St Patrick School

9635 Ferndale Road

Dallas, TX 75238

32 Reviews

School District
Grade

PK-8
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by student on April 10, 2024

I've been in this school for multiple years, getting straight A's all the way through. This school most definitely prefers women over men. The men are called out, especially if they are a race other than white. They repeatedly get singled out for utterly stupid things. This school claims to help bullying but the teachers do not make an extra effort to do anything about it, and even in some cases mock kids. Teachers hold grudges against certain students. There are two teachers that I will not name that take extra effort to single me out. This school does have two or three good teachers, in my grade at least, and the good teachers are the full package. They don't get mad easily, make you excited to learn, don't single you out, and just a good teacher in general. My summary is that if you want to send your kid here, by all means go for it, but if it's a boy, I would recommend another school. Thank you for reading this. This is just mine and many others' view of this school, which others may disagree with.
Submitted by parent on February 08, 2023

Went there as a student from 2nd to 8th grade. As a brown boy, definitely was targeted and punished way more than the white counterparts I had there. Some of the faculty still remains in place. Had a teacher say "I was one of those poor mexicans who couldn't afford a comb." Was in a play as cockroach, meant to dress up as a Mexican, ad nauseum here. If you have kids who aren't white, don't trust them with these people
Submitted by parent on January 17, 2023

The leadership at this school is woefully ill equipped to lead in a modern world - to the degree that she promotes racist and hateful practices at the school. Teachers play favorites, only a certain type of student is valued at the school, and the parent community is entitled and lives in an exclusive bubble. I would characterize the school as entirely out of synch with the values it supposedly promotes. The academic environment kept us there for a couple years, but that declined rapidly as our child got older as well. Definitely do not recommend this school.
Submitted by student on April 03, 2020

Extremely bad. Don't attempt for sending your loved kids there.
Submitted by parent on September 15, 2019

There are a few excellent teachers but our overall experience has been mediocre at best. The school works well with typical, very compliant children but does not seem to know what to do with anything outside of a narrow box. There is also a lot of favoritism of certain students and families. There are inconsistencies between their stated values and what is put into practice on a daily basis.
Submitted by parent on July 07, 2018

This school does not have a community feel. The priest are non involved with the student body except for mass.
Submitted by parent on July 06, 2018

This is a terrible school and I pray the Diocese of Dallas intervenes soon to help those teachers and kids.
Submitted by parent on June 08, 2018

Great. There will always be things that can improve at any school. I feel The administration takes in parent feelings and addresses areas of concern. I like that teachers of all grades know my child, even if he hasn't had their class yet. This faith based education & church community has been a good fit for our family.
Submitted by parent on February 16, 2018

Great parochial school with challenging high school prep program.
Submitted by parent on February 06, 2018

We left this school due to the current administration. The current principal allowed our child to be teased and bullied; she is political and plays favorites with teachers and parents; she makes decisions on a whim based on her ego (changing school uniforms, firing the cafeteria staff, etc.) and in the end, when we went to her asking for her help to address the bullying, she essentially took the side of the other parents and refused to do anything about it. I can't believe we stayed there as long as we did.
Submitted by parent on January 24, 2018

My children attended a different Catholic School in the Dallas area before transferring to St. Patrick School. SPS helped prepare my two oldest kids to be successful in high school and college while my youngest is still a student at the school. Our experience at the school has been very positive. We were welcomed into the school community coming in from another school, and have felt that SPS was our new home. Our kids have enjoyed participating in Athletics, the School Musical, Academic Competitions, and working towards their Sacraments. We have never had a problem with any teachers or the administration, and definitely recommend St. Patrick School to our friends.
Submitted by parent on October 03, 2017

Some of the positive comments on this forum is definitely from someone from the management. As teachers are not capable of completing the syllabus on time they push everything as homework to students. Even an exceptional student cannot complete the homework on time just because teachers are trying to finish their syllabus through homework. Principal of this school doesn't know what the teachers are doing. For instance my kid in 8th grade has 6 review homework to complete and each of those homework will take at least an hour. 7th and 8th grade literature teacher thinks she can be the best teacher by giving the most difficult homework with very little time to complete. This school has an unqualified principal who seems to be a puppet.
Submitted by parent on August 22, 2017

I feel like St. Pats is a lot of smoke and mirrors. Certain families do well because they've been in the community for so long and their parents went to St. Pats. If you're an "outsider", forget it. You'll never truly be accepted.
Submitted by parent on August 01, 2017

Our time here was a huge waste of money. No advanced programs for gifted students. Bullying is a major problem here. Administration caters to families that write the most checks.
Submitted by parent on May 22, 2017

Overall, our experience so far (over seven years, several children) has been wonderful. Although some of the negative posts on this site raise some valid points (more on that later), most seem to be borne out of personal slights or reveal unrealistic expectations.
Submitted by parent on May 12, 2017

I think some of the negative comments here are a handful of parents with very specific circumstances who are looking for another forum to complain. Just because a teacher or administrator tells you something that is hard to hear doesn't make them wrong or bad at their job. There is no perfect situation and we are fortunate enough to be able to afford private school options. The SPS program is not designed to address every single child's specific needs. (and I honestly don't know of a single school that does with tuition rates that we can afford) As a parent you want your children to thrive, if they are in a place where that is not happening, it is your parental duty to find a solution. The school cannot accommodate, change or add programs to help a small handful of students and still keep tuition increases at a minimum. To expect this is unreasonable. Parents are the primary educators of children and 300+ sets of parents CHOOSE to partner with this school annually. St. Patrick is like a second home to my children. Their classmates and teachers treat them like family. Our children are being well prepared for the transition to high school. St. Patrick graduates are known to be extremely successful in whichever high school they choose to attend. The academic work load is challenging yet appropriate and balanced with opportunities to participate in athletics, fine arts, clubs, scholastic contests and social activities. Good time management is encouraged and expected. The PTA is extremely active and supportive of the teachers and administration.
Submitted by parent on April 25, 2017

While there are teachers that are pretty great. It only takes a few bad ones to ruin your child. Especially in early grade school when they should be building their love to learn. Not make them feel bad about themselves. Teachers "diagnose" boys with ADHD time and time again. The class sizes are overflowing so much that the teachers cannot give the children the attention they need so an ADHD diagnoses with a push to medicate helps them alleviate any normal boy activity or any child that is "out of the box" from causing any additional movement or noise in the classroom, so they are able to teach up to 28 children in a classroom. There is a threshold and these classrooms are massively over any threshold. Homework is too much. If you have an athlete, the pressure with school and trying to dedicate themselves to a sport and maintain great grades is overwhelming and anxiety producing. Although we cope (with massive anxiety) in our household, we know that many sob over homework. Children don't have time to be children, no time to have dinner at the table as a family between school work and sports consuming nights, no time for desperately needed reading time left. School is hard enough. Who wants to come home to hours of homework when it is proven that it is not necessary to succeed in school. In fact studies show that it is better to have less homework and while many schools are going this route, St. Patrick has no interest in following suit. Again, there are some great teachers, but the bad ones ruin it for the school and nothing changes after administration has been told over and over including many families leaving the school. Makes it seem like keeping a teacher is more important than losing parish families to other Catholic schools in the Dallas area. This could be a great school, but they must start making parents part of the solution, rather than making them feel like their children are the problem.
Submitted by parent on April 21, 2017

The principal is not a good leader, communicator, administrator and the school, teachers and students are being impacted negatively.
Submitted by parent on April 09, 2017

The problem with this school is the teachers are not held to any specific standard so their jobs are not ever in question. They are complacent and only do the minimum. If your child is slightly different, the first recommendation is medication so they are not bothered with your child. Instead of being an empassioned teacher and doing what they went to school for, they just put your child aside and hope the parents don't have the brains to question their actions.
Submitted by parent on January 07, 2017

St. Patrick is a hidden gem in Lake Highlands. My children transferred here from a public school and we have been so blessed to be part of this school community. My children are cared for by loving, caring educators who not only want to teach my children, but also help them become the best students that they can be. There is an emphasis on our children growing from where they are at instead of being taught how to take a standardized test. I am surprised by some of the other reviews here as my family's experience has been completely different. The teachers, staff and administration warmly welcomed our family when we transferred and are very accessible. My family feels as though we found a second home at St. Patrick.