Fairlawn Elementary School

My child is a student here for 3 years. Previously a Virginia Beach student, my child says that Norfolk schools are not as hard as Virginia Beach schools, which tells me as a parent that Norfolk is trailing behind a better school district like Virginia Beach. Still, my child is a solid A student receiving a standard education, which tells me that her teachers are doing their jobs, but I would like to see Norfolk schools improve a lot more in striving for better classroom education, not just focusing on the SOL standards. Our kids need to be ready for their futures, and our educators and school system in Virginia are doing an average job compared to the rest of the nation, but we still lag behind the rest of the world.
—Submitted by a parent

My son attended Kindergarden at Fairlawn. I am happy with this school, though my concern is their discipline for children for being children. Besides that my son and daughter (attended 5th grade) had a wonderful experience. The opportunities offered through there excellent teachers are endless.
—Submitted by a parent

I think that this school is great. They are very open with volunteering and found they are very helpful with helping parents help thier children with learning
—Submitted by a parent

Overall our 2007-2008 school year at fairlawn has been great! the staff is very friendly. My son's teacher was outstanding and very dedicated. My son excelled in all areas. I was really thrilled with how his writing improved. Hopefully the next school year will be just as good.
—Submitted by a parent

This is our second year at Fairlawn and I have never seen such excellance in my children. My youngest daughter was diagnosed bipolar and she excels in an environment that is structured like Fairlawn. I don't know if it is because of the new prinicpal or not, but my experience with this school has been amazing. I have heard that a lot of schools 'teach' the SOL and that was my main concern when sending my children to public school. Fairlawn did no such thing! They had an art show, science fair, music programs and we even brought in the Girl Scout program for the first time for Daiseys and Brownies.
—Submitted by a parent

Words can not express how disappointed I am with Norfolk Public Schools. The teachers are not supportive nor are the principals. If they are overworked and underpaid it shows. Children are not actually learing today but the are just memorizing what they hear and studied. They are rushed to memorize to meet a quota for the end of the week. Education has decreased in it's values. I could care less what statistics shows. I can assure you the parents around me go through the same fraustrations as I did. I had to take my child out of the Norfolk public school system it was destroying her self esteem.
—Submitted by a parent

I am extremely disappointed with the Virginia Public School System. I spend a great deal of time teaching my child and we are not accomplishing anything. I would like to know what in the world are these kids really learning in school in the state of Virginia. They are being taught to memorize things that would normally educate a person. At the end of the week they are tested. This is not learning. It is a system set up for failure for our kids. Parents are frustrated and kids are confused and exhausted from long hours of practicing to remember things for a test. I rather sacrifice a lot and put my child in a private school. Whoever created such a system does not care at all about children's education. Have we forgotten what it means to educate? This is not the way. I predict alot of dropouts.
—Submitted by a parent

I am not particularly happy with the Virgina school system. I have a 5 year old in KG at Fairlawn Elementary school, and I've taught her more than the teachers there have, in regards to reading, and math. The math that she has learned there is very little. She was asked by a Nurse giving her a vision test, if she could identify the plus sign - 'But, I don't know what a plus sign is', she replied. I was shocked! I'm from California and when she was in preschool, they were introducing the preK kids to the fundamentals of both math and reading. However, from the 2 years we've been here in VA she has forgotten alot of what was taught from her CA school. I also strongly appose the constant selling that the kids are asked to do, this reflects poor funding from state and federal funds.
—Submitted by a parent