Bentley School

Sadly my 8 year old was bullied by two other girls at Bentley School. There were several incidents and the school took a ‘we’re monitoring’ approach, which in reality meant not much happened other than continued bullying. In the end, we moved her to another school (she’s doing so well, including an improvement in her academics). After realizing we made the transfer, we received an email from the school management implicating my daughter as having a part in the incidents. I’m sorry, but when someone is pulling your chair from beneath you, or you leave gym class and one of your shoes is hidden in a bush, etc., etc., it’s so disappointing to think I left my daughter under this mentality. My wife and I think it’s because we paid for the full school year and they were covering themselves thinking we may try and seek reimbursement. We never asked for a cent (with over 8 months left in the school year). We’re just so thrilled our daughter is thriving in a healthy setting where the school has zero tolerance on bullying. It’s beautiful to see children supporting each other rather than seeking to isolate and persecute.

The former principal, Beth Crowley, was fantastic with families. The teachers, kids, and families here are all excellent. Great people all around.
The new principal seems to have no experience with children or actual real-​world background. Sad. This school was better before.

I’ve had three kids at good old Bentley, starting in kindergarten and moving on to the high school, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. The teachers, the administrators, the kids, the parents – it’s a healthy, compassionate, tight-​knit community, and one I’m proud my family has been a part of. My children developed a love of learning, a group of great friends, and the ability to work hard and effectively at their school work. Bentley supports a wide range of learning styles, and is sensitive to individual children’s needs, something I’ve seen first hand. It’s a fun atmosphere, but one that takes education and achievement seriously. I know that my children will never forget and always appreciate their years at 1 Hiller Drive.

This school has been terrific!
Our son is very bright but not very socially oriented and has been singled out for bullying in the past. Previous schools weren’t able to adequately monitor the learning environment. Bentley is amazing! It is very intimate, more so than even St. Paul’s. The Oakland campus is like a rambling old house in Virginia or somewhere else out East. The teacher’s have been very responsive to any concerns that we have had. We are constantly getting emails etc., regarding his work. I need more thumbs to rate it adequately!

this school is really wonderful. it has been here 90+ years and is still going strong. all the academics are wonderful, the teachers are superb, and the campus is very small but very clean. there is even a little pond in front of the 2−3^rd grade classrooms, and the library has a TON of great reads. Love this school!

I am a little biased. I only spent three years here. But I even remember my teachers’ names.
Mr. Meadows for Kindergarten, Class A.
Mrs. Barnhart for 1^st Grade, Class A.
Mrs. Klitza for 2^nd Grade, I forget which Class I was in.
I have fond memories of sitting on the stone walls with my best little friend and pulling the aloe, breaking it, and watching the clear goo ooze out of its veins, sharing a red delicious apple, pulling string cheese and wrapping it around all of our fingers. We often broke into the locked art closet to steal cat’s eyes (plastic ones), climbed into the fenced garden to pick mint leaves, climbed over the stone walls to trespass into the neighbor’s manicured back lawn, played hide and seek around the portable class rooms and permanently locked swimming pool. I collected dead bees and live caterpillars from all over the playground and showed my teachers. Both of my parents worked long hours, so I had daycare and afterschool extracurricular classes: stamp-​making, ceramics, and book-​making. I swung on the jungle gym bars, doing cherry drops — once I fell flat on my chest, which knocked the breath out of me, and for the first time in my young but conscious life, I realized I was mortal.
I have almost endless memories of the part of my childhood that occurred here. Even at the beginning of summer, at the end of my 2^nd grade school year, when I knew I wouldn’t be coming back the next year because we were moving, I sat by the yard looking out over the playground with my hand-​writing and math papers, and some craft I had made in art class, warmed by the sun, and feeling infinite (yes, children especially feel infinite), I cherished my time here.
Education (one word for such a great thing?), good teachers (and good meaning sees to the children in their intellectual, emotional and spiritual development in school), good parenting, are the most important part of a child’s life in their young years. A nurturing, creative environment it was, with fun, fair and disciplining hands to keep the mischievous ones in check.