Orchard Hill Elementary School

244 Orchard Road

Montgomery, NJ 08558

7 Reviews

School District

Montgomery Township
Grade

PK, K-2
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:9
Type

public

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Reviews

Submitted by parent on January 21, 2025

This is an average elementary school. Students do well in this district because the parents are wealthy and pay for outside tutoring (see the FB group), therapy services, music lessons, etc. - even in elementary school. Students are given an evaluation at the beginning of the school year and their progresses is compared to that for the whole year (not against national standards). For example, if your student is the worst in the whole grade level at something, as long as they show continued improvement they will have a good parent/teacher conference, top marks on their report card, and no additional help or services offered from the school. There is no homework, so it is very hard to know what your child should be working on or where they might be struggling. No field trips- except to the woods behind the school. Once a month there is a day of play, where you send your child in with a non-electronic toy to play with. Teachers communicate via email, and often do not respond to them.
Submitted by parent on January 02, 2022

Just a super horrible experience in this school and with the teachers. They seem to target certain kids and know nothing other than complaining to parents constantly.The support even for neurotypical kids is not that good. Very crowded , inconvenient start and end times for the school. 9:30- 4:30 ( almost like office timings) and school buses run late too.The teachers are so unwelcoming, never respond to emails , don’t understand young minds at all. Despite rising cases ,the school administration is ready to have in person sessions and never proactive. The seating arrangements in class are so inconvenient/unsafe for kids ( these are 6-8 yr olds) !! They are made to sit in a square like seating with a shield in front of them . There are many other schools which have spaced kids apart very well and have separate seats and tables with protective shields for each, enforce better safety procedures and care better for students. No practice workbooks( for math ) are provided and the teacher doesn’t even inform when there is a test but criticizes kids performance . Very disappointed and absolutely terrible experience specifically with second grade teachers.
Submitted by parent on September 22, 2021

Wouldn’t recommend. Very bad experience for little kids starting their schooling experience here .
Submitted by parent on September 15, 2021

This school is over crowded with too many people moving into Montgomery and happens to be the only elementary school from K-2. The problem I see is that the so called "6" day schedule doesn't focus on any valuable pattern of education for the kids. The emphasis on Math or writing is far less compared to other schools. Also the "no homework" policy makes it very difficult to help kids at home and understand where they are struggling. Having at least weekly homeworks for Math and writing would go a long way in improving the quality.
Submitted by other on May 18, 2021

I hated it when I went here, the teachers were so rude and the environment was not friendly whatsoever.
Submitted by parent on April 28, 2014

Very good extra curricular activities and high emphasis on academics. The very best teachers and communication is very good.
Submitted by parent on July 15, 2012

I rate this school as sub-standard and would give it negative stars if I could. Clearly the parents giving previous stellar reviews had "neurotypical" children and are not aware of the issues / lack of integrity regarding the credentialing and curriculum for the ABA program. For any parent of a special needs child, particularly those of ASD children, do your homework before just accepting that the preschool disabled ABA program at OHES truly does the job they purport. Just calling a program an ABA program does not make it so. Again, do your research, know what ABA entails, research quality indicators for NY and NJ and you will see that the OHES program does not follow the guidelines set forth for quality programming - nor does it demand that the teacher even have autism training, an ABA background or the proper ABA credentialing. Your child deserves better!