NUA Sparrow Charter School

I enrolled my child in Sparrow’s TK program (a requirement for children born between June-​Dec.). It is play based and my child loved the outdoors and made friends instantly. Unfortunately his teacher had a limited teaching resume, and complained that my child would not sit still or be quiet during circle time. This complaint came just three days into the school year. She insisted on a meeting right away followed by another meeting with other staff members. Our child had just turned five and this was his first time going to school alone. I asked his teacher to be patient, but she had already labeled my child, and viewed him with a negative lens. We pulled our son out of Sparrow. I did not want this teacher to break my sons spirit. He is now enrolled in Kindergarten at another school. He has a wonderful, caring teacher with twenty years of experience. She is endearing as a Kinder teacher should be, but stern when necessary. Our child is doing great keeping up with his classmates, and sitting still. We believe that his teacher at Sparrow passed her own insecurity (an inability to manage a class) on our child. It is pathetic. When choosing a school the teacher is the most important element. At Sparrow you have one teacher for every subject, and you better like them. In this environment you are either in or you are out! I hope this review is helpful choosing a school is almost a leap of faith. You do your homework, but you just don’t know until you are in whether it is the right fit.

I give the school a five star review without hesitation. Perhaps my son is exceptionally gifted but I don’t think so (considering parentage). In fact if you understood some of his personal challenges and circumstances it would all be more impressive how the school has accommodated, educated, and supported us. After three years my son is not only a remarkable writer and speaker has a fascination with mathematics got I wish I would have experienced when I was a child. He looks forward to each day and is eager to be in class. Imagine how happy that makes me feel. I am confident it will continue.

EEek! Wow have things changed from my first review. We have left Sparrow (Along with about half the school from last year).
Sparrow became a Waldorf charter, which is something we did NOT sign up for originally. My child’s teacher was forced to take out all of her non-​fiction books (including the kids favorite LIFE CYCLE OF A CHICKEN). Because of this curriculum, our children fell behind in academics. Our teacher tried her best to pull them up to grade level. The Waldorf curriculum was just one reason we left. Do your research on Waldorf.
Our beloved teacher was bullied by the staff. This was totally unacceptable to me. How can we teach our children all this peace and love when they treated our AMAZING teacher horribly?! Not only did they treat our teacher horribly, they extended the same disrespect toward the parent volunteers of our class as well. We were the most active classroom with volunteers in class everyday.
We would have left in January when this all started, but we decided to stick it out because our teacher was so great. The children and the parents all loved her. The school was very lucky to have her. She has now moved on a school where she is loved and appreciated by everyone, including the staff.
The amazing community that we established is no longer there. I have heard that it is now a very cold and negative environment. Families are scrambling to get out of there.
I can’t in good conscience recommend this school to anyone. It goes deeper then the learning styles. I don’t think this school will survive much longer with the high turnover rate as it has been since they opened.
I have also heard from someone that the school has now lost its Charter because «someone dropped the ball». Shocker.

If you are looking for a wonderful community to support your non-​mainstream ways (no media, non-​vax, natural healing, etc…) you have found your place. You will find a generally wonderful community. If you are looking for a strong foundation for administrative support (including admin, funding, etc…) for a school, you might want to look a little further. Sparrow is still learning how to use its wings, and as a one can expect from a new school there are bumps along the way. Do your research and decide what you want in a school; as a first time parent looking at schools you may not know what that is yet which can make it challenging. Look beyond kinder or first grade, get a handle on what happens next. Sparrow was a great experience for kinder, but ultimately Waldorf education was not a good fit for us. I look forward to seeing how Sparrow grows in the future.

We absolutely love Sparrow! As others have written, it’s fantastic to have a place to send my child that focuses on constructive-​, project-​, contextual-​based learning. The teachers aren’t just reading from a lecture book or having the kids sit in rows while they complete worksheet problems. That’s too abstract for our little ones!
My child comes home every day, excited about all the activities and experiences the school offered.
This is not a traditional school by any means, and I am thrilled about that! This is not the kind of school you dread going to and then make fun of for the rest of your life. This is the real deal. It’s so nice to find a place like this without having to pay private school tuition. My child is learning to love school and I fully expect that to continue.
Kudos to all the staff and teachers at Sparow!!! You guys ROCK!

My son has enjoyed his first year of Kinder at Sparrow and is about to graduate to first grade. We had a rocky start to the school year and I found the teachers, staff and administration to be open, honest, communicative, and completely willing to do what needed to be done to help my child succeed and feel good about himself.
When I originally began shopping for the right school for my son (and in the future, my daughter) we toured many different traditional public schools, charter schools, and home school/​charter combos. I feel that Sparrow provides the perfect balance of child centered, project based learning through hands on exploration. There is art, music, Spanish, yoga, cooking, earth sciences through gardening, life skills along with the usual language, math, history, etc. curriculum. And the children are engaged, encouraged and excited to learn.
The community of parents, staff, teachers and administrators, is warm and welcoming. I feel as if we’ve joined a family, not an institution.
We are excited about the new La Mesa location, which is beautiful, bright and has room for the school to grow. I highly recommend Sparrow.

We are now in our second year at Sparrow. We are one of the First Families at Sparrow and my 1^st grader still loves to go to school. To me this is one of the most important parts of education — loving school and learning. He has grown so much in the Waldorf curriculum which seems to work so well for him. Our new site has much promise and room to grow. I’m looking forward to being part of the activities in our 2^nd grade classroom. We have developed an awesome community and I am excited about the possibilities in our new environment. Come join this great group of people.

NUA Sparrow is a wonderful school. My son attended 2 years of kindergarten and he loved it. The staff, the families, the kids are one big community that support and embrace the philosophies of Waldorf. My son will be attending 1^st grade in the fall and we are grateful for the quality of education he will get in a free charter school.

We started with Sparrow in 2012 and love it! When our daughter was in Kindergarten, we had our concerns about Waldorf curriculum and it not being «academic» enough, or «constructivist» enough. Now that we’ve finished 1^st grade, I am sold! It is very academic, but it just doesn’t feel like it. Everything is purposeful, from the morning verses, to the way they teach music, to incorporating handworks and gardening and performing plays. The first time you meet with your 1^st grade teacher and see the beautiful text books that the children, themselves, are creating, you will be sold, too.
With that said, parents should be sure to look into it and make sure they are on board with this approach. Not every child takes as well to it as my child did (she is positively thriving).
The community of parents at this school is such a wonderful thing. I feel like we are family. Everyone is supportive and kind. This is not only a great thing to enjoy, it’s also a great example to set for the kids. We have festivals and fundraisers that are fun and great community builders.
The school is growing one grade at a time, and will be K-​5^th as of the Fall 2014 school year. It will continue to grow into K-​8^th, and possibly even K-​12^th. As with any school that is growing, there are hiccups along the path that will leave you worried about its success. Every time that’s happened, so far, I have seen it all work out for the best.
The school puts a focus on environment and nutrition. They are very diligent about food allergies. As for the «no media on school days» request by the school, they assure us this is only a request. I was apprehensive about this, but it was a great incentive for me to try it and, lo and behold, it was so easy. Now my daughter paints, builds, explores, knits, plays board games, sings and reads while she’s home, and helps me make dinner. I wish I’d done this long ago! Much easier than I expected to let this go. And we still get the weekends to enjoy some media, though we limit that now, too, as we see how unnecessary it’s been.
This school will amaze you, but definitely tour it and maybe even tour the Waldorf San Diego to get a better feel of Waldorf in general to make sure it’s right for you. Also check out:

We decided to send our kindergartener to a magnet school specializing in Spanish immersion. After volunteering to see what really went on at the school, it was clear that it was not the place for children to feel cared for. And, our son hated going to school every day which was not the case for preschool. Luckily, we were introduced to the Sparrow program and quickly changed schools. The response from our son has been amazing. He enjoys school, the other kids and especially his teacher. The things that he is learning are not even possible at the traditional school he was in. This is a school that devotes its energies to the whole child, all day, every day. If my child is going to be away from home for 5 – 6 hours, five days a week, I want him to feel cared for, excited to learn about new things, and be around kids who are not in a competitive environment. Sparrow encompasses this and so much more.

As a public school teacher and an educational consultant, I have dedicated my professional life, plus a lot more, to the study of teaching and learning. Accordingly, sending my kids to our local school – where I could be almost absolutely certain their individual needs and interests would be ignored in favor of relentless drill of tested skills – was not an option. In a sea of non-​choices Sparrow School, and my son’s Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Kari, have offered my a huge educational gift: peace of mind. Ms. Kari marshals both a saint’s patience and remarkable intuition as she seamlessly inspires and nudges the children along an amazing trajectory of imagination, responsibility and autonomy.
I am so grateful to Ms. Kari – and the entire Sparrow staff – for their tireless, principled and generous efforts on behalf of our children; what a difference it makes in their young lives!

I feel lucky that after a horrible experience at a «traditional» school I found Sparrow. My kindergartner now loves going to school every day. She learns a variety of subjects that have helped her flourish in every aspect (physically, emotionally, socially, intellectually and academically). Her teacher is attentive, loving and respectful to all her students. There is always a calmness in her and the classroom, her passion and love for the children is felt every morning at drop off and every afternoon at pick up time.
The community at Sparrow is inviting and friendly. The staff is passionate and caring about the school, the students and the families. I am grateful I found Sparrow and I am excited and proud to be part of this community and am thrilled to watch my daughters education continue to exceed my expectations at Sparrow.

My daughter is in the Kindergarten class at NUA Sparrow after we moved her from our local school which was a living, fire-​breathing nightmare (Marvin Elementary).
I am very pleased with not only her environment (great classroom which is charming and embodies a vibe for learning/​exploring), but also her teacher who is thoughtful, patient and exudes confidence when working with 20 some five year olds. Ms Kari just gets it and my daughter is reaping the rewards of her training and knowledge.
There’s an expression that I hear alot lately and it’s «Happy wife, happy life»…I really understand that now with one of my kids in a solid empowering school as our family has been in a place that’s quite the opposite within the SD Unified juggernaut.
I feel plain lucky to have found Sparrow and these people who surround my daughter everyday helping her grow in mind, body and spirit. This place is a winner and I look forward to getting my second child into their program.

We waited a long time to have our son attend this school and so far its been a major let down. Our son went to the SDSU Children Center and learned everything that they are teaching him now in Kindergarten. Our son is so bored that he is ahead of the curve but yet his teacher will not give him anything to challenge his mind. All we ever hear from her is all the bad things he has done for the day, but never the good things. Plus I do not believe she has any child and family development background.
Since my son been at the school, he has been punched a few times with no/​minimal supervision and when he does something back he gets full blame. Its pretty funny how a 5 year old has become a bad guy in front of his classmates to the point where no one in his class will want to play with him. Kinda sad if you ask me.
The school has promise a music program but I have yet to see this music program come to life. They apparently cannot find a teacher to teach the kids music. And speaking of things lacking about the school. Where are the behavior specialist, nurse, or principal where the kids can go when they are having issues? I highly doubt the teachers have enough skills to understand the kids feelings to begin with.
Overall if your kid has any prior child development education, you may want to find a more suitable school for him/​her. Because our son is emotionally and socially delayed that I believe there is no one there that is qualified to help him. Our son is shy and soft spoken and by the time he wants to explain his action, the damage has been done and the blame is solely on him.
If you want to read what the school was before, go here

Our family feels so blessed to have found Sparrow and be in the classroom with Miss ALexandra! There is an amazing sense of community at school. The children are happy and such a pleasure to be around. Along with they curriculum they are learning knitting, working with beeswax, having music and yoga. We are very proud to be apart of the growth of this school.

I am so excited to find Sparrow school for my second grader! It is amazing to see my son wake up every morning excited to go to school. He is learning to be so aware of the world around him. He tells me every week how much he loves his school. The teachers are amazing and the kids are learning more than I could have ever hoped for. They are learning about music and art and gardening and how to be a kind respectable human being. I could not ask for anything more! I feel so luck to have found this school!!!

My husband and I feel so lucky to have found Sparrow. It is everything we could have asked for in a school for our children (one in Kindergarten now and the other registered for Kindergarten in 2016). Are you looking for a school where your child learns compassion and respect for others? This is it. A school where the teachers integrate art and music into everyday learning? This is it. A school where the parents care as much as you do? This is it.
As for the Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Kari… oh, where do I start? My daughter looks up to her so much, and she is just so loving and caring. She puts her heart into every day with my daughter, and I feel good knowing that my daughter is in her care for almost 6 hours a day. We have always been kind, loving parents… we practice attachment parenting and do as much positive discipline as possible. Ms. Kari expands on these principles, and in turn our daughter has become even more loving and respectful. I can’t say enough good things about Ms. Kari.
Sparrow is a free, public charter school and a great alternative to the Waldorf School with its high price tag. You can’t go wrong with Sparrow. If only every public school were like this!

When your child spends equally as much time in a classroom as he does with you everyday, you need to know that they are in a safe loving environment. Sparrow is that and so much more.
These kids, while learning academics, are also learning how to love one another, respect and compliment each other every single day. At Sparrow you don’t see kids fighting, making fun of each other or being disrespectful. You see rooms filled with hero’s, mentors and support systems. These kids are so proud of each other, when you see it, you actually see a possibility of a different kind of future for the way people treat each other on this planet.
These kids aren’t learning how to blaze their way to the top, with no regard to whom they crush on their way up. They are lifting each other, step by step, so that they can all share the experience of reaching the top — together.

This is a great learning institution with a teaching philosophy that allows children to develop and learn naturally, instead of according to a «state standard». There is very strong parental support and involvement along with a committed teaching staff.

This school is unlike any other learning experience your child could get anywhere else. A handful of the best types of learning and teaching techniques are all pulled together to give our children the greatest learning experience they could ever get.
I have a 1^st and 2^nd grader at this school and I’m blown away with what they have learned over the last couple months. The teachers are absolutely fabulous and you can easily see how much they really enjoy their jobs and love being with your kids.
Currently the school is only K-​3 but the school will be expanding by 1 or 2 grades each year. The ultimate goal of the school is to go all the way through the high school level!
Very wonderful and welcoming parents as well to make you feel welcomed.