Private Schools in Greenville - St. Joe's, Southside Christian, Prince of Peace? (house) - Greenville - Spartanburg area - South Carolina (SC) -Greenville - Spartanburg - Simpsonville - Greer - Easley - Taylors - Mauldin - Duncan - City-Data Forum

Pgh33 · 09-08-2015, 06:21 PM

Any experience with any of these? Trying to narrow our search for our 6th grade daughter.

kamban · 09-09-2015, 06:22 AM

Had experiences checking out these places 1.5-3 years ago

1. Southside Christian - the most fundamental of the Christian schools. Had application form that stated that one has to accept Jesus as savior and have a letter from the pastor. As a non christian did not meet the criteria. Not sure if they still have it as their criteria.

2. Prince of Peace - Catholics like it. Attached to a popular church. One of my colleagues has his 3 children in it and is happy.

3. St. Joseph's. Another catholic school. Segregated boys and girls classes. I think it is above average

4. Christchurch - the most expensive school. Episcopal. Some of colleagues children are in middle and high school portions of this school and like it.

5. Shannon Forrest : My wife liked their approach. I was not too impressed.

Pgh33 · 09-09-2015, 03:45 PM

Thank you very much! We visited all 3 that I had listed over the past two days and I have to say that we felt all 3 were solid schools and had different attributes that were appealing. Prince of Peace is very small but appears to be a very tight knit and inclusive community. St. Joe's is probably the most impressive from an academic standpoint. They really went out of their way to welcome our daughter. Southside is where my daughter is leaning towards. The academics are strong and the environment also seems very supportive like the others. Location is great for us as it is only 5 minutes from our home. They provided her with the opportunity to shadow a new student for half of a day which really was a great experience for her. I don't think we could go wrong with any of the 3.

HowardRoarke · 09-09-2015, 10:28 PM

Our kids are at St. Joseph's. We (and they), couldn't be happier.

Wolfgame · 09-13-2015, 01:04 PM

My kids go to Southside and are very happy there. We looked at Shannon Forest and Southside and chose Southside. My kids have gone there since they started school (10+ years).....heard a lot of kids left SF this year and transferred to other schools (many came to Southside). I think it had to do with a new principal...but I could be wrong. As far as academics go.....St. Joe's wins hands down.

vlorak · 10-06-2015, 10:38 AM

my kids are in 6 grade at POP. we had the option of going to st joes in 6 grade, but due to academics i decided to keep them at prince of peace. it's a blue ribbon school (if that matters to you). what matters to me is the academics and the families/kids they attend the school. it's small enough for me to know most everyone, and it's difficult enough for me to know we are getting our monies worth. feel free to contact me with any questions.

Jerzey Girl · 10-14-2015, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pgh33

Any experience with any of these? Trying to narrow our search for our 6th grade daughter.

My son attended Prince of Peace 3rd-8th grade. We were happy with the school academically but felt that the administration was too rigid. There are three teachers for middle school, all good teachers, but again, two of them are rigid, in my opinion. Small class size. One consideration if your daughter plays sports is that POP does not have any school sports.

My son now attends St. Joe's HS and absolutely loves it. He has amazing teachers, and there isn't anything that we aren't impressed with. There is a supportive atmosphere throughout the school, not just w/ teachers and administration but between the students. One of the school's themes is "Solidarity" and that sums it up. You'll find "out of the box" ideas: The kids have households rather than homerooms, a few students from each grade, 9-12, mixed. It forces all grades to interact and allows the older kids to mentor the younger ones. There's an outdoor "classroom", a magnolia tree w/ benches underneath where teachers can hold class outdoors. I could on and on. Small class size. Great academics and plenty of sports and club options.

If we had it to do over, we would have transferred my son in 6th grade and had him attend middle school at St. Joe's. POP is a good school. St. Joe's is better. I believe there's an open house coming up soon. Go take a look.