Hopefully he can take Geometry next year.
We are extremely pleased with our decision to send him here. Their teachers and staff genuinely care about the boys and it is a loving environment despite their military tradition. Highly recommend for all boys from kindergarten up to 8^th grade!

LOVE SCA! both my boys attend, 2015 – 2016 will be our 3^rd year. i highly recommend this school to all my friends and family.

I have been a teacher at St. Catherine’s Academy for the past 9 years. I have taught for about 25 years in a variety of schools both in California and on the East Coast. I knew that St. Catherine’s was very different than other schools the minute I set foot on their campus my first day. First of all, I felt a peacefulness and loving atmosphere immediately. I was carrying in my car, piles of teaching materials and equipment that I have accumulated over many years and was wondering how I would get it all up to my classroom. Suddenly, several cadets greeted me at my car and asked if they could help me. Their politeness and kindness surprised me. They all helped me carry my things to my classroom. I have continued to experience and even expect this type of helpfulness and kindness from the cadets throughout my 9 years here. All schools educate children but they do not instill this type of respectful and kind behavior that you will see at St. Catherine’s. Our boys graduate as well– educated, kind young gentlemen. We are all a family here that looks out for each other and encourages the best in everyone. You will not find this in other schools. I highly recommend that anyone looking for a school for their TK– 8^th grade son, come and check us out.

Hands down the most amazing and positive school any of my children have attended. The nuns are loving, the military staff taught my son to be a respectful man and the teachers were outstanding! Small classroom sizes really help create a great education. The international students taught my son so much about other countries and cultures. The principal is the ultimate in wisdom. And this is the school that has done the best job with bullying. They have any boy who bullies hit the track and obstacle field and let his anger out through exercise. The school fosters a sense of brotherhood and is a very positive environment. My son is graduating and does not want to leave. He says he is happy here. He is accepted.

Our boys couldn’t be happier and of course as parents that’s exactly what we want. We looked into a variety of schools before coming here. No other schools seemed to match what St Catherine’s had to offer.
This school has provided academics, love, care, and discipline. My 2 oldest boys started here since kindergarten and I cannot say enough greatness for their kindergarten, 1^st and 2^nd grade teachers and now my youngest in the TK program is also doing amazing work and learning so much. It’s the perfect environment for our 3 sons. We are extremely appreciative of the staff there and how attentive they always are to any and all needs of our sons or the families. It’s a true family environment. I recommend St. CATHERINE’S TO ANYONE looking for the best school for their son! From the quietest, shy boy to the strongest personality any boy will thrive here. My 3 sons are all so different and yet all 3 look forward to school everyday and find the various activities or events always meet their differences. We love this school!!!

I can’t say enough about this school, it’s staff or students. If you truly care about your sons education and the type of young man he is becoming, then do not hesitate to send him here. This school truly cares and will take the time to invest in your child’s education and well being. My kid was a great person before e rolling him but they have really brought him up to take advantage of his full potential. His self confidence has soared and I couldn’t be more pleased with the academics. I only wish they went thru high school.

I really have to give props to Colonel Bizell and Captain Ramos. These two commanding presence men are a virtual powerhouse team that can, and will, build your son’s self esteem and help him to get into the best shape of his life! At first you may feel intimidated by these two, but you will soon be disarmed by these wonderful two leaders. And also of major significance, they are good, honest & real people commanding respect due of ex servicemen.
This school is very, very strong on building up character, it’s tragic that the school’s grade level stops at the 8^th grade, or I’m sure he’d still be going there!
During the one school year, our son, s academics did show some approval, but, in my opinion, with the surprisingly HUGE increase in self esteem, I’m sure he would definitely have had a stellar academic year the following year in 9^th grade… if St. Catherine’s only had a 9^th grade, would have been so very good for him, actually. :(
AAA+++ for building a young man’s self-​esteem and character! THESE GUYS ROCK!!!
B-​C Rating — This (apparently) weaker part of the school should be overcome with good Parental Skills. However in my case, to be fair to the school, our son was always very difficult to work with academically. Finally at almost 17 years of age in 11^th grade, he seems to be turning the corner where he is attending now (the Grove School in Connecticut), which I’ve also reviewed.
If you are going to spend the money to send your son to this school, his esteem should soar! If his academics suffer, as our son’s academics sure did, you will need to work with him to ensure that the self esteem ties in with the academics…
OBVIOUSLY A RECIPE FOR SUCESS!!!

Class of 1993…
Ah, memories. We were the last year to have a rifle drill team and a shooting team. The riots ended that proud tradition for us.
There is a fascination that most healthy young boys have with military affairs. Throw in some international boarding students, some seasoned old military men who served as commandants, and some old school nuns and you have St. Catherine’s. Was grateful for the time I spent there, though it would be years before I internally — not just externally — learned the lessons of discipline that my mother had hoped to achieve by sending me there.

This review pertains exclusively to the annual Civil War reenactment hosted at St. Catherine’s. The title previously reflected such, but Unilocal edited it to simply the name of the school.
Anyway…
Hooray for grown men in costume firing black powder guns and cannons at each other. Held at an Orange County military academy, the weekend-​long Civil War reenactment is as decent as one could watch without having to wander into the South or perhaps Fort Tejon.
They hold two battles each day, with time to visit the Union and Confederate encampments, meet Mr. Lincoln (who traditionally gives the Gettysburg Address following the first battle), peak into the cannons they’re firing off, and shop in the fascinating marketplace.
Interestingly, the years I’ve gone there have been more Rebels, and they’re encampment is much more expansive. Also, you do not simply see the navy blue and stone gray uniforms, as one would expect. Not only are there Union soldiers clad in green and rebels in whatever a man looking to break off from the union might have available in 1861, but some come in North African-​inspired Zouave regiments (wearing red, striped pants, tasseled caps, and so on).
Similarly interesting was the level of ethnic diversity one can see on the field. It’s not simply Caucasian and African-​American, but other races as well on both sides. I’ve spotted a couple girls among the Rebel ranks as well.
And the cannons, the thing many people come to see. Shortly after a battle’s over, you can hear all the car horns around the neighborhood collectively going off from all of the loud explosions. They are indeed firing real gunpowder (no balls, nails, etc, though), so participants are warned to keep their distance to save from getting burned. The cannons are as close to historically accurate as one can get having all been cast from the molds of guns used by the side they find themselves on.
For a two-​day event, these folks really go all out. Peak in their camp tents, it’s more of a step back in time than any sleeping grounds at your local Renaissance faire.
Prices to get into the event go $ 4 for kids/​students, $ 7 adults.

I don’t know if I can be a fan of Catholic Boarding School.
Let me see if I can convince myself: Nuns, retired ex-​military thugs, and the fact that you cannot run away if you wanted to. That’s the formula for a pretty crazy amount of ultra right wing politics and religious zeal that is crucified into your eyeballs 24 – 7.
At the tender age of 12 years old, I was in 7^th grade. Like most children my age, I wore braces, liked to play baseball, run laps, drink chocolate milk, and fart. Then there were my classmates. You think you dealt with bullies growing up?
Try an f’ing 18 year old 8^th grader that went straight into the Marine Corps after graduation. No joke.
However, the school did something right. The sisters taught us discipline, the military taught us to be men, and school teachers were quite rigorous. It makes me feel happy that despite competing with delinquents twice my age, I ended up being valedictorian. Unfortunately, that was the peak of my academic and personal development.
Doh.