Bentley School Hiller

I am a little biased. I only spent three years here. But I even remember my teachers' names. Mr. Meadows for Kindergarten, Class A. Mrs. Barnhart for 1st Grade, Class A. Mrs. Klitza for 2nd Grade, I forget which Class I was in. I have fond memories of sitting on the stone walls with my best little friend and pulling the aloe, breaking it, and watching the clear goo ooze out of its veins, sharing a red delicious apple, pulling string cheese and wrapping it around all of our fingers. We often broke into the locked art closet to steal cat's eyes (plastic ones), climbed into the fenced garden to pick mint leaves, climbed over the stone walls to trespass into the neighbor's manicured back lawn, played hide and seek around the portable class rooms and permanently locked swimming pool. I collected dead bees and live caterpillars from all over the playground and showed my teachers. Both of my parents worked long hours, so I had daycare and afterschool extracurricular classes: stamp-making, ceramics, and book-making. I swung on the jungle gym bars, doing cherry drops - once I fell flat on my chest, which knocked the breath out of me, and for the first time in my young but conscious life, I realized I was mortal. I have almost endless memories of the part of my childhood that occurred here. Even at the beginning of summer, at the end of my 2nd grade school year, when I knew I wouldn't be coming back the next year because we were moving, I sat by the yard looking out over the playground with my hand-writing and math papers, and some craft I had made in art class, warmed by the sun, and feeling infinite (yes, children especially feel infinite), I cherished my time here. Education (one word for such a great thing?), good teachers (and good meaning sees to the children in their intellectual, emotional and spiritual development in school), good parenting, are the most important part of a child's life in their young years. A nurturing, creative environment it was, with fun, fair and disciplining hands to keep the mischievous ones in check.

While bullying from other students is always a concern, Bentley School has the unique problem of having one of its teachers bully her students. Over the course of the year (school events, play dates, birthday parties), without prompting, classmate after classmate informed us that our child's teacher constantly put down our child and those other students who were not favored by her. Weekly, often daily, she would demean and certain students in front of the class. And yet while fellow students saw the problem, and the matter was brought to the school's attention, the school administration did nothing. Enabling bad people is what bad schools do. This is a bad school.

Fabulous, well rounded school. High academic standards, great social emotional support, incredible teachers and administration. Lots of extracurriculars to get involved with. We are very happy and grateful to have 2 kids here (who joined from OUSD)

Bentley school is a great place for you. There is a Iot of diversity and has many great teachers and sports. The 3rd grade teachers are very nice and supportive towards students based off my experience as a student. They also have great teaching. The campus has many things to do. After school they have classes you can take like robotics, French, drama, and lots more.

If you care about the emotional and physical safety of your children, please consider another school. Our kids attended Bentley lower school for many years and the school is no longer what it once was. At first, we thought we were alone with the problems we experienced. But then we started to talk with other parents and realized not only were we not alone, but the problems are systematic, as other parents raised the same concerns about the same administrators and teachers. Especially awful is the division director, Jacquie Escher. She is arrogant, uncaring, and not very bright - everything you do not want for your child. Ultimately, we asked ourselves this question: how do we continue to allow this person to have power over our children. And the answer was, we could no longer continue to allow it and left the school, because that is our power as parents. Further, it seems the longer a teacher remains at this school, the meaner and more condescending to the students they become, i.e, a teacher like Ms. Visser. During our last year of school there, literally everyday felt like we were sending our children into the lion's den. We write this review in the hope that you as a parent do not need to do the same.

Bentley has a severe bullying problem with their middle school girls. Our daughter attended 6th grade for 2 months this year before decided to remove her from the school. Examples of things that were going on with our daughter: girls would write "ugly" on pictures of her and paste them on lockers, they would throw out the items in her backpack onto the bathroom floor and step on them, call her racial slurs, exclude her from sitting with them and worst of all, one girl even threatened her with a pocket knife telling her to "watch out"! We reported all of this to the school and they did NOTHING! They simply referred students to the handbook policies in an assembly weeks later. There is a very sick culture with the administration there (apparently it trickles down from the head of the school) where they turn their back to any complaints and don't take things seriously. We unfortunately found 3 other separate families - I personally spoke to moms or dads on the phone - who also left the school due to intense bullying. Sadly, there seems to be a pattern of this behavior towards children of color. So sickening and infuriating. When I asked Bentley's administration about this, they said they had no idea what we were referring to and said they weren't sure who had left due to bullying. Lastly, I want to point out that all school review sites are moderated. This is why you won't see bad reviews on other platforms. We were initially impressed with the school's reviews on these message boards but now realize it was a false portrayal of the school and negative messages get removed. If you scroll on yelp (who does not remove poor reviews) you'll see more stories like mine.

The teachers are great at Bentley school, but Advisory is the worst thing ever that can happen to a kid.

The former principal, Beth Crowley, was fantastic with families. The teachers, kids, and families here are all excellent. Great people all around. The new principal seems to have no experience with children or actual real-world background. Sad. This school was better before.

I went to Bentley for 13 years and got a great education. The school's community is strong and vibrant, and I'm honored to have come back and serve as a Trustee of the school.

My son has thrived at Bentley. He is a sensitive kid who needs to feel safe to actually make efforts academically. Prior to going to Bentley, my son struggled with frequent stomachaches and spent many days home from school. After starting at Bentley, his symptoms "disappeared". He now LOVES going to school and has blossomed in ways we didn't think possible. They really focus on individualizing the program to meet the needs of each child, which is possible with small class sizes and having 2 teachers per class. The teachers work tirelessly, and are continually looking for ways to make learning interesting and accessible. The dedication, curiosity and genuine interest in each child are what really set these teachers apart.

This school has been terrific! Our son is very bright but not very socially oriented and has been singled out for bullying in the past. Previous schools weren't able to adequately monitor the learning environment. Bentley is amazing! It is very intimate, more so than even St. Paul's. The Oakland campus is like a rambling old house in Virginia or somewhere else out East. The teacher's have been very responsive to any concerns that we have had. We are constantly getting emails etc., regarding his work. I need more thumbs to rate it adequately!

For us, it is the Gold standard of Education. I believe students, faculties, and parents working together is the perfect formula for success. College Counselor was able to calm the nerves of a panic freshman to thriving Sophmore who is independent and confident. Bentley practices empathy and patience. It isn't perfect but pretty close!

This school has exceeded our expectations. My daughter started kindergarten and from the first week she was happy and wanted to stay at school. The after school programs are fun and your kid can stay until 5-6 for free. Other programs are extra$. The academics have been great. I'm not sure what a kindergartner needs to know/learn but she reads and writes ( spelling and handwriting need work) she adds and subtracts to 10 and knows decimal points can read a clock and counts to 100+. The school community is pretty good too. The parents have PHDs, MDs, JDs and DDSs and small and big business owners , working parents, etc black white and Asians middle eastern , Latino and mixture of above ( I hope I don't come across as insensitive but a good mix). Some are competitive and you can tell they have planned their kids path all the way to Ivy League but most parents are chilled but value good education for their kids which no public school in the area ( including Lamorinda public schools) can match. Overall we are confident our kids ( we have a younger one that hopefully will attend Bentely if we are still in the area) will get an excellent education. The school also does a good job with all other aspects of education too. Arts and PE are her favorites, and their school play and their Christmas and Spring concerts brings tears of joy on all the first time parents. I don't understand people that bad mouth the school but parents react when their children are criticized in all sorts of ways. But it maybe true that Bentley may not be right for all. They try to assess you and your child to make sure it's a good fit but the assessment is done when the kids are 4.5 and many things change by the time they start kindergarten. They do have homework every week but at the end of the school year when you see their body of work and their progression , it's cute. The physical facility is 3-4 acres and may seem small but kids this age don't need a lot of space.

If I could give 0 star, I would have given 0 star to rate this school! Maybe decades ago, this was a good school but not anymore! High turn over of teachers, very unprofessional & uneducated staff. Most students have private tutors to be able to catch up with their academics. There is no effort in social emotional development of kids. Kids get locked up in the classrooms and miss their recess and playground time for discipline. You pay over 30,000 in tuition fees but not sure what you get back. The school constantly asking for more money and donations. We moved out our kid from this school, can't believe how much time and money we wasted in this school.

Bentley was transformational for my son academically, socially, and on the playing fields and courts. A culture if inclusiveness and mutual respect where everyone had his back , combined with taking risks without being judged,allowed him to succeed in college and now in the private sector. I credit the school for helping him unlock his potential and being the man he is today

When putting together a list of independent schools to look at, Bentley was near the bottom of my list. Some people had said that it has a reputation as an expensive school for out of touch wealthy families and their children. When we visited, and after ultimately sending our child there, we realized that those preconceptions were way off base. The school is expensive, and they do still ask for more donations, but they are not as aggressive as another school which I won't name. Also, they ask for your time and participation more than anything else. As for diversity, there is not a great deal of economy diversity, but in all other respects there is. I've been very impressed with the staff and their attentive nature. I understand that as a privately funded school, they need to be nice to keep parents happy and the school funded. However, the teachers and staff that we have interacted with so far seem to genuinely want to be there and enjoy their jobs. At this moment, I'm very pleased with our experience.

Very bad school! The academics are below average, the staff are very unprofessional, the environment is so unfriendly. You will be constantly asked for money via phone calls, emails on weekly basis, which feels like being harassed. We moved our kid from there, and we are so happy of our decision. Our kid is so happy in the new school and he has transformed to a vibrant and happy kid who loves going to school, whereas Bentley was a nightmare for him and us. We know several other parents who moved out their kids from Bentley. Bentley had a shortage of enrollment this year and they could not fill their classes. We do believe that many public schools are much better than this school. Just watch out and do your research, wish we had done that and had'nt wasted our time and money. And be aware that Berkeley parent network doesnt allow to post any negative reviews on Bentley, so comments you see there are not fair balanced ones.

I've had three kids at good old Bentley, starting in kindergarten and moving on to the high school, and I can't recommend it highly enough. The teachers, the administrators, the kids, the parents--it's a healthy, compassionate, tight-knit community, and one I'm proud my family has been a part of. My children developed a love of learning, a group of great friends, and the ability to work hard and effectively at their school work. Bentley supports a wide range of learning styles, and is sensitive to individual children's needs, something I've seen first hand. It's a fun atmosphere, but one that takes education and achievement seriously. I know that my children will never forget and always appreciate their years at 1 Hiller Drive.

Sadly my 8 year old was bullied by two other girls at Bentley School. There were several incidents and the school took a 'we're monitoring' approach, which in reality meant not much happened other than continued bullying. In the end, we moved her to another school (she's doing so well, including an improvement in her academics). After realizing we made the transfer, we received an email from the school management implicating my daughter as having a part in the incidents. I'm sorry, but when someone is pulling your chair from beneath you, or you leave gym class and one of your shoes is hidden in a bush, etc., etc., it's so disappointing to think I left my daughter under this mentality. My wife and I think it's because we paid for the full school year and they were covering themselves thinking we may try and seek reimbursement. We never asked for a cent (with over 8 months left in the school year). We're just so thrilled our daughter is thriving in a healthy setting where the school has zero tolerance on bullying. It's beautiful to see children supporting each other rather than seeking to isolate and persecute.