South Academy of International Languages

Positive experience: The teachers are very nice but to much work for the kids.Teaxhers say that they have sooo much work to grade but actually if they just gave them less work they wouldn't have to grade as much

Fantastic experience: Great school

Negative experience: As a student I feel that i should not have gotten in trouble for looking up steaks on my cromebook

Fantastic experience: Great public school!

Fantastic experience: Ya mi hija esta bien ahí

Fantastic experience: The best experience I've ever had. The school is excellent, the teachers are very attentive to the students' needs, and giving them the opportunity to learn different languages ​​opens up opportunities for them.

Negative experience: Academically this school is great. There are some GREAT teachers, some subpar teachers but the administration is the WORST to say the least. Understand your child will be retaliated against by adults , punished for the dumbest things, and labeled a trouble maker from isolated incidents. The teachers here only protect their own NOT the children. Complaints about teachers/staff go nowhere because they refuse to enforce standards and blame it on language barriers. I can’t count how many times a teacher told me false information then blamed it on a language barrier when in fact they just lied to cover their own errors. Most homework and assignments don’t come home graded so you will have to PRY to find out how your child is doing academically. Please don’t bother going through the proper channels when you/ your child NEED to be heard. Immediately escalate to the principal it’s the ONLY way you get a resolution. My child used to love school and now i have a child who feels unsupported by teachers , unheard by school staff , and frustrated with constant retaliation from adults. Just pay someone to teach your child another language or you’ll be paying for therapy down the line.

Negative experience: Educationally the school is OK unfortunately classes rely far too much on computers, which is an issue with today’s kids, especially when they are also addicted to them. But the main reason I give the school one star is because of the lack of action from administration when it comes to bullying. Both my kids have gone to the school and at one point or another have experienced bullying and it seems as though nothing is ever done. This includes a child telling my daughter that he had a gun at home and would bring it to the school and shoot her, A child choking my son during lunch till he passed out ( Teacher wrote it off as a boys being boys) Most recently a kid told my son that he should leave the school or kill himself for everybody’s sake and yet every time my son has done anything wrong (and by no means is my son perfect) he has received the harshest punishments available Including a 10 day suspension where he was told to use it as a time of reflection. In this instance, he was being bullied by three kids they would not stop and eventually, my son reacted and said something very stupid but of course nothing happens to the three kids who pushed him to that point. If I had known, this would be such a big issue at the school I would’ve bought a house Zoned to one of the better middle schools in Charlotte. Again, there have been some wonderful teachers at the school and they know who they are as I have told them but overall, I wouldn’t wish my son‘s experience at the school to anybody.

Negative experience: Run while you still can. I wouldnt wish this on my worst enemy.

Fantastic experience: We love this school Principle is amazing. We have wonderful teachers. The PTSO works so hard to make this school great. We feel so lucky to have the opportunity to have our children in chinese immersion. We appreciate the diversity and culture that our children get here.

Fantastic experience: Traveled all over and always around other cultures, languages and environments. This school surely endorses strong academics, cultures and languages. I can see the difference in the intellectuality of my child in a rising 2nd grader. The teachers are excellent and put much of themselves in what matters the most teaching the children. Being raised in different cultures, my child enjoyes to be in such environment as well.

Fantastic experience: Amazing what they do here.

Fantastic experience: I Love SAIL so much ❤️❤️

Negative experience: SAIL isn’t working on addressing the loss of instructional time and drops in student achievement due to the pandemic and in turn is failing the children who have been affected. I am highly disappointed.

Fantastic experience: Great school.

Negative experience: Unfortunately this school went way down under new leadership. Get a tutor, put them in immersive camps, but don't send your children here.

Fantastic experience: Good school, great administration

Fantastic experience: This school is the best! I'm going to 4th grade and I'm having great memories! I'm in the Chinese Program, but I might have to go to the school they're building in huntersville, where I live in 5th grade, so I won't see my friends that live in the south :c but I'll probably get new friends there!

Fantastic experience: The school has a good team.

Fantastic experience: This is a great and fun place to learn and grow up

Fantastic experience: Best school ever

Positive experience: A pretty solid school.

Fantastic experience: I love it

Negative experience: Several incidents not addressed and no responses. Extremely poor communication (principal, teachers and administration). Not focus on other dimensions of their students. Students are more than a number and academics.

Fantastic experience: Manny and William deliver my furniture and they provided awesome customer service and professionalism.

Negative experience: Lit teachers but lame students

Negative experience: My daughter is a rising 8th grader and has been a student here since Kindergarten. Elementary was great! I had no complaints about the teachers or academics. Middle school is a different story totally. My child even though all of her friends are here does not want to finish here. The new principle is awful! She and some of the assistant principles label kids when they've had some behavior issues. They expect the kids to be silent, drugged robots which is so unrealistic when a lot of adults can control themselves. They press the EC program if your child is not an angel, not because they actually belong in the EC program but because they act out as most kids do in middle school. They also get more money from the state for each child in the EC program. Most of the principles and administrative staff are very cold, harsh and impatient. The principle actually told my child that Waddell is not a good fit for her which is not something that should be told to a child. Furthermore, my child has attended the school 8 years opposed to her 2 years, seems like she's not a good fit being that most of the issues started 2 years ago. I loved the school and loved the stabililty it gave my child and I still absolutely love all of her Japanese teachers and regular teachers (all except the math teacher) although I had to spend $1,300 for my child to attend summer classes so she wouldnt be behind. Her spelling, reading and grammar weren't properly addressed in elementary so in middle school she was falling behind because she went from being completely immersed in Japanese K-5 and has Japanese only 2-3 times a week now with more traditional learning. If you dont work with your child at home they will be far far behind in everything except the foreign language which they can barely hold a conversation with anyone except the teacher because modern Japanese is being taught, not traditional. Again the principle is awful...cold, unapproachable and shows lots of favortism, she doesnt speak to parents or children as they walk in, very unprofessional despite whatever degrees or accolades she has and holds you have to be a compassionate human being, a special person to deal with middle school children and she is not it.

Fantastic experience: I like the school I'm at

Fantastic experience: Great school.

Fantastic experience: We have 4 kids ... 3 of them finished Waddell and one daughter is in 3rd grade. Without getting into details... this is the best program I have seen or heard of. Languages are the future of our global world. If they would ask us to pay for this excellent, top-notch education--- we would !! Two of the oldest graduated from HS (South Meck) and have a priceless advantage before they even have done any further education. Yes, this is the type of program America needs !

Fantastic experience: Absolutely love this school. Signing him up was the best choice I have ever made since having my son. Education is everything and where and how your child is being educated is very important. I love its diversity and definitely rank this school the best!

Fantastic experience: Both our daughters study at Waddell in the French and German programs and their language skills have grown tremendously Year over year. It is amazing how the children pick up these languages and become academically proficient in such a short time. Plenty of other extracurricular activities as well as a strong academic focus and good teachers make Waddell a gem of a school.

Fantastic experience: Pretty good, barley any Trump supporters so that's good!

Fantastic experience: My grandson had a great school year here

Negative experience: Very good in some ways, not so good in others. Formerly had a principal who got her ideas on how to run a school from the military. Excellent elementary school program; the foreign language aspect languishes in middle school, and middle school in general is not a good experience. I completely agree with what Christina Vogel stated below.

Positive experience: K-5th was an overall great experience. My 3 children became proficient, although never fluent, in the target language and they seem to be strong in math. The teachers are professional and educated and there is a lot of parental involvement. The teaching and student body is very diverse, which we loved. The one downside is that grammar is not formally taught in the lower grades in either language and I feel that this has left them behind in their writing abilities. Now the middle school is a different story. My oldest child went from loving school to hating school starting in 6th grade. The academics don't really stand out anymore and they only receive the target language every other day in one class. There have been cases of bullying that do not properly get resolved so students end up leaving instead. It's sad and we will be leaving the school soon too.

Fantastic experience: When you see your 4th grader speaking fluently in a foreign language without an accent, it speaks for itself.

Fantastic experience: Awesome school! Great teachers, great community and lots of diversity.

Positive experience: As an Elementary and as an Immersion program, this is a great school. As a middle school, not so much. Academics in 6th grade were weak and there was some bullying. I pulled my kid after 6th grade and he was far behind in math when he started 7th.