Peoria Academy - Peoria, Illinois

Anna G.

Really, really great school. We moved to the Peoria area temporarily for a job assignment, and we knew we did not want our child in the district 150 school system. It is just not rated well at all. We found Peoria Academy through a google search and immediately reached out. They gave us a virtual tour and we immediately loved what we saw. Beautiful building, huge backyard area for the kids with playground, garden beds, soooo much space to run and play, art/music/gym/Spanish classes for all students and more. We kept in contact for a few months until we arrived to the area and visited in person and met our child’s teacher. We enrolled that day. You may be thinking that tuition is high but you are absolutely getting what you pay for. We were never the private school type or thought about spending money for school since public school is free- but our minds are changed. This school is just amazing! The small class sizes ensure your child is getting all of the individual help they need. Each teacher/staff member at the school knows each child, truly! It is like one little community there.

They host fun, family events like a big Halloween party so the kids can trick or treat in the lot, multi cultural night, the art show showcasing everything the kids made in art class, going to see Peoria Chiefs game, etc. They have concerts and plays that the students participate in and also offer great classes your kid can take after school such as baking, Spanish tutoring, dance, all sorts of music classes too. They put together bike riding classes, ice skating with the community, family hikes! They would host sno cone or ice cream trucks, they would have people from the community come in to teach the kids such as some wildlife rehabilitation sites, service work dogs, magicians, etc! They offer after school program and spring/summer camps too. Truly there is always something going on and they always ask for parent involvement. From being mystery readers, to helping with events going on.
My daughter needed speech therapy and the kindergarten teacher has a great contact for speech right down the street from the school. The speech therapist can even come in to the school and give speech there. She is amazing!!

The school lunch is locally catered and offer really healthy school lunches! The families here are also just amazing. Everyone is so kind. Like I mentioned, it is like one little community here where everyone knows everyone.

The teachers work really hard to prepare your child for the next grade. We had Mrs Rankin for Kindergarten and she is phenomenal. She communicates very well with us and really impressed us with her teaching. We came into the school one morning to drop something off and her class of 6 years old were so quiet, behaved, facing forward at their desks, doing their letter work. You could hear a pin drop in that class. Mrs Rankin has her class in check! Our child loves her greatly and we were so impressed with how much our child advanced in her class in such a short period of time. She went into kindergarten not reading or writing and now she is excelling at both, reading beyond first grade level. Most importantly, we heard from families in the community about how great the school and teachers are from our pediatrics office we use to church members at our church.

We would 100% keep our child here if we weren’t moving but also enroll our younger child into their preschool program. This school is one thing we will definitely miss about living in Peoria. If there is a spot for your child there- take it!!

Tamara K.

Jeremy W.

Carlton B.

LizandChandler W.