Stafford Middle School

Posted: December 20, 2025

Posted: December 20, 2025

Posted: December 20, 2025

Posted: December 20, 2025

Overall, I do not recommend this school. It is my second year at SMS and the amount of fights there have been are incredibly high. Students with disabilities are helped, but so many of them are left not being able to even read or write just because how short staffed they are. If your student is below average their needs won't be met, and if your student is above average you are giving a disservice by going here. SMS despite being a quite interesting environment, has also given me the best teachers imaginable. Though, some other students can't say the same. Teachers often lose work, blaming us, the students. All in all, I do not recommend this school.

Posted: December 20, 2025

Posted: December 20, 2025

Posted: December 20, 2025

Posted: December 20, 2025

Posted: June 18, 2025

The teachers are quite good, however the bullies are L’s….

Posted: June 18, 2025

Posted: June 18, 2025

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Posted: June 18, 2025

Posted: March 23, 2023

they beat me and touch my toes

Posted: March 23, 2023

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Posted: October 25, 2022

This is my second year at SMS and so far I have had a pretty good experience. I have only experienced one horribly bad teacher but the rest of them have been pretty nice. The only thing I would say is that some of the kids at this school think they are too cool for school and all the teachers do is suspend them and think that it is gonna fix their behavior. I have known several kids who have been suspended at least ten times and have still not gotten any other consequences. Other than that I think it is a pretty good school. I would say that if your kid is really smart then they have a lot of opportunities but I can't guarantee that this school will challenge them. This wouldn't be the number one school I would recommend but it is a pretty good school.

Posted: October 25, 2022

Posted: October 25, 2022

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Posted: May 27, 2022

Our son moved to SMS from the number one ranked elementary school in the state (Arlington Traditional School). Our experience this year has been exceptional, and we could not be more pleased with the education our son has received. For the FIRST TIME in his educational career he has been CHALLENGED, he comes home DAILY telling us what was taught that day and what he has learned (something that NEVER happened in Arlington), and he genuinely enjoys going to school. I believe the most profound example of this is that for the end of the year, he actually wanted to write thank you notes to his teachers (this is a twice exceptional kid with an IEP writing goal), and for one teacher in particular he wrote, "you are literally the best teacher I have had in my entire life." He also told me the last day of school, "Mom, I have been to 6 schools in 6 years, and this is by far the best, my teachers are amazing and really like their jobs and Mr. Elchenko and Ms. Hawkins really care about everyone doing their best". I could write more, but I believe his words area more profound than my own.

Posted: May 27, 2022

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Posted: February 6, 2021

This school is the worst. Being a military family our three kids have gone to several different schools but Stafford Middle School has been the worst. The bullying at this school is horrible and the administration could care less they like to sweep it under the rug as if it doesn’t exist. I experience this first hand when my child was severely attacked by a fellow student an attack that was so bad a year later my child is still recovering from. My child was not the only one who experienced that kind of attack a year prior another student was attacked in the classroom. This school needs a complete overhaul of the administration and stricter bullying policy before something serious happens.

Posted: February 6, 2021

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Posted: March 9, 2020

Posted: March 9, 2020

Posted: March 9, 2020

Posted: March 9, 2020

Posted: March 9, 2020

Posted: March 9, 2020

Posted: March 9, 2020

10 We are a military family. We moved to this school district in the middle of the year. Both the students and teachers were incredibly kind and cooperative. Both my 6th grader and my 8th grader were able to main their honor roll grades & even participated in clubs and eventually sports. The transition was pretty seamless which,- after so many military moves, we were quite thankful for. Glad to be here! Looking forward to Brook Point.

Posted: February 20, 2020

Posted: February 20, 2020

My child has had two or three changes of teachers or administration throughout the school year. They offer foreign language to students only in 8th grade, and when they do, they have a teacher that isn't certified to teach this class! Just because you are a native speaker, does not qualify you to teach a foreign language. This is the student's third teacher for the year, and when you complain, you do not get a response, just lip service. Then the students are not properly learning what they need to. It's a disservice to the students.

Posted: February 20, 2020

Posted: February 20, 2020

My child advises they do not deal with misbehaving children, they are afraid of them, hence this disrupts the teaching time and taking away from students who do want to learn. Instead of handling the misbehaving children, they just put things in place that affect all the students.

Posted: February 20, 2020

Posted: February 20, 2020

My child advises they do not deal with misbehaving children, they are afraid of them, hence this disrupts the teaching time and taking away from students who do want to learn. Instead of handling the misbehaving children, they just put things in place that affect all the students.

Posted: February 20, 2020

I can not trust that this school is going to prepare my children to succeed at the next level. Seems to be a lot of internal administration things they need to fix. Teachers don't seem happy and engaged, thus this affects the student body. I am looking to sell my home just so my other children don't have to deal with this mess.

Posted: October 8, 2019

It’s either so much that it causes problems at night for the child, or so little and badly communicated that it gets missed.

Posted: October 8, 2019

They try so hard, and they work so hard. They are extremely dedicated. But the environment is like an episode of Scared Straight, but without any actual progress.

Posted: October 8, 2019

This is exactly the problem. Leadership is pathetic from the Super Intendant on down. Teachers have no support and the atmosphere is spiraling into a Thunder Dome scenario.

Posted: October 8, 2019

None. Nothing. They can’t. How can they? Two months into school and my daughter hasn’t been taught anything in one class because her teacher has to referee.

Posted: October 8, 2019

Called the school for first incident 4x. I had to email 3x. Never called. No follow up. Second incident, not a single response. Not one. Blows my mind.

Posted: October 8, 2019

This has been an absolute nightmare. Last year was actually a great until they decided to redistrict, change every single principal to other schools, and sending effective leaders out of the way due to a terrible S.I.

Posted: May 17, 2019

Teachers never respond to emails from parents. One of my children went to one of the teachers to ask about a grade and she blew her off. Told her too bad and just flat out refused to talk to her. She gave her a bad grade because her skit in FACS was in appropriate. My daughter didn’t understand because the teacher approved the skit prior to giving it.

Posted: May 17, 2019

Posted: May 17, 2019

The leadership gives lip service. I had a complaint about the one of the teachers. How the teacher allowed another student to pick on my child and the school did nothing. The principles really don’t care. I am not impressed.

Posted: May 17, 2019

Posted: May 17, 2019

Never. I had a problem with one of my kids and another child. I complained for 6 months until the school finally pulled video tape and stopped the bullying. But it took 6 months and I learned all of this from my kids. My phone call or email from the principle about how they were handling it.

Posted: May 17, 2019

We have lived in 3 different counties in VA and this is by far the worst school my kids have gone to. The kids are out of control and the teachers really don’t care about the students. The leadership is horrendous and is not capable is managing this school.

Posted: May 17, 2019

There is no homework. Teachers will mark classroom work late and when you try and contact the teacher by email they never respond

Posted: January 23, 2019

Girls at this school are the WORST offenders....they can get away with just about anything, say what they want, make any claim they want against a boy and they will be supported and believed for the most part. Girls can also hit boys and nothing is done. Seriously! Bullying continues and nothing much is done as the parents/guardians of the kids are just as bad! Hard to deal with bullies when the school/district refused to discipline properly.

Posted: January 23, 2019

One of the worst schools my son has ever attended. Has changed his life. He went from As & Bs and great SOL scores to Cs & Ds and not passing SOL in a matter of months. There is a lot of bullying at the school and just bad elements. Teachers and guidance counselors feel like they can speak to your kids without even discussing with you first. Not a lot of good communication. I think the staff is just overwhelmed. There are just a lot of kids at the school from families who apparently just don't really care about their kids behavior and since discipline is a joke at the school, kids get away with a lot.

Posted: January 23, 2019

what homework? My son has been there 2 years and has had to homework maybe 1 time.

Posted: January 23, 2019

In our case, most teachers have been very average to poor. Perhaps due to the kids and environment but results are still the same..unimpressive.

Posted: January 23, 2019

A lot of bad "elements" at the school and little is done to change this.

Posted: January 23, 2019

Posted: January 23, 2019

The principal Mr. Smith seems engaged but I feel the school may have its hands tied by the direction and desires of the district overall. Discipline is a joke! Who invented a "lunch detention"? Shouldn't it be an after school detention to have the desired effect? But you can't do that because parents will be "offended" and can't pick up their kids after a detention..that's the situation....so no discipline.

Posted: September 6, 2017

They overload the kids and then take weeks to grade it. Kids stress when they can't see how they stand with grades.

Posted: September 6, 2017

Posted: September 6, 2017

The principal, assistant and counselor ignore serious issues. Bullying, harassment to the point of police involved due to their lack of action.

Posted: September 6, 2017

Special needs kids are segregated not included even at lunch

Posted: September 6, 2017

It's ignored. No one handles it. Typical principal behavior.

Posted: September 6, 2017

I think there are a few good teachers. But the admission stinks.

Posted: August 7, 2017

Posted: August 7, 2017

My daughter has excelled in this school. The teachers always take their time to make sure the students are understanding the material.

Posted: August 7, 2017

Posted: August 7, 2017

Posted: August 7, 2017

Posted: August 7, 2017

I haven't had to deal with any of this, so I am neutral on this.

Posted: August 7, 2017

The teacher's are great and they take the time that is necessary to make sure they have learned the material. I am glad to have my daughter going to this school

Posted: July 23, 2017

My son loved his teachers, they really took care of him, and he enjoyed school there very much.

Posted: July 23, 2017

My son did have a few issues with a few kids at the school, though that was technically on the bus. But, frankly, what school doesn't have that problem?

Posted: July 23, 2017

No complaints. I found the negative reviews of the school pretty surprising really. I came from Fairfax county, and it doesn't have anything on the schools I've seen in Stafford.

Posted: July 23, 2017

100%. As mentioned, my son absolutely loved his counselors and they loved him back. Frankly, I think someone with any type of disability would be fortunate to go there. No feeling out of place or negativity at all.

Posted: July 23, 2017

I THINK it does, but it's hard to tell if there's a "kids will be kids" thing going on, or there's some bullying. On the whole, I think the kids are great.

Posted: July 23, 2017

Sent son to school there - he transferred mid-year from Fairfax, and he had zero issues adjusting and he "graduated" from there the following year. My daughter's going there next year, and she's been accepted into an advanced AP program for math - I think overall it's fantastic. I mean, not many people can talk of one child with disabilities on the one hand and one with learning excellence in the other - and find the answer to both in one school!

Posted: July 23, 2017

My son went to school here and had ADHD issues. I don't recall having any real system to track the homework, outside of a notebook where he had to write his assignments down. (Very old school.) He's since gone on to Colonial Forge (same district surprisingly) and they have an online system and as long as we're there checking it, all his homework gets done and credited. It's been amazing.

Posted: July 18, 2017

students at this school are out of control and the school doesn't seems to deal with the issues

Posted: July 18, 2017

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Posted: May 23, 2017

To be honest, this school is pretty ugly. I do not like the teachers(Except probably Mrs. Dobson), the hygiene in bathrooms is insanely wretched, nobody bothers to help pick up your papers when you drop them, and nor teacher nor student honestly cares about you when you're feeling down. I give it 2/5 stars.

Posted: May 23, 2017

Teachers barely give out homework. I could care less.

Posted: May 23, 2017

All teachers here are mediocre. Bland. Tasteless. (Except Mrs. Dobson) They do a good job of what they're doing, it's just that they do it as if they're waiting for retirement.

Posted: May 23, 2017

Teaching is very bland at this school, as they show no emotion when teaching.

Posted: May 23, 2017

Oh boy, Mr. Smith and Mr. Howard do not even care for the students. They take care of the problem and send their happy tail back to class ASAP.

Posted: May 23, 2017

Posted: May 23, 2017

The school does not address bullying although they constantly remind you to "Stand up to Bullying".

Posted: May 23, 2017

I just need to say that our principal and vice principal do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted: May 23, 2017

Teachers tend to rarely give out homework.

Posted: May 23, 2017

Ms. Dobson is the best teacher on the planet!

Posted: May 23, 2017

Of course it obviously depends on the student.

Posted: May 23, 2017

There are so many leadership clubs and opportunities are available.

Posted: May 23, 2017

There are so many different diverse learning classes.

Posted: May 23, 2017

Barely anything is done about the issue of bullying.

Posted: December 25, 2016

Posted: December 25, 2016

these kids are wild and nothing is done about it multiple drugs are being sold in the school by the students bullying is a huge issue the kids sneak into the bathrooms and fight and leave like nothing happened administrators are terrible they hear the kids cursing and they sit there and laugh over a this school is terrible as a student I WANT OUT OF HERE

Posted: November 9, 2016

they disrespect students hurt there self-esteem and it crushes us deeply

Posted: March 10, 2015

Our daughter is a 6th grader at SMS and I have to say that we have seen her flourish in many ways as a student and as a young lady becoming more independent. We like the fact that the classrooms are not overcrowded. Being that our daughter is ADHD and struggles with comprehension and focus; this type of environment is very suiting. The teachers are great, everyone is accessible, and in the event that there is an issue, the assistant principal and principal are visible and involved.