Global Village Academy - Thornton, Colorado

M S.

My kids went to school here for 3 years. The first 2 years they had great teachers, all of them quit and are no longer there. My son was mistreated by his 3rd grade teacher, he would come home crying not wanting to go to school. We couldn't understand why until one day after school he was sobbing and we finally got the truth out of him. We emailed/called, notify the principal and nothing was done. The principal was not interested in hearing our experience. We transferred both of our kids to a new school and thankfully they have a wonderful teacher now.

Danielle G.

Don't send your kid here. My son hated school and begged not to go back. We thought he was just being overly dramatic, we should have listened.
My son went here for half a year of kindergarten. I loved the idea of him learning Mandarin and he loved learning it as well. However his English teacher wasn't sure how to handle a smart kid who is bored. The first week of school was learning how to hold a book, second was how to turn the pages, it was ridiculous. However he was running around the house singing in Mandarin, so we stayed. Over the next couple of months he began to act out (he's a stubborn kid) and the schools solution was to hyper focus on him and his behavior and not coach his English teacher on how to handle the situation. My husband and I had several meetings with the staff to try to figure out what was going on. We advised, multiple times, that he did not act out like they were seeing any other place but in his morning English class. He didn't even do it in his afternoon Mandarin class. I feel like they didn't believe us or take us seriously and continued to hyper focus on him.
During this time my son became aggressive, including hitting and biting other children. He had never hit anyone before. He never even bit as a baby. This was not normal behavior for him. The school's solution was to have a dedicated person to support just him, yet we would still get reports how he had hurt someone else. I'm still trying to figure out how he could even GET to any of the other kids if he had an adult that was with him all the time. To be clear, I am just as mad that they created a delinquent out of my 5 year old as I am that they failed to protect the kids he was hitting or biting. So they didn't just fail my son but the other kids in the class.

During the course of his 3.5 month at Global Village Northglenn my son went from sweet, smart, and stubborn to aggressive, depressed, and subdued. Anyone who knows him knows that subdued is NOT a word that describes him. Just to cover all the bases we even had him tested for ADHD to see if that was the problem. The results were inconclusive but based on information from us and from the school her working theory is that bad classroom management was the problem. We, thankfully, have him at another school and he is almost back to his happy, bubbly self. But we will be dealing with the consequences of their ineptitude for years as they managed to teach him how to be sneaky, that any attention (good or bad) is attention, and that any mistake at all will be hyper criticized so better not to try at all for fear of failing.

I can not recommend this school.

Rebecca R.

We had an increasingly BAD experience here. I thank God everyday that I took my child out. He is now thriving again.
I registered in May they still didn't have the paperwork or assign him a morning classroom for August.
My son was learning his language as soon as I knew he would be attending this school. My son is exceptionally smart and they could NOT see it. (Classified as gifted, skipped a year -may skip again) @GVA however his teacher flippantly told me they were discussing holding him back on day TWO!
I was told by his teacher they don't start Any kind actual schoolwork for about three weeks!!!

Not all language teachers are Bilingual, they struggle to speak to me yet expect the students to have prior knowledge and fluency.
Started language tutoring afterschool as a way to Charge and Blame parents for students being behind. The language issue is an epidemic. They need a new structure.
There is obligatory volunteering for the parents. Seem to have no records, and favoritism to volunteering so they can Charge at the end o f the year.
My son was NOT given bandages and was left bloody for the remainder of the day.
My son was "falling asleep" at school so his teacher had the bright idea to kick him out into the hallway. Where he fell asleep, "again" so she sent him to the "nurse." He called with accusatory questions, asking me when and what I feed my kid when I put him to bed. Told me we are going to start a "file." I pulled my kid out immediately. Took him home and quickly discovered a 101.4 fever🤒! They never bothered to check!!! My husband requested a meeting with the principal and was denied. They spoke over the phone where she backed up or denied All prior incidents and didn't apologize. Then tried to insinuate we couldn't remove our son until we have our kid registered elsewhere. We already did😎
Please do yourself and your children a favor and don't put kids through unnecessary hell. My son brought up another incident that happened there. We're still horrified at the quality and lack of care this Institution. There is so much wrong with this school! He was only there for about a week!!!!!🤤😖👹☠💩

Kyle F.

If you do not speak or plan to learn your child's elective language then you should not send them here. My son went to gva for six years and learned hardly any spanish. We speak english at home and I know very little spanish so my son was quickly left behind. He even had teachers two years in a row that did not speak english. At all. And a few more that barely did. My son also has a learning disability so it felt like many of his teachers labeled him a problem child and either gave up on him or just failed him. And I honestly feel like this school did more harm for my child than good. It's not completely the school's fault but they didn't do much to help.

Jennifer T.

Our 3rd grader has been at the school since kinder and we love it! I love that he is learning Spanish and the staff has all been great. Ms. Caldwell is an amazing Principal who really listens to the parents. We absolutely love this school!

Vivi V.

If I could give this school 10 stars I would! My son has attended this school since first grade and he is now going on 8th. He can speak, write, and read Spanish perfectly! He has been invited to go to Washington, New York and Spain. All his teacher through out all these years have been great!! I am a proud GVA PARENT!!

Haylie R.

It's not the best and in the cafeteria if you're nearly at the end of the lunch line when you get your food you only get about 2 things to eat and a water sometimes milk. The teachers that are supposed to watch the kids during recesses aren't doing their job because they are playing with some kids and don't usually pay attention other kids how can get really hurt my teacher tried to talk about the situation with the principle and completely ignored her. Another thing about the lunch they would make big budget cuts such as serving just pieces of chicken and would usually not be enough to fill for the rest of the day and reusing plastic plates that are really worn down, and for me extremely stress from the homework and makes me depressed with it. And if teachers have their per student and you're not one of them it can bring more stress to your homework , some kids have tried to take their lives her last year one of my friends brother tried to. Finally there is some serious bullying issues there in my class 4 girls are talking behind my back and a few other ones as Well if it would be me I would not put my child here. But the only okay thing here is you're learning another language....GOODBYE

Nadiya G.

Applied for GVA in November, did not hear anything after the first lottery drawing, no phone call, no email. I had to call and I was told, don't worry your child will get it.....what in the world does it mean? Waited till middle of March, hopping to get some kind of notification from the second waive when schools are reaching out to the students on the wait list, still did not hear anything. This is very disorganized place. Actually when we went to visit we were not impressed with very massy class rooms and the whole process was disorganized. The gal who showed us the school did not speak a good English and kept apologizing, since we could not understand her. I do understand it is a bikangual school, but I do need to know some info about it before I enroll my child. They even forgot that parents were coming to view the school....