Allen Elementary School

Wonderful teachers. Our son is. Challenged in a positive way to bring out the best in him, while keeping a balance with fun and adventures :)

My babies first minimum security prison. Schools like this are exactly why the United States is 17th in educational performance and Texas is 43rd in the U.S. All they do is effectively create drones to throw out in a consumerist society. No true human potential will be nurtured here. Starting with kindergarten the children are in class 8 hours a day and get 30 minutes for a quiet lunch with assigned seats followed by 30 minutes of recess on a tiny playground. Similar to how prisoners are allowed an hour out in the yard. The attendance policies are very harsh and in the first speech the vice principal made to the parents she warned everyone she's not afraid to get the courts involved. Parents aren't allowed in the school without a very specific reason, so drop off involves pulling around back and letting your kid go with various teachers who lead them to the gym so they can sit and wait for the bell. Pick up is waiting in a line that can potentially wrap around the school if you don't show up 40 minutes early and the various teachers then bring the child directly to your car, which can take forever and just feels like a good way to let teachers avoid face to face contact with parents. When explaining pick up to people without kids they all say the same thing, feeling that it is similar to picking up someone who just got out of prison. The other 7 hours of school they sit in over crowded classrooms with 1 or 2 small windows and go through the same motions every day, with only 2 field trips a year to break the monotony.Schedules like this, and the inability for any freedom of exploration are why adults get depressed, why wouldn't this apply to children too? I give it 2 stars because it is a safe and clean environment with very nice teachers who will present facts and help my child to learn. But I stongly believe none of it will be effective. Don't be surprised if your child gets bored, has an excess amount of energy, or gets in trouble for day dreaming. While this place establishes rules and has educational material that is necessary for society to continue, they completely ignore the human spirit forcing the children into thinking within the box and to be robots. I hope you have a beautiful homelife and take your child to do many worldly activities because this place will deprive them of any true life experience and they will hate school by 3rd grade

We have had kids at this school since it opened! In fact, my middle child was the charter class who attended k-5 al the way through the 1st time at Allen. All 5 of us love Allen. It is a friendly place and all the staff and administrators and teachers are wonderful. Can't say enough good things.

Great school. I was a little frustrated with my daughter's kindergarten teacher but this year her 1st grade teacher is awesome. I come from a Texas public school and my mom taught at one for 35 years. Allen is top notch for a public school.