Neighbourhoods for young families, private schools and local forums? (Phoenix: neighborhoods, to buy)

[Tintin1983]

I'm trying to get a sense of which specific areas would be best for us to look at, bearing in mind we have 3 young kids (aged 1, 3 and 6).

I'd like to focus on Scottsdale but have heard that certain areas have an older population and not many kids around.

Can anyone help me narrow things down please?

Also, does anyone have experience of the private schools in this area (for pre-k and elementary specifically). I did an online search and a lot of them seem to be religious (which we're not). Would there be a strong religious element to the teaching?

Thirdly, are there any local forums I could join? Here in NJ, I'm a member of a Facebook group where you can ask almost anything and lots of people help out with info.

Thanks v much in advance!

[Mrs.Nurse]

Keeping an eye on this thread. We're moving to Phoenix this Summer and researching schools has become exhausting. Our son will be in the 3rd grade next year. We've called Summit School (which is private) about taking a tour today. I too was a surprised at the number of religious private schools.

[azriverfan.]

This is a good forum and you can ask anything here

In terms of private schools, the best non-religious ones are Phoenix Country Day and the Rancho Solano schools. Phoenix Country Day is expensive and the tuition is over 20,000 per year and it's very selective so you have to apply get acceptance. It is located in Paradise Valley. Rancho Solano is cheaper and has many locations throughout the Valley. It's also an excellent private school. There are others. In Chandler, there is New Vistas which is a great private school for elementary students. There is also Summit in Ahwautukee. There are non-religious private schools all over the Valley particularly for elementary students so you can pretty much live in anywhere in the Valley and find a good one.

[Mrs.Nurse]

Originally Posted by azriverfan.

This is a good forum and you can ask anything here

In terms of private schools, the best non-religious ones are Phoenix Country Day and the Rancho Solano schools. Phoenix Country Day is expensive and the tuition is over 20,000 per year and it's very selective so you have to apply get acceptance. It is located in Paradise Valley. Rancho Solano is cheaper and has many locations throughout the Valley. It's also an excellent private school. There are others. In Chandler, there is New Vistas which is a great private school for elementary students.

I'll look into Rancho Solano. We're thinking of moving to Awahtukee.

[Tintin1983]

Originally Posted by azriverfan.

This is a good forum and you can ask anything here

In terms of private schools, the best non-religious ones are Phoenix Country Day and the Rancho Solano schools. Phoenix Country Day is expensive and the tuition is over 20,000 per year and it's very selective so you have to apply get acceptance. It is located in Paradise Valley. Rancho Solano is cheaper and has many locations throughout the Valley. It's also an excellent private school. There are others. In Chandler, there is New Vistas which is a great private school for elementary students. There is also Summit in Ahwautukee. There are non-religious private schools all over the Valley particularly for elementary students so you can pretty much live in anywhere in the Valley and find a good one.

Thank you, that's really helpful info about the schools. I'll take a look at their websites.

[JTW2013]

The number of religious private schools here is not unusual. Most private schools in the US are religious. What is unusual here, at least compared to the East Coast, is how few private schools there are.

I wouldn't turn up your nose at a private school simply because it's religious. Religious private schools are usually cheaper than non-religious schools. For example, New Vistas is about $10K and right down the street, the Catholic parochial school is $5K for members and $8K for non-members (roughly).

Some religious schools are more religious than others. You won't know their 'tone' without visiting them and talking to families with kids in the school.

If you are hostile to religion then you should probably avoid a religious school completely. But I think an agnostic family would do fine at many religious schools.

There are many local FB groups however sometimes you are required to live in the area in order to join. I recommend searching on FB for neighborhood groups. A FB group would be a better place than this forum to ask about schools. The group here is pretty small and I don't think that many of them have young children now. In contrast, my local FB group is mostly SAHMs who are a wealth of information about schools.

[Banjo71]

I would look into the McDowell Mountain Ranch neighborhoods in Scottsdale. Very family friendly. We used to live there. Kids everywhere, including at the community pools. Beautiful area.

As far as schools go, you might want to check out the Great Hearts Academies and BASIS Schools, as non-religious charter alternatives to public school education without the private school price tags.

[Mrs.Nurse]

I'm seriously considering a religious private school, the low costs are very appealing. The max we want to pay out of pocket is $1200/month, I believe Summit is around that price. We're coming to test at Summit, hopefully we'll be able to tour some of the private religious schools as well.

[JTW2013]

You can't count on Basis and Great Hearts. Supposedly, there were about 11K kids on the waitlist for Great Heart schools last year. Your best chance of getting in is at K or if you're already on the waitlist and they open a new school in your area.

And I'd advise people not to buy into the hype of Great Hearts and Basis for elementary. I've met several parents who pulled their kids out of those schools because of excessive homework. Great Hearts calls itself "classical" but it's not. The philosophy of these schools is basically to overwork the kids and push them to weed out the low performers. Those schools are good choices for high school when children are old enough to decide for themselves that they want to be pushed academically but it's almost cruel to do it to little elementary kids, IMHO.

The excessive homework proves that they're not really like elite private schools which are run efficiently so young kids don't have to spend their evenings/weekends doing homework.

[kmcewen]

My kids go to Great Hearts and we LOVE it. I think the homework isn't excessive at all, but they do focus on the classic stories in education, have 2 teachers in every class and two specials, either arts or music, pe or spanish every day. It is hard to get into the schools though, but the charter and public schools around the valley are great also. I would check out greatschools.org for some reviews from parents.

Phoenix is a very big town, so as you get focused on the specific area you want, you'll get more specific opinions about the schools and neighborhoods.