George Hall Elementary School

I have been thrilled with George Hall Elementary since my son transferred here in 2nd grade after struggling in a spanish-immersion school . He has had two of the best teachers I could have asked for, and we felt welcomed from the moment we walked into the office. The transition was challenging for us and everyone we encountered made it a stress-free experience. The Project-based style of learning has been extremely helpful for my son, and possibly other boys who can tend to be more action oriented when it comes to learning. The smart boards are amazing, large and visually stimulating, which makes the learning experience more technologically current. After two years here, my son's progress in school and interest in learning & reading has greatly increased, and I believe that George Hall is giving him the foundation and motivation to continue enjoying school and learning for his future. Thank you!
—Submitted by a parent

George Hall has a dedicated staff which has become more stable in recent years creating a tight knit school community. This fosters an excellent learning environment for children. Our STAR test score is above 800 and our similar schools ranking is 8. We have added a lot of new technology to our school including SMART boards (no more white boards or overheads), Acclerated Reader which lets kids progress in reading successfully at THEIR reading level, and training in Project Based Learning (PBL) which encourages research based learning technology and inquiry to engage with issues and questions that are relevant to their lives. These classroom projects are used to assess student's subject matter competence compared to traditional testing. We have incredible parent support too!!
—Submitted by a teacher

I'm glad my children are attending George Hall ES. It is a good school with great teachers and staff. It's a Project Based Learning school and is the only one in the district that has a SMART Board (which is really cool!).
—Submitted by a parent

Overall George Hall is a fantastic school. We are very fortunate to have a great mix of parents, teachers, staff members and community members working together for one goal, a better education for all of our children.
—Submitted by a parent

George Hall has an enthusiastic faculty which has been successfully implementing a magnet grant for the last few years. Classrooms have and effectively use smart boards, Sentio and Excellerated Reader. My child has a great time there!
—Submitted by a parent

I love George Hall School. It is a very well run school with great teachers and well behaved students. They enable all kids to go on field trips with money from the PTA. No one is left out because of lack of funds. Everyone seems to have a lot of pride in attending the school and only wish to make it better each day.
—Submitted by a parent

great inviroment, ,great area,great organization,great staff ;but above all of this great teachers
—Submitted by a parent

I've been affiliated with this school for over 7 years. It use to be a wonderful school and I couldn't see anymore good things about it but in the past 2 years the school has taken a significant turn with little interaction between the principal and its parents, high teacher turnaround and no push for parent involvement in the classroom. It's very disappointing but there isn't that community feel anymore.
—Submitted by a parent

My son has gone to George Hall since the second grade; he is now in fifth grade. He loves it. He's an excellent student, but he has been challenged in most every subject. Only math has usually been easy, but math is his thing. I urge prospective parents not to worry about the API scores -- these are based on complicated, esoteric criteria that have very little to do with the quality of the teaching.
—Submitted by a parent

We love George Hall. My son has been there since the 3rd grade. The teachers are all wonderful. We will miss it when we leave.
—Submitted by a parent

Not many extracurricular activities, as all their time and energy seems to be spent on language arts and math (not necessarily a bad thing). Overall, pretty good school, but it depends on the teacher.
—Submitted by a parent

I'm daughter goes to this school. She likes it but the teaching is not challenging enough for her.Lot's of english learners in the classroom which makes the teacher to teach slower to the rest of the kids in the classroom. Check out the stats here in greatschools.org - not very diverse school and very low API score every year.
—Submitted by a parent

This is a wonderful school with a great, hard working staff!
—Submitted by a parent

George Hall has a high level of parent involvement and some wonderful teachers. The writing program is very good, but the availability of art, music, and sports is limited due to funding issues, as is the case with so many California schools. It's a shame. Overall, this is a fine school.
—Submitted by a parent

My son loves this school.
—Submitted by a parent

I Have 3 children at this school. 1 graduated in 02 and 2 still here. This small community school is a wonderful environment for kids to learn and grow in. My 2 older kids are both in GATE and are learning quite well. To produce a well rounded, intelligent, well ballanced, productive member of the community requires much more than having the highest api scores in the district. To focus solely on the accademics and api scores is not good way to judge a school.
—Submitted by a parent

I am responding to the completely inappropriate and non-substantive comment made by someone who 1) does not have kids, 2) is basing their opinions on test scores which we know is completely wrong and 3) hasn't taken the time to talk with other parents, the principal or those in her/his community to better understand what he/she considers 'grim'. I was the originator of the first comment and definitely not the principal. I was, in actuality, someone who was veering towards a local Private School until I actually met with various principals, including George Halls, and realized this school was more exceptional than any of the expensive private schools I did entertain. I hope you open your eyes and educate yourself to 'what makes a school good' and realize it's more than scores and the rationale of why there is a variance. The English learners scores are in the 90th percentile.
—Submitted by a parent

This review looks like it's been written by the principal herself. Although I do not have a child in this school, I noticed that this school has significantly underperformed relative to other school. It did not meet its 2002 API and has not posted a 2003 API yet. We do not have kids at this point, but I was disappointed to find out that out kids, when we have them, will have to go to this school. I just hope that they will turn things around at this school by that time -- it's looks pretty grim right now.