Vivian Elementary School451

We checked several public and private schools in the Applewood area, and settled for Vivian Elementary against the general recommendations for bigger and more popular schools. We are really impressed with the quality of the education. It is a very small community where our children have gotten an outstanding individualized education fitted to their needs. Because it is a very small school (about 215 children) housing two different special education programs (D&HH and SIED) and with families for all kind of backgrounds, the staff truly have to pay attention to each child and their needs and can't assume anything. I have two children with very different learning styles, and they are receiving unique instruction for their unique needs (both are advanced so it isn't a school for 'slow' learners, as I have been told by some of my neighbors). I am not kidding. This CAN happen in a public school. I never had to wait to talk to the teachers either, I am always welcome in the classrooms and always can drop by the office and be taken cared of. While visiting schools for my children, I was told that principals were very busy for me and some "good" school discouraged me to sign up for waiting lists because "my chances to get into them were close to zero." It was very refreshing that at Vivian I was welcome from the first moment and never felt that the size of my pocketbook or my mortgage was an issue for my children to go there. Other highlight: it has very qualified teachers and an outstanding personnel stability record. It is really a HIGH-QUALITY school for EVERYBODY.