BASIS Independent Fremont

3300 Kearney Street

Fremont, CA 94538

12 Reviews

School District
Grade

K-8
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by parent on May 18, 2024

I have kids in both upper (6-12) and lower school (tk - 5) for 3 years and I am pulling them out because it’s not worth of the tuition. Facilities: The upper school is just several rooms rented from the neighboring church and very crowded. There is no field for kids for any sports activities and the only MPR room is shared with the church, which means the school cannot use the room for events during the weekend if the church needs it. Most kids do extracurricular activities outside of the school because there is not much opportunity for school-wide team events. Several rooms smell terrible and the teachers had to spray scented mist onto cover it because the school did nothing to improve the condition. Teaching quality: The curriculum is pretty advanced but the teaching quality varies a lot depending on the teacher. The teacher gets paid very low and the only incentive for those good teachers is the heavily discounted tuition they get for their own kids. Those good teachers will leave once their kids graduate. Several teachers are pretty incapable. For example, one of the algebra math teachers grade homework based on completion rather than quality. He also does not provide answer keys to students often, so the students ended up not knowing how well they learned until the quiz time. The middle school physics teacher barely teach. His class is most of YouTube watching and free recess. He also gets mad when kids ask him questions. Parents had to step in teaching their own kids. Parents had repeatedly complained to the administrative about these teachers with nothing achieved because the principal does not want extra work needed for hiring new teachers.This is the first year the school has 12th grade graduating. The college acceptance looks good, but you have to remember all these top kids are a selected group and most of them probably will do well in decent public schools with family provided resources and support. Definitely not worth of the money paid to the tuition. There aren’t many school-organized clubs, so you had to pay additional often higher fees for vendor provided extracurricular activities because school charges the vendor for using the space.
Submitted by student on May 13, 2023

There's alot of fake information aout this school, even on the website. The upper school campus is especially small and crowded, and I could honesly walk a lap across the entire building in less than 2 minutes. Not only that, the outside area is also quite small for the amount that's being paid, and they are squeezing 6-12th graders into this area. Not only that, the high amount of tuition fees that you pay don't include club fees or extracurriculars at the school, as well as materials and books that are required in class. The teachers also don't get paid a lot and need parent donations for alot of basic supplies like printers and books. Although this school does support a lot of diversity and people with special needs and is a very safe space, the amount that you pay likely isn't completely worth it.
Submitted by parent on August 15, 2022

Lack of teacher resources. Last year, they lost 3-5 teachers due to variety reasons. But I think they combined too much workload on one teacher and the school has too many stuff for non-teaching positions.
Submitted by parent on June 26, 2022

Good teachers and staff, but this is past tense. Pandemic has only accelerated the attrition.The leadership was changed in 2021; the new leaders at both lower and upper campuses have not been able to maintain the teaching qualities. Good teachers left and the school has been recruiting young and cheap teachers lacking experiences and qualifications. Not recommended if you are looking for a place for good education. But if you have money and care about the “fame” of a school’s name, go ahead.
Submitted by parent on November 20, 2019

I was looking for something amazing and found a great fit for my kids (who are extremely different- One a fast-learner and outgoing, one a slower learner and shy) despite their differences in styles of learning and levels of comprehension. I love the small school feel and community. The hope is that they purchase 1 school to house TK-12 in one place and that will be a great thing when it happens in the next couple of years. It is great to have a student go to one school from early grades to 12. There is no break to 'find another school' that needs to happen. Lastly, I am extremely comfortable with the safety at the school. They take bullying so seriousily and it is a closed campus, so this means I am less worried about school violence happening. It is sad parents even need to think about such things and hopefully, this will change for all schools. I reccomend the school without hesitation.
Submitted by parent on November 18, 2017

It is a great school, teachers are young,energetic and passionate. The curriculum is challenging but My child is motivated.
Submitted by parent on September 04, 2017

I'm extremely pleased with BASIS . My daughter is unbelievably engaged in her subjects and is well-supported by the teachers and administrations. While the workload is a lot, it's a really good mix for my child and completely manageable. They integrate the subjects so there is a relevancy and experiential nature to a lot of the curriculum. My child is not only learning a tremendous amount more than at other schools, her capacity for learning -- through the greater use of critical thinking development and subject exploration -- is also much greater. I'm thrilled with the school, how I feel supported as a working parent, and I know that my child feels successful and interested in her life at BASIS.
Submitted by parent on March 31, 2017

Here are highlights of our lower-school (Grade 1-4) learning experience. 1. Academics: not “duck-feeding” type! Basis is not that type of school that trains the students by memorizing lots of stuff and drills them with tons of homework and quizzes. The school builds a fun and lively learning environment for the kids. They have weekly engineering class which gives kids hands-on experience by building real mechanical or electrical “toys”. The math class is combined with science class, so even math concepts are sometimes taught by small scientific experiments, which makes these concepts not dull nor abstract. The humanity class incorporates English language, literature, social study, history and geography into one. Reading wise, the school doesn’t fix a book list and students have the freedom to choose to read per their own levels. They do have a short daily reading time to get together to enhance reading experience. Although the school is not structured as to giving parents a daily syllabus of what has been taught, I can still see my son’s making progress gradually, in all these subjects. 2. PE class: definitely a hidden gem! Although the school doesn’t have a big playground but just an indoor gym, the PE class is taking place every day 40 minutes for every grade. The class is conducted in series of popular ball activities. It started from football season, then rugby, basketball, soccer, and now it is in volleyball session. Every year, there will be three fitness tests which comply to the national Presidential Physical Fitness Test. 3. STEAM, not STEM: here A means “arts”. People tend to stereotype Basis as a STEM school. Yet the school is truly strong in arts, with weekly arts, music and drama classes and with professionals as these subject teachers. Each class lasts 1.5 hours long which means kids can really complete one art work, learn a music piece, or rehearse one short play. 4. Mandarin class: a differentiating factor! The daily 40-min Mandarin class focuses on listening/speaking skills considering half of the class are non-heritage students. They learn to read Chinese characters but not much, and writing is minimum. This may not satisfy the needs of heritage students who want to polish reading/writing techniques. At least, it gives opportunity to speak the language on a daily basis in midst of a pure English environment.
Submitted by parent on March 30, 2017

We've been very happy with our older son's first year at BASIS and have enrolled our second child in Kindergarten for this coming fall. Even though we live in what's considered an excellent school district in Fremont, we feel BASIS is the right school for our kids for long list of reasons. In a nutshell, BASIS is the most progressive school I've found in terms of how they think about, design and implement their curriculum and programs. They take a holistic, multi-dimensional approach to teaching. We love that lesson plans are designed around rotating themes such as Ancient Egypt, weaved throughout multiple subject areas at the same time -- whether they be math, science, art, engineering or humanities. This approach has been very effective at engaging our son and in bringing to life the information and principles that have been introduced to him. The student-teacher ratio is hard to beat (approx 1:12 in my son's 1st grade class), and we're thrilled that each subject is taught by a subject matter expert so that our child can see what real passion for that subject looks like, explore the material more deeply and discover its real-world applications. (Special shout out to the PE teacher, Coach Andy, whom my son loves! Coach Andy not only gets the kids happily moving every day, but teaches them the importance of keeping our bodies healthy and fit and the basics of all kinds of sports ranging from rugby to basketball.) I also really like that the school emphasizes the importance of kindness, respect for others and developing good habits (from writing down and keeping track of their homework assignments to learning about good nutrition). These are critical to helping young kids become responsible, caring and successful global citizens.I swear I'm not getting paid by BASIS for this review! There's just a lot to love about the school, and I think there are a lot of parents out there who'd love the school too if they only knew about it. :)
Submitted by parent on January 02, 2017

This is a new school in Fremont and its first day was August 10, 2016. Pros:1. Teachers seem to be strong in the subject that they teach. This might be the biggest and possibly only draw.Cons:1.Teachers have no counseling knowledge. Do not expect them to teach your child the emotional side of growing up. 2.Small school with a very tiny playground3.No breaks for the 5th grade except lunch4.Expensive! The refund plan is preposterous. You lose 70% of the 10 months fees if you decide to pull your child out of school5.The fees do not cover text books, planners, field trips. My son's previous private school covered all of this. They use Smart Tuition for fee payments and Smart Tuition charge a 50 dollar for every transaction fee. Our previous private school covered the smart tuition transactional fee and repeated request for Basis to cover this went unheard. 6.Lower grades have drama, engineering and mandarin as part of the curriculum. All this is missing for 5th grade. They bring this all back in the 6th grade as electives.7.Too many school breaks. The school has too many holidays and most of their holidays do not follow the FUSD school holidays. This makes it almost impossible to use any of the camps offered by the district. Basis has no holiday camps. 8.The school is marketed very well. They tend to over-market and they should cut back on this as it feels like they are selling a commodity versus being a school. 9.Head of school and the administration team do not respond back to emails if you are having an objective discussion. They choose to just ignore the topic.10.The Math used is the Saxon Math. I do not believe that the teacher does the Facts Practice in class. Our son's previous school would cover the Facts, new topic and 15 problems of the chapter at school every day. 11.The after school is like community hall. All the kids (irrespective of grade) are put together. It is up to the child to complete HW, study for test etc. 12.The student counselor should be fired. She talks to the children very rudely and is not a good role model.13.The parent-teacher office hours are at odd times. Teachers are available over the phone but this is not the same as a face to face conversation.Will we continue Middle School at Basis? Yes, unfortunately we do not have a choice but my quest for finding a good private school still continues.
Submitted by student on September 24, 2016

Lucky to have Basis open in Fremont so we can make it. School staff and teachers are hard working and passionate, and they pay attention to every single details. They have done an excellent job in operation, management, and communication, considering this is an entire new site. My both kids had a smooth transition and love their friends and teachers. We are happy to hang out with families sharing similar value. Myself strongly agree on Basis education concept and vision, solid curriculum taught in an American way, reference to international education standards. Having subject experts for each subject since first grade sets their teaching quality bar high. Very glad that my kids are in good hands.
Submitted by parent on April 29, 2016

Competing in a global world requires a world class curriculum. Basis Independent is the only school in Fremont that measures up to this standard and has results (OECD scores) to prove it! Take inspiring teachers who are experts in their field and love teaching, a curriculum that explores kid's potential, a support system of teachers and Dean's to take the stress out of learning and you get children who take charge of their own education and deliver results way beyond what conventional wisdom says kids at a certain grade level can do. I have watched my older son's transformation at Basis Silicon Valley for the last 2 years. He is excited to go to school each day, takes charge of his own education and has the flexibility to explore beyond the curriculum in his favorite subjects. Can't wait for my younger son to start Basis Fremont in the Fall!