Fruit Cove Middle School

Reviews

• Submitted by parent on December 29, 2024
  Coming from New England, I’ve realized how lacking Florida schools are. It’s no wonder why the literacy rate in Florida is 7th -8th grade level. Fruit Cove MS has a deficit of adequately qualified teachers and I’m mortified by the low expectations. Test scores here are shameful compared to most states. For the time we had our student here, we had to supplement her education with tutors to keep up with the schools back in Rhode Island. We were one year and done here, then transferred to a private school. It’s disturbing how many of these students will be ill prepared for high school & beyond,?
• Submitted by parent on December 14, 2024
  Wonderful school! 5 stars. Administration is excellent. They follow the district code of conduct and have many fun, positive programs like WEB leaders and clubs. My kids enjoy it there and are happy with their teachers.
• Submitted by other on December 06, 2024
  This place is a glorified prison. Maybe prison food is better than the hockey pucks they call cheeseburgers. Not allowed to stand up at lunch? If you have gym and then have to walk all the way across the school to your next class and are 20 seconds late, you can get a referral. We couldn’t choose our seats at lunch for no reason! They care about dress code and phones more than the important stuff. You can get a referral for joking around with your friends, a referral for wearing PJ pants. No hats. Lots of the teachers are mean, in 3 years of going there, I had 2 teachers that were good out of the 24 teachers I had. Kids are really mean, but staff are mean. Teachers did not teach at all and then yelled at kids because of low grades. All my friends struggled BADLY with mental health. They also press heavily on kids to get perfect grades, which is completely unrealistic. Out of all three years, I had 3 or 4 hours of homework a night. It was a nightmare if you missed a day, and all the teachers would expect you to make it up. I would have 6 or 7 hours of homework a night the day after I came back to school. The dress code is completely sexist. Girls are definitely treated unfairly. I was dress coded for a longer black skirt that was longer than some of the boys shorts. There’s two teachers (if you’ve been there you know exactly who) that dress code everyone for no reason. On my last year of school there, I was dress coded for something not breaking rules on the third to last day of school. Instead of celebrating with my friends, I was sitting in the gym locker room by myself trying to find dirty gym clothes to wear so I wouldn’t distract the boys. Sounds stupid, right? And PJ pants, why can’t we wear them? That’s idiotic, it covers everything. On the last day of school, kids wore PJ pants, and weren’t given warnings like normally, they were just straight referrals. Mainly towards curvier girls, too! My really skinny friend wore really tight really short shorts, and she was fine! But whenever I wore a skirt, I was dress coded. Fights happen all the time. One time I was dress coded and sitting in the front office and there was a fight going on and the assistant principal was just sitting in there eating pie. Some of the staff abuse their powers too. There are a lot of staff that give out referrals like candy and yell at kids for NO reason. What could happen to you that you could be so mean to want to take joy from CHILDREN? They do not know that kids are HUMAN.
• Submitted by parent on November 28, 2024
  Happy we found this school! Great learning environment and amazing administration!
• Submitted by parent on November 13, 2024
  I don’t understand why this school’s rating is 9/10! It should be 10/10! Amazing school programs, extracurricular activities, etc. Happy that we go here.
• Submitted by parent on November 11, 2024
  This summer we moved from New Jersey to Fruit Cove. I got two kids and was so worried about choosing schools for them. This middle school is great! My daughter tells me every week how helpful her teachers are and how the whole student body is friendly. She made more friends here than in NJ.
• Submitted by other on November 10, 2024
  RECOMMEND THIS SCHOOL TO ALL. THIS IS THE BEST SCHOOL IN ST. JOHN'S, FLORIDA! Truly, I am actually enjoying studying and going to school. Did not expect to enjoy being in school.
• Submitted by parent on November 10, 2024
  I was worried about this school after reading some negative comments here. But I am very happy. This is a great school! The students are smart and friendly, and the teachers and staff are caring, responsive and attentive. Very happy with this school!
• Submitted by other on July 05, 2024
  This school isn’t the best, but it isn’t the worst. A lot of the teachers here are some of the best I have ever had out of all the schools I’ve attended. I just graduated this school in May, and over the 3 years I have attended FCMS, it has been pretty obvious that this school is slowly going downhill. The grades the students get are good, however, it is mostly because of the retest policy at the school. Most students don’t do their best on their first attempt on a test, and then they just do the retest. Like I have previously stated, a bunch of teachers are amazing. I had this one teacher in 7th grade who made me enjoy the subject she taught more and helped me succeed in her class although I thought I was just naturally bad at it and I couldn’t get better. The administration at this school is a complete joke. They care more about what a student wears to school than dealing with the constant bullying and racism at this school. Overall, this school is average, but there are some positive aspects of this school.
• Submitted by student on June 15, 2024
  I’ve been going too this school for 2 years now and ive never woke up one day and was happy too go. every time i walk through the hallway there’s either a fight or bullying going on. for my 6th grade year i always felt attacked by the students and 7th grade it was staff. ive never thought i would be cussed at by the deans of a middle school and always accused of lying in any situation. i would not send your kids here.
• Submitted by student on April 25, 2024
  stupid to summarize racism, bullying, ineffective punishments
• Submitted by parent on March 28, 2024
  The best decision we could make for my son was to take him to FCMS. His academic development and excellent grades have been support by the teachers he has had during these 3 years at school, especially Mrs. Farbo, Mr. Porter, Mr. Villadonga and Mrs. Alford who have developed his social skills. We are very happy that my son has been part of the history of FCMS!!!
• Submitted by student on January 17, 2024
  Iv’e been going to this school for 3 years and luckly its my last. in 6th grade i was bullied by the other kids and still hear them TILL THIS DAY saying bad things about me and others. This school needs to teach more about bullying because its disgusting. If you arent popular or arent liked by the staff then they will ignore every need. The school cares more about what a girl is wearing than actual bullying and racism. The schools dress code is also extremely sexist, my friend got dress coded for wearing shorts that werent that short but i have seen boys wearing even shorter shorts. They will not allow you to wear pj pants for absolutely no reason. This school also does NOTHING about the racism. I have seen my friend being mocked and being said racial slurs to and the school hasnt done anything about it. The amount of fights i have experianced in 3 years is absolutely crazy. Last year there was a fight that occured and a teacher got fired. He wasnt involved with it, it was just by his door. You are assigned lunch seats and are not allowed to move? They dont take attendance so theres no reason we should be assigned. You have to pay school points to buy a pass thats only a week long to sit with your friends. The food is so cheap its disgusting, the water also tastes so bad. You are not allowed to have your phones out at all even before 7:30 and not even at lunch. If you are going to send your kid here, dont. This school is horrible. I am mentally and physically drained from this experience. SAVE THE CHILDREN!!
• Submitted by parent on January 16, 2024
  Terrible experience with this school. Unfair policies, favoritism and a culture of looking for reasons to punish kids. My experiences with the Vice Principal have been disappointing to say the least. She is NOT in it for what is best for the students. I have many examples. This school does not believe in creating a fun and positive learning atmosphere for kids. My son's experience at the K-8 school in our neighborhood was 100% better. I've heard that Fruit Cove is older and that the administration and teachers are all the subpar teachers who haven't been recruited to the newer schools. Based on my experience, I would agree.
• Submitted by parent on December 13, 2023
  The bullying starts on the bus. A lot of racist slurs constantly uttered by these kids. Not isolated incidents when they happend literally every single day on buses and throughout the school day. thought we live in a diverse and friendly community, it seems racism is taught to many at home to be brought to school for staff/administration to ignore "as kids being kids". Not sure what these kids will grow up to be in the community if this is what their behavior is like right now. I also wonder if there is a set number that the school is waiting to reach in terms of deaths/injuries/fights in order to just put a stop to this kind of behavior. The safest place for kids is becoming most dangerous place and things are constantly getting worse, and school/administration will just follow "protocols", hide behind inaction and fail to protect most vulnerable in our society.
• Submitted by parent on December 05, 2023
  Kids are very bully, school doesn't do much about it,it is very bad place for sensitive kids,messed up staff
• Submitted by parent on November 17, 2023
  Excellent school. The front office to the teachers and staff. The students are wonderful and there is a positive school culture.
• Submitted by other on September 23, 2023
  If you read the reviews, it appears that the students and parents are reaching out for help. The emotional and mental health of the students at this school are in dire straits. What will it take for the principal and her administration to be replaced. God help these children and protect them from the vicious and wicked leadership or should I say lack of leadership that is going on at this school.?These students are more than a text score and they need emotional and mental support. After all that is happening around the country with the mental health problems our children are facing, why is this administration allowed to remain? It’s time to start a petition to have this principal and her administration removed. Let’s do it before it’s too late. Save the children!!!
• Submitted by other on August 28, 2023
  i would not reccomend this school at all. my son got personally victimized by his classmates for being jewish. At home we teach our kids to be proud of our religion and this is completely contradictory to that. The school did nothing about this.
• Submitted by parent on August 09, 2023
  Administration is a joke. They have nothing in place to address the bullying that goes on here. If there is a situation that your child is involved in, they will pull them out of class for hours to make them wait and wait until it’s their turn to write their statement and miss valuable class time. If your child isn’t well liked by the staff they don’t stand a chance here. They set up my child to hate school and is terrified about going into high school. I don’t use the word hate very often but I really do hate this school.

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