St. Mary's School

Words can't explain how much we love St Mary's and it's amazing teachers, staff and families. I was shocked to read some of the reviews, I genuinely felt like they were speaking about another school. Our daughter has attended St Mary's for 2.5yrs, through the craziness of 2020, and we couldn't be happier! The teachers truly care about their students, they nurture and work with them to be the best they can be. 2020 was such a tough year and they did an incredible job with online classes and then in person school as soon as possible. The communication was excellent throughout. I noticed in other reviews that they said the school is all about who makes the biggest donations, and I feel that couldn't be further from the truth! One thing I love about St Mary's is that it's not an elitist school that only wants you if you're driving a Bentley and going to donate to a new building. There are so many different families, from different backgrounds, different counties(we moved to the US 2.5yrs ago), different cultures and different socioeconomic backgrounds. Everyone is included, welcomed and treated equally. St Mary's teaches a world view which is so important, especially these days. Our daughter has flourished and we have made life long friends by going to St Mary's. We can't wait to be able to send our twins to St Mary's next year! If you are searching for an incredible school, you have found it!
Aug 30th, 2021

My child went to school here, and it was a horrible experience. Though we met a few nice families, it is all about money and status. The staff were lying and cheating and put money before kids. Even when a child bullied another child he was never reprimanded because of parental donations. If you want a school to help instill real value in your child, this is NOT the place. ... for more details and a great summary read NATASHA P's review.. she was lucky to avoid this train wreck.
Jul 17th, 2020

Wonderful school, great community. The teachers care. The administration is phenomenal. Can't say enough good things.
May 10th, 2020

We've been at St. Mary's for seven years and couldn't be happier. Our daughter started in Kindergarten and is now finishing up sixth grade. We were attracted to the school for its International Baccalaureate curriculum and its incredible sense of community. St. Mary's has exceeded expectations on both fronts. Our daughter has flourished both academically and socially, and it has been a pleasure to watch her grow and develop. Her teachers have been excellent...strong educators but caring and compassionate at the same time. She has two years left at St. Mary's and while graduating will be exciting, there will be a tinge of sadness that our time at St. Mary's is over.
May 9th, 2019

I thought long and hard before taking valuable time to share our experience, but I do feel you as a family considering this school deserves to know, and the people administering this abominable sham of an institution need to be held accountable, and unless someone speaks up, nothing changes in the "perfect OC". A little background: we have lived in 5 different countries on 3 continents, speak 4 languages, and have lived in major cities across the US. We have our masters degrees and parents who combined have over 40 years of early childhood education experience. We have been successful in our careers and have traveled to over 90 countries. So safe to say we have a little experience with life. This was the worst, and I mean, lowest experience I have had: these people are uneducated low life's who run this school, with zero integrity or dignity, class or professionalism. Absolutely unacceptable. We moved to the OC and were looking for a good school, since we had no friends we weren't biased and researched extensively with a fair spreadsheet of requirements.  I tasked to research schools for our children, narrowing down a list of 35 to call - public, charter, private, magnet, you name it, I wanted the best school - public or private - and finally interviewed in person 12 schools. I was interviewing based on many criteria I had and a spreadsheet to support facts: I love how here in Oc people are so scared to be "picked" by these private schools: you are paying them, remember?!  You should be picking not the other way around! St Mary's was the one we picked. We had to move our child mid-year, so we clarified that this was ok. They said sure, you just pay prorated fee for the remaining portion of the year. My husband runs data analytics for a very large Fortune 200 company, safe to say he's good at math and can calculate. Their bill, two days before school started came, and it was paying for a large part of year we weren't going to attend. Being educated fairly reasonable people, we asked, maybe there's a mistake, could you please explain how you broke down to this number? That's when all hell broke loose. How dare we ask them to provide clarification on over-charging us? The nerve of these people to question us??? Are you trying to negotiate the fee? No, I'm not, I'm asking you to provide me a clarification so I'm clear how you came to this number: either you don't know math, or I don't, but I come from a background where I'm taught to speak up respectfully if I don't agree or understand you. No we don't provide a breakdown or explanation - take it or leave it. What??? I'm supposed to take what I think is blatantly wrong, and you are obviously hiding something, and doing some shady shit, and this isn't a mistake. No it's not, so you are going to pay it. At this point, any sensible person would have said A colorful expletive word and left, but it was 2 days before kindergarten, my child's spot at old school was already filled, and she would be without a school for 1 year. So I said fine, let's just pay, so we don't have to start this process all over and waste a year and maybe this was just a blip the school will be awesome. But no!! After I deliver a check to them, jump through hoops getting them all nurses immunization and paperwork, they called me an hour later, and said: you are a trouble making family who asks too many questions and not a good fit so we are rescinding your child's application, good luck. Not even a phone call, they didn't have the balls, they emailed this. They purposefully emailed it at 4pm - one hour before closing time. If you knew it wasn't a good fit, why did you accept my check an hour ago? Who plays this kind of low life game with a child's life??? Anyway, obviously this is never a professional, educated, way to handle a problem and we are blessed they showed us their true colors so we could find the best school there is. But you need to know: these are low life, liars, who play power games, who have no real interest or background in dealing with educated, classy, and smart families. So, stay away from any institution, who doesn't have people who are kind, forthright, and know what they represent. When this place burns in hell, and I have no doubt it will because no one can survive based on bad karma and cheating people, just be glad you read this review and at least were informed. Goodluck in your search - there is a school out there that is perfect and it's name is St Margaret's - go there instead!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 21st, 2019