St Anne’s School

Great school! My Kids love it there. The school teachers, fellow parents and kids are like extended family. I love the values they instill and don’t believe they force the Catholic faith down your throats. It’s a strong community of parents and dedicated teachers I believe that helps make the school successful. The only downer is there’s isn’t a gym but they have an enormous school yard. Big plus is the many after school activities provided: homework club, Karate, Art, Band are just naming a few. If you believe the above mentioned are great qualities — St. Anne’s is a great choice for your child.

My son is graduating this year. Going to high school. I have always liked St. Anne. It has a family environment and AMAZING teachers. I think Mr. White, the school principal, has a great eye for teaching talent and very invested in school faculty and students in general. I have to admit that 7^th and 8^th grade I was a bit skeptical when in every newsletter I opened I saw 18 – 20 kids out of 30 on the honor roll. The other 12 are very close with solid GPA. My skepticism evaporated when all those kids got into Lowell/​SI/​SH with honors. Kids are so compassionate and supportive of each other, Catholics or not. Curriculum is up to par, however I would have given this school 6 stars if Computer Science curricular was stronger. I would love to see more keyboarding/​Excel/​Coding classes. Otherwise your kid will be in great hands.
Also take the opportunity to send you child to Spanish, Mandarin or Cantonese after school language program at a very reasonable price. Thank you St Anne! We are very sad to be leaving the school.

I’ve noticed that there hasn’t been a review of this school for a while, and just wanted to share our thoughts…
After being away in Asia in international school communities for the past 10 years, we returned to SF and began looking for an appropriate school for our two daughters, entering 3^rd and 5^th grade the past summer. First of all, we are not catholics, but wanted our daughters to continue with private school education. Went thru all the catholic schools in western SF (near sunset district) as well as other high powered private schools in SF, and ultimately decided on St Anne.
It was a good fit for our family, and we felt the school would continue to instill proper values in our children Although the hardware of the school is not much to talk about, we feel the education has been quite good, definitely at or above the levels of $ 30K+ private international schools in Asia. So trust me, it’s a super value. I liked the school’s principal and the values that he stood for. Academically, it’s challenging, but not overly tedious, and most importantly, allows kids to be kids at the proper ages.
One good thing to note is that they have two classes per grade, which we like (more people, more variety of experiences and backgrounds). And although we are not catholics, we never felt any discrimination nor being left out of the school’s community. It’s been a pleasant experience with everyone (teachers, parents, children, church), with just the right amount of school, church, and community activities. Therefore, overall, we have been very satisfied with our experience, and we strongly recommend this school for children Pre-​K thru 8^th grade. If you are considering, go and give the school a call. The principal, Mr White, has always been very accessible and will tell it like it is, which aligns with the values that we want to instill in our children.

I LOVE St. Anne’s School. I love the administration, the staff, the after school program, the PTA, the kids and even the priests at the church!
I pulled my son out of a different parochial school in Noe Valley where I went as a kid because the academic program was so poor and I never looked back.
When other parents were crowding the kindergarten, I went upstairs to see the work the upper grades were doing. As a high school teacher, I was impressed to see the quality of work on display.
The beauty of a private school is that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every new fangled idea out of Sacramento or Washington. They know what works. Their pedagogy is sound. We’re not talking scary nuns here. We’re talking caring people passionate about children! We’re talking kids who leave prepared to excell in Lowell, LIck, SI, SH, University. We’re talking kids who get extra supports without being made to feel like they are stupid. The standards are held high and the kids work to those standards.
I’m not a church going type of Catholic. Most of the families are NOT Catholic or maybe it’s ⁵⁰⁄₅₀. In my son’s class of 50 or so students, only eight made their First Communion. The rest of the kids participated as the choir. I fell away from the Church years ago, but I was never offended at the religious instruction my children received here. I come from the school of give the kid a religion and let them decide later on what to do about religion. My kids have a good foundation. I got what I wanted.
The before and after care program is WONDERFUL. Mr. Campbell is the warmest, funniest guy. He always has a smile and warm greeting for everyone. The kids are safe and there is plenty of supervision and great activities. There’s a homework center, music, dance, judo and art classes available on campus so you don’t have to drive your kid anywhere.
I fail to see what Nora is complaining about. There is a three tier tuition, the highest going to non catholics AND non church going catholics. The people who attend a different Catholic church pay the second tuition and finally the ones who regularly attend and volunteer at St. Anne’s parish get the biggest price break. The practicing Catholics in a different parish must get letters varifying that they regularly attend services and they volunteer in their church. Either way you go, it’s still a bargain price for a quality private education in SF. That’s why there so many non practicing Catholics sending their kids there.
During my time at St. Anne’s my family had a crisis. My son died (awaiting a liver transplant). This school and community stepped up and did more than was required, more than was necesary. I cannot tell you the love and support I got from everyone to help us get through that horrible time in our lives. Mr. White, the principal, went with my son on his last drive to the hospital and stayed with him in ER until we arrived on the scene. His teachers came to see him in PICU. His classmates wrote him notes. The PTA put on the nicest reception and prepared and paid for the reception after the funeral. Fr. Ray and Fr. Dan never failed us. They said the right things, they even sang soothingly to us. They came to the hospital to pray and just to be there with us.
I expected great things from St. Anne’s. I got it and more.
P. S. No kid should have his life cut short awaiting a transplant. Please consider donating your organs and save a life or more. I’m just saying.

«Discriminative to non-​Catholic. First of all, non-​Cathoric have to pay more tution»
Over 50% of the students at St Annes are non-​Catholic, so I fail to see how they are descriminative.
The reason non-Catholic’s pay more is because Catholics donate money to the Church which subsidses the school.

Mother Thecla was principle, all the teachers were nuns and Monsignor Moriarity ran the program… great school, great education, great memories from the 40’s. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Discriminative to non-​Catholic. First of all, non-​Cathoric have to pay more tution.
From their perspective, people are not equal before god. They don’t like kids who are not perfect to them. Who would be perfect to them? Boring students?

Every year I noticed at least one brainiac prodigy graduating from this school. It is highly competitive among students yet they all get along very well. Most go to tutoring centers although they don’t need to. This raises the academic curriculum even higher. The students must be focused and well organized in order to succeed or survive this school. The teaching system yields toward the success for girls more so than for boys but most boys learn to handle it well. The principal, Mr. White is wonderful and he even teaches during their summer school program.

Our daughter attended St. Anne’s Pre-​K in the school’s very first year offering the program. The director, Judy Glaeser, and her team (Jody, Nick & Josephine) were fabulous. Words can not describe how happy I am with the academic and social skills they taught in a warm, loving atmosphere!

Just reminscing about my childhood days and had to Unilocal the grammer school I had so much fun at.
LOVE YOU.