Cambrian International Academy

My child attends Cambrian Academy. This school is small and offers a supportive, close community. The teachers are just fantastic. They are passionate, dedicated and masters of their subject area. Class sizes are small, leading to one on one attention and an individualized curriculum. A variety of AP subjects, dedicated college prep classes, choir, band, drama, tennis, golf are just some of the great features of this school.
Yes, there is no library in school, however, the public library is walking distance from the school. Similarly, the kids walk a few blocks down the road for P. E to a large public park. This works well & the tuition goes towards providing academic support rather than building a redundant library/P.E Area.
The founders are easy to communicate with and have always addressed my questions and allowed us to make our child thrive in this environment.
I would especially recommend this school for gifted kids. They would be really challenged! A school guaranteed to let your child get into the college of his/​her choice.
One other thing that I love about this school, there is no bullying, mean behavior that seems common in other middle/​high schools!

My child has been attending Cambrian Academy for the last 18 months. Here are just a few of the many reasons we believe it is the best school in the area.
1) The teachers are incredibly dedicated. Many of them voluntarily and cheerfully give my child extra help during their lunch breaks and after school. They love to teach and it shows in their preparation, presentation of subject matter, and enthusiasm.
2) The class sizes are small. My daughter is taking Spanish with one other student. A 2:1 ratio! The average is approximately 10 per class. Students do not sit at individual desks and listen to a lecture given at the front of the class. They sit around a conference table so everyone is fully engaged in the discussions.
3) The administration cares about meeting the needs of every student. Because of the school size, it is able to help nurture each person’s strengths while addressing their weaknesses.
4) Students are placed according to ability, not age. This has resulted in some being accelerated by 4 or 5 grades. I no longer worry whether my daughter is being sufficiently challenged in the classroom.
5) Communication from administration and teachers is superb. I cannot recall when my questions or the issues raised went more than a day without a response or resolution. My child’s grades, attendance, and homework are all accessible online. Just a few clicks of the mouse and I can view her progress or contact any teacher.
If your child’s school does not have the attributes described above (my guess is that it does not) and you believe the skills necessary for success are obtained through stellar education given by knowledgeable, caring teachers, not by the luxuriousness of the school campus, I urge you to take a tour.

First, I want to say that this school is the worst school that I have ever studied in. It’s not a school. It’s more like a company. All the people there just want money, especially the 2 people that established the school. Like the other reviewer said, they sell expensive snacks as a form of fundraising but actually wanting to make money off of the students. Moreover, the finger food for prom was not included in the price ticket we paid. Again, they surprised us with the charges making money off of us left and right. They also sell us food that was already expired
Second, the school/​student council doesn’t really have plans. Prom should be told to the students at least months before. They just told us a week in advance. We didn’t have enough time to prepare. Plus they didn’t have a set location. Besides that they said there would be a DJ and a photographer to take pictures for us. When we arrived at the last minute location at the Campbell Community Center, there was at no DJ and no photographer. We took pictures with our own cameras and danced to a CD played with the CD player the CCC had… Do u think that was really a prom?
Third, the school always blames us when they are the one doing wrong. Before my guardian– had a meeting with the principal/​owner and he promised that all seniors would have field trips to visit colleges and UCs. In the end, we haven’t gone on any. My guardian sent him email to ask him about that. He blamed on me for not joining in Disneyland trip (Disneyland trip includes visiting 2 UC). Why do I have to go to Disneyland when i want to visit colleges? It doesn’t make sense. Moreover, when i talked to him about giving me my transcipts, he said he will disregard me and just focused talking about my guardian’s review, especially about visiting colleges and UC. Once again, he blamed on me. He said that I just filled in the request forms to 2 colleges which i want to study. Why do i need to visit other schools without purpose? Also, about my transcripts, he didn’t want to give it to me. Some students had it before few weeks ago. I named some students and he pretended not to know them. He asked.:” What are you talking about? I don’t know these students”. Then in the same day, after school, he admitted that they had it because the college sent request letter to him or some students just only have grade of semester 1 in transcript. Unfortunately, its not true. I’ve seen some other students have both semesters (1^st and temporary 2^nd)… U can realize that all he said is just a lie. So stupid and it doesn’t make sense.
Finally, I just want to say ’ ” when u say something, u have to think it carefully, especially when you are lying. We are not stupid. We know what u are doing.

This school is a private school for international students and local students. The price they charge is about 14k. Unfortunately for the price they’re charging and the education they are giving is not acceptable. I’m a guardian for a 12^th grader and they are not really teaching anything for 12^th grader there. Before that my kid came home stressed out and cried because she felt she didn’t get the knowledge she needs to get and was afraid she couldn’t get in college. Normally the mentality we have is that private schools should be better than public school and the teaching should be more intensive. Nope, this is not the case. It’s super easy and seems like they teach just so they qualify as a school or something and not really care about the students’ learning. Maybe the elementary and middle school classes are better but the high school classes are not. I would give this school a zero star if I can.. Here are the reasons.
1) Besides the high tuition fees, they charged an extra $ 500 for textbooks. I asked if we get to keep the textbooks as our own afterward since be paid that much… that’s as much or sometimes more than college textbooks. The admin/​acct person (Kay Kim) said yes. Then when the school started, there was no textbooks for the students at all for the first 2 months of school. The teacher or the admin office never notify the student to go pick up books. I remembered when i was in school we would go to the book room with the whole class to pick up books like as soon as we started the class. When my kid felt lost in the class because the teachers were so bad/​hard to understand (imagine international students having to listen to teachers with funny accent or like how some bad college instructors do with no real notes to follow), they had to go to the office and requested to get a book. Finally, after a while they got their books. Unfortunately, teacher told them they couldn’t write notes in their books and that they have to return it. What!!?
2. They made us pay $ 70 for school P.E. uniform. Yeah… got 2 t-​shirts, a sweater, and a little library bag. Ok, we supported the school by purchasing clothes with school’s logo, fine. But sadly, when I talked to the school before the admission, they said there would be P.E. session such as golf, bowling at the real bowling alley, etc… nope, they students got nothing but just playing at a playground… never been to a bowling alley or learn anything. They were probably treated like kinder kids or something. My kid said they played basketball and badminton… they have balls, but you need to bring your own rackets and just play with each other. They didn’t get to learn the rules of each sport. Isn’t that what P.E. is about??? when you play a sport, you have to know the rules… well I guess there is no real P.E. teacher but instead just acted like babysitting. Theyre high school kids, no need to be treated like that.
3. The school promised or advertised that they would have field trips to visit colleges around the bay area. The owner of the school was actually from Berkeley, so I thought wow. But no, school’s almost over and no field trip even after I asked the principal/​owner myself a couple of months ago. Now they have a Disneyland trip and on the way will drop by to UC Santa Barbara… hmmm then the pay is $ 395/​person. Why only UC Santa Barbara and not any other schools in the bay area like SJSU, Santa Clara, Berkeley and many more? Why have to go to Disneyland. This is just not relevant.
4. They don’t have counselors or someone that the students can talk to or consult with about college. The only person would be the principal/owner…but he’s always busy.
5. The teacher that teaches them math is a sexual harassed pervert. He stared at the girls’ legs and down their shirts. Many students complained but they didn’t deal with the issue. Then time again, one student didn’t give up complaining, finally the teacher talked to the student one on one after class to apologize… humph! Let
a pervert talk to the student alone. Then I went and complained… after 4 months, the teacher was fired… but what took them so long?
6. The school suddenly fired a bunch of teachers. There is no math teacher, no science teacher, and no ESL teacher when the students said that ESL teacher was really good. So, I think this has nothing to do with my complaints… or the school is just messed up by itself?
7. The campus itself is a rental to use part of a christian church. It’s very old and not a good place to study. Definitely not a place built for studying.
There’s more but I’m tired of typing all this. But from reading this you would probably sense how these people at the school work. They’re money hungry and nothing else. Everything is money money money although they already took a bunch of money for tuition. If you have to pay that much, there are other better school. Too late for us, she’s a 12^th can’t transfer.