Cherrywood Elementary School

2550 Greengate Drive

School District

Berryessa Union Elementary
Grade

K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:26
Type

public

School Map for Berryessa Union Elementary School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on June 04, 2024

I enrolled my son in the Mandarin Immersion program with high hopes of him learning Chinese. However, our experience has been overwhelmingly disappointing. Despite being in 2nd grade, he still struggles to write a sentence in English, which is concerning given the complete absence of English instruction in the program.What's worse is the pervasive culture of bullying and discrimination at the school. Both students and parents who aren't of Chinese descent are targeted and mistreated by the Chinese kids and parents who seem to run the show. It's disheartening to see my child being subjected to such hostility, and the recent incident of assault against a non-Chinese student is utterly unacceptable.Moreover, the teaching methodology leaves much to be desired. Instead of fostering genuine learning, the emphasis is solely on rote memorization and mindless homework assignments. There's no room for critical thinking or creativity
Submitted by parent on May 14, 2024

The main problem in this school is the principal. She is not approachable, and doesn't listen to parents opinions or suggestions. She is not friendly and not open minded. It's hard to talk to her. You have to make an appointment to have a short chat. With such a principal, it's difficult for the school to overcome it's weaknesses even with some amazing teachers. The English language classes (non Mandarin immersion) are falling away behind academically. The kids can't write or spell properly in English even in fifth grade. It's quite alarming!
Submitted by parent on September 08, 2023

If I can leave no start, I will leave no Star. The parking issue is a big problem for many families. there are not enough parking space for parents to park, and the school doesn't even want to create a drive through system .The morning routine for drop off kid is like a jungle word. People block the way and i see the car accident almost every week. Parents flight for parking space, and the principle doesn't do anything. i spoke the few traffic volunteers, and the all think the parking issue has to be changed, and they have been suggested the principle for 4 years, and the principle is been not willing to accept the opinion from parents. NO wonder the school rate is so low, and its still 4. if you compare to other Berryessa schools. ,the cherrywood is the only one still keep falling behind other school.
Submitted by parent on June 18, 2023

My child was in the Mandarin Immersion program. 85%+ of the students of this program are native Chinese speakers. All the teachers are from China. The teaching style is lecture and memorization. There is no hands on learning, science, creativity or collaboration. Just rote learning and busy work. If your child is not Chinese expect them to be bullied by the other students and belittled by the teacher. The teachers have no desire to support the non Chinese speakers. They only teach towards the native speakers and leave the other kids behind. There is very little support in this school. My child has severe self esteem issues after going here.
Submitted by parent on June 14, 2023

The 1st grade Mandarin immersion teachers were not good and very boring. My child has not learned much of anything here and doesn’t enjoy school. The teacher just lectures and expect kids to memorize and regurgitate the information on test. The bullying in this school is also really bad. My child has learned some Chinese but considering he has spent 90% of the school day for two years just learning Chinese and nothing else, he still doesn’t know much. The expectation is to put your child in expensive afterschool programs, summer camps and weekend schools to learn what they are not learning in school. I agree with the last comment that majority of the program is immigrants from China therefore the teaching style reflects this.
Submitted by other on May 31, 2023

My son goes to cherrywood and is part of English only class. He is doing well academically but not sure if its helping him with his socio emotional skills. He says his classmates are very rude to him and dont play him . He had asked them multiple times if he could play with them but they always turned him down. Its really affecting him emotionally. He now doesn't seem excited to attend any school events. It hit me really hard when he said I want to change my school and go to some other school where people are nice to me.Teachers should be watchful and pay attention when kids approach them with their concerns. Instead of finding an easy way out, why can't they put some efforts in correcting these kids who are being mean to their fellow classmates. There are many parents like me who are facing this and are thinking of moving to a different school where there is more diversity because their kids are being sidelined here. Mandarin emmersion classes at this school may be great .But the same is not true with the English only class. No wonder cherrywood's rating has gone down to 5 now.
Submitted by parent on April 07, 2023

We recently got moved to Cherrywood school. My kid is really enjoying her school. Cherrywood teachers are doing amazing job in terms of teaching and taking care of kids. The principal and teachers are so responsive and care a lot about kids. The Programs that they are offering for math (kangaroo) is really improving kids thought process and reasoning skills. Spelling and math test conducted on regular basis is improving kids' interest towards learning.
Submitted by parent on March 10, 2023

We have been at Cherrywood since 2018. Apart from the unusual pandemic year, the school community has been great support for us! There are many engaged parents at this school who are involved, room parents for each classroom work with teachers to keep parents informed and multicultural activities are widely celebrated here. My children are in the MI program and they do a lot of rigorous mandarin language learning, but grades are not the sole focus here. Principal and teachers work really hard to help kids foster a love for learning!
Submitted by parent on May 19, 2022

We choose to transfer to Cherrywood instead of Vinci Park because our friend’s kid really enjoyed their school. I didn’t really know what to expect as we sent our first kid to school. I am so glad we made the decisions to transfer. I liked that the community was smaller, the principal and teachers are responsive, and care a lot about the kids. I enjoy the monthly Principal coffee where they explore parenting topics with the school social worker and other resources. The afterschool care is on sight - you can go with ROCK run by the city (we love ROCK) or SJC a private afterschool care. Cherrywood’s teachers have been consistent these past three years which is amazing considering the pandemic.
Submitted by parent on May 19, 2022

My kids had great experience at cherrywood. Students are friendly. Teachers communicate closely with parents on kids progress and behaviors at school.
Submitted by parent on May 19, 2022

My son has been going to Cherrywood for the past 2 years. I have experienced the care and attention my son gets from the teachers and staffs. I really appreciate the teachers providing very informative updates such as the students weekly learning objectives. If my son loves and looks forward to go to school everyday, Cherrywood must be doing something great to make it fun and interesting for the students to learn.
Submitted by parent on May 19, 2022

My two children love Cherrywood. They love celebrating all the events held at school, from Lunar New Year, Halloween, Read Across America, to Children's Day. The teachers are great at communicating with parents, and even during the pandemic, have held events to celebrate students in a inclusive way over Zoom. I could not have asked for a better public school. Thank you to all the teachers and supervisors for the great work you do every day with the students.
Submitted by parent on May 19, 2022

All our 3 kids have been going here since our oldest was in kindergarten back in 2017. We love how engaging the teachers are for our kids. It's an additional bonus they have an on-site after school program, R.O.C.K, runs by the city of San Jose.
Submitted by parent on May 19, 2022

Cherrywood has been amazing. Their teachers make sure they are not only learning but looks out for their social and emotional well-being - appreciate the open communication that we have with the teachers. Find it pretty cool that the kids are learning through "songs" and its a sight to see them sing the tunes at home - think it's called SEAL model the teachers are trained on. The kids also look forward to school events, whether during the day (jump rope for heart, field days etc) and or evenings with family events...and with the dual immersion program on campus, its been a bonus for the kids to learn about culture and get incorporated into their activities.
Submitted by parent on April 26, 2022

My second grader enjoys attending Cherrywood Elementary. She loves her teachers. As a parent, I adore and appreciate the teachers here. They are great at communication and adjusting what needs to be done based on parent concerns and feedback. The teachers seem to be very dedicated. I only hope that these teachers continue teaching long enough so that my youngest can go through Cherrywood Elementary too. Thank you Ms Joe, Ms Rochie, Ms Chan, Ms Quach, and the future teachers that my kid will get! Thank you for your hard work!
Submitted by parent on January 07, 2022

Cherrywood is unique in that it offers Mandarin Immersion program. This is quite a blessing for a parent who would like my child to learn Mandarin while at public school. So A+ for offering this program.Experience from student:- My child loves school. He/she looks forward to going every day.- My child hates some of the homework. It's too much quantity and too repetitive.Experience from parent:Homework:- I don't find value in some of the homework. It is too much qty for a Kinder. I don't recall having this much when I grew up and I still ended up developing diligence and going to top 5 ranking schools for both Undergrad and Grad.- Specifically: Reading logs. My child reads plenty at home. I don't need him/her to log it. There's not even enough space to write in the titles of all the books they read each day. My child is also just learning to write writing so many titles when it exceeds their writing capability is not helpful. - Feedback: We turn in this large qty of homework each week digitally and VERY rarely ever get any feedback from the teacher on all this homework we turn in for our student. The process is also SO CONFUSING AND TEDIOUS. I worry how the less fortunate students who's parents aren't tech wizards can figure out all these logins from Bloomz, Clever, Seesaw etc. Then after logging in, it's scanning each page of the homework and uploading it. Honestly, I'm plenty adept with my technology. This is absurd. Why can't we stick to just paper homework and turn it in each week? I'm sure the teachers would prefer that too than going through all these digital websites to review their students' work.Bullying:- I keep hearing from my child that there is 1 student who keeps physically pushing other kids down. This needs to get addressed and I believe it's been mentioned multiple times from more than 1 parent.Teachers:- I commend their efforts. They have a lot of work to do and they have to manage all these digital websites. They also put in a lot of effort from what I've seen.Schedule:- The Thursday schedule starts earlier and forces parents to change up their routines. I don't mind ending earlier at 1 or 1:15pm but why can't we keep the start times the same as the rest of the week? The extra 15 minutes in the morning is helpful for child sleep, nutrition and also avoiding a rush in the morning.Calendar:- Why are there so many breaks/holidays? I don't remember taking so much time off at my public school growing up in Northern CA.
Submitted by parent on October 15, 2021

Our kinder is excited to go to school every day and the parent community is very involved.
Submitted by principal on January 08, 2021

Cherrywood's motto is Learning for a Lifetime. This is what happens at Cherrrywood daily in our classrooms and at our monthly Family Nights sponsored by our Cherrywood Home and School Club. We have a strong school community where everyone is invited, both students and family members, to be an active participant. Students have the opportunity to take on leadership roles in varying capacities whether it's being a Student Council member or being a CLIMB (Cherrywood Leaders Inspiring More and Beyond) leader. Our CLIMB leaders are active in helping out at our monthly Family Nights where we get together for activities such as Family Math Night, Family Dance Night, Family Reading Night, Family Craft Night, Trunk or Treat, or our annual Multicultural Fashion and Dinner Show. Another unique program at our school is our Mandarin Immersion program which started just three years ago. Students have the opportunity to learn grade level content in both Mandarin and English daily. Our highly qualified English Only and Mandarin Immersion teachers use SEAL (Sobrato Early Academic Language) strategies to ensure that our students are performing at grade level in both languages by fourth grade. Our unique language immersion program is very much an integrated part of our school where English Only and Mandarin Immersion students have a chance to learn a new language and a new culture as we prepare them all to be contributing 21st century global citizens.Our students and staff are proud to be Cherrywood Chargers and have high expectations for themselves and one another as we all strive to grow academically, socially, and emotionally in a supportive environment for all. Our school continues to make academic gains that surpass what the school has done in the past. We look forward to growing together as a school community and inspiring a love of learning for all!
Submitted by parent on December 29, 2020

Unfortunately this school has continued to ignore severe bullying issues and continues to rug sweep - even situations occurring in the classroom which should normally be a safe space. The school social worker had spoken of having some form of anti bullying education in the classrooms, this was never acted upon. This renders the teachers ineffective when they are powerless with little support to deal with children in the classroom who are disruptive due to issues at home that spill over into the classroom. We hope this will be addressed as was promised when the schools physically reopen.
Submitted by parent on January 08, 2020

My son started attending Cherrywood School K-5th - We had a great experience. The teachers were great, the principle and the rest of the staff were very supportive to students and parents. They support a family community and environment with family involved activities.