Topsail Middle School

Posted: May 18, 2026

Posted: May 18, 2026

Posted: May 18, 2026

Tammy the front desk woman on charge of attendance needs to be proffesional and some how cannot manage to be so. It's a shame she engages with the public given her inability to compose herself in an acceptable manner.

Posted: May 18, 2026

Posted: May 18, 2026

Posted: May 18, 2026

Posted: May 18, 2026

Posted: May 18, 2026

Posted: October 7, 2025

Posted: October 7, 2025

Posted: October 7, 2025

God no i don't recommend this school, there was like 11 fights in the final month of a school year, it's a underground fight club. Constant vandalism and stuff being stolen. People thrownchairs when teachers leave the room, The walls had mold on them and building was overall falling apart. Infested with roaches and rodents. NEVER SEND YOUR CHILD HERE

Posted: October 7, 2025

Posted: October 7, 2025

Posted: October 7, 2025

Posted: October 7, 2025

Posted: October 7, 2025

Posted: April 22, 2023

Posted: April 22, 2023

Posted: April 22, 2023

I am still a student here at TMs, and honestly, I hate it, it is so racist and the rules are stupid and they are very poor. They have mold in the bathrooms, and with tests, they do not take it seriously at all, all they do is joke around. One of my teachers tries to bribe you with prizes, pizza and candy just so we can get a better score.

Posted: April 22, 2023

Posted: April 22, 2023

Posted: April 22, 2023

Posted: April 22, 2023

Posted: April 22, 2023

Posted: August 15, 2021

This school has no vocal music program. If your child wants to pursue a career in singing or music education, avoid Pender County schools.

Posted: August 15, 2021

Posted: February 3, 2020

I was involved so my experience was good. During two incidents that required me to get involved, I was extremely disappointed with one interaction and extremely pleased with the other. The staff are dedicated and solely responsible for all of the achievements at this school. They put in overtime with their complete hearts and souls to ensure every student has the opportunity for success and learning.

Posted: February 3, 2020

Homework reinforced skills taught during the day. Reading was a common homework activity.

Posted: February 3, 2020

One or two were unjustly and inequitable for disciplining. All of the rest had open communication with parents and honest discussions that showed their concerns for my students.

Posted: February 3, 2020

They try but parents are a Huge obstacle.

Posted: February 3, 2020

During our five years here, we had 3 principals, 6 different vices and no real counselors. The first and last years seemed ok and reinforced respect for authority and adults.

Posted: February 3, 2020

Again, they try but advanced students get shoved to the side because of state requirements for showing growth and performance increases. Students are not ability grouped and 30+ students per class is too many. Not their fault...state budgets fail these teachers and students at every turn.

Posted: February 3, 2020

Unaware of this but have heard that their hands are tied due to 504s and IEPs. One student assaulted a teacher and as a parent it appeared nothing was done to prevent future violence.

Posted: May 13, 2019

The gym teachers are fantastic as is the admin but the majority of the teachers are monitoring work for my 2 kids. One of my kids is in Advanced Math and she has to teach herself as the teacher is terrible and just assigns workbook activity. Complete joke.

Posted: May 13, 2019

Posted: May 13, 2019

Several of my kids teachers do not teach. The assign time in workbooks and or Power Points and do not teach the material. One of those teachers spends most of the time on Facebook while the class follows the PowerPoint.

Posted: May 13, 2019

Posted: May 13, 2019

Posted: May 13, 2019

Posted: May 13, 2019

Posted: May 29, 2018

Posted: May 29, 2018

Posted: May 29, 2018

For starters, the bullying at this school is not bad at all compared with many other schools. There’s no classic “big kid slams little kid into locker” type stuff, ever. Fights are rare and the only time I ever saw one, teachers stepped in immediately and separated the kids. I know my whole experience has been pretty awesome as far as bullying because I’ve never been bullied while here.

Posted: May 29, 2018

Overall, TMS is a pretty great school! Some of the teachers aren’t great, but there are many more who are. In my three years here I’ve overall enjoyed it and now have more friends than I’ve ever had before: this school has a lot of diversity as far as personalities go. It’s not a perfect school, but it is a lot better than it could be!

Posted: May 29, 2018

It really depends which teachers you have and what grade you’re in. In 6th grade, I had a couple math problems regularly and sometimes some things for Social Studies. About 30 mins to no homework every night. In 7th grade, I never had homework unless I was working on a project for a class. 8th grade has been different. I am in all the high school courses, and as a result I have a high school level of homework (1-4 hrs. per night). However, despite the heavy workload it’s good preparation for high school.

Posted: May 29, 2018

I’d say about 60-75% of the teachers at TMS are “good” ones. That is, they enjoy teaching and make the kids enjoy learning (or at least make school slightly more tolerable). In 6th grade I had pretty awesome teachers for the most part. Same goes for eighth grade— however in 7th grade only two of my teachers were “good” and they left the school!

Posted: May 29, 2018

S.A.I.L. (Safety, Academics, Integrity, Leadership) ing is highly encouraged, with announcements on students caught SAILing every Friday. Students are rewarded with candy and a pass to sit outside with their friends for a lunch period.

Posted: March 23, 2018

Clueless principal as to child safety in the pick up and drop off area, many teachers leaving because of the school politics, I would say 0 out of a 10.

Posted: March 23, 2018

Minimum 3 to 4 hours nightly three to four days a week is laziness on the part of teaching

Posted: March 23, 2018

Half of the teachers are great , the other should retire as they are grumpy and lazy

Posted: March 23, 2018

If yelling at students and a lying principal builds character in students I should move to a deserted island.

Posted: March 23, 2018

No leadership at this school, the principal is clueless to her surroundings

Posted: March 23, 2018

Some teachers don't have an easy way for extra help for the students.

Posted: March 23, 2018

Heard from many parents that nothing effectively gets accomplished for bullying, having worked in the cafeteria at the high school and witnessed bullying and groping of a young girl by one student, I told the appropriate person in charge in which nothing was done to punish him, plus I was told not to (Get Involved) by my supervisor.

Posted: May 31, 2017

Posted: May 31, 2017

They're burned out and stuck in old school ways. They aren't up on the latest and greatest, and many don't understand or accommodate for ADHD kids.

Posted: May 31, 2017

Posted: May 31, 2017

Very poor administration. They don't coordinate together and the policies aren't effective or consistent.

Posted: May 31, 2017

The learning support teacher is ineffective and actually is harmful to the students learning by teaching them differently than their regular classroom teachers.

Posted: May 31, 2017

They're understaffed and only have one person to deal with 1,100 student behaviors.

Posted: May 31, 2017

Horrible. I wish there was a different option for my kids to attend middle school.

Posted: December 13, 2016

My child does not have homework because she is able to finish it at school. This says to me that not enough material is being covered to challenge my child.

Posted: December 13, 2016

I'm not sure why this school has a high ranking. My child is AIG, but they do not offer AIG to sixth graders for some reason. My child also hoped to participate in orchestra, which the school does not offer. Finally, ten weeks into the year, the topics being covered in Math amount to review for my child, who was enrolled in an adjacent county the prior year (New Hanover).

Posted: June 30, 2015

Posted: June 30, 2015

I've had two of my children attend this school. The first one, who is special needs, was bullied by other students and at least two teachers, especially during 7th grade. Even though these incidents were brought to the attention of staff, it only took care of the problem temporarily. It was our worst school year ever. My child also had a teacher (8th grade English) who gave out more homework and more projects than I have ever seen one teacher give. Never mind the fact that this child had special needs and three other classes. We had just enrolled him in an after-school activity about 6 months earlier, but ended up having to give it up because he could not keep up with the homework load. I'd like to add that this was mostly what I like to call "busy work". For example, the class was given a project to read a book. After the book was finished, they were to do SEVERAL projects related to this one book. Such things as "write and record a rap song about the book" or "create a shadow box and fill it with things related to the book". These are just two of a number of very time-consuming project ideas that were on the list. To us, it was simply work overload over one simple book. Time that could have been spent learning something new. My other child has not had any bad experiences so far. The front office staff is nice and friendly. As far as the current teachers go, it depends on who your child gets. Some teachers are very good at keeping you in the loop on your child's progress and others are not.

Posted: December 19, 2013

Topnotch teacher communication with the parents. Parent involvement is tremendous with fundraisers, dances, etc., all organized by parents with teacher involvement. Lots of sports and clubs to choose from. We moved here from out of state this year, and I am very pleased with the school district. Happy we chose this district!!

Posted: March 12, 2012

Great administration, great teachers! In response to the previous review about teachers leaving, this has to do with budget cuts that the school has no control over. If this upsets you, contact the Pender County Board of Education and your politicians and let your voice be heard. The principal and his staff have zero tolerance for bullying. My daughter had a situation that she brought to the staff's attention and it was handled immediately and in a professional manner. The parent participation is awesome! The PTSO is very organized and active at TMS.

Posted: November 18, 2010

Very disappointed. The school is rated a 9 but we have had so many problems. Teachers coming & going, quitting,being fired. The school is very disorganized. There are too many bulling issues and they are not being dealt with in an appropriate manner.