Haycock Elementary School

Posted: June 25, 2026

Serious attitude problems from the front desk receptionist. Not sure why. Would it hurt to show just a smudge of politeness? If you a miserable then it makes the school look bad.
Secondly, the amount of days off and half days at this school was ridiculous. There were at least 1-2 per week. Some are legit holidays, but many are bogus teacher days that leave dual-employed parents scrambling to find child care.

Posted: June 25, 2026

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Posted: February 17, 2026

We had high expectations from this school. But our child has not received much social/ emotional support. Love diversity and ignoring bullying remarks is an issue. Parents are reluctant to share issues with teachers. Victim kids are often blamed. Our child is not willing to go to school.

Posted: February 17, 2026

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Posted: October 29, 2025

The teachers are very nice and supportive. They like the kids and pay a lot of attention about the kids development

Posted: October 29, 2025

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Posted: August 20, 2023

Great school, kids get along well and not many bullies. Class sizes are not bad. Teachers are above average, and some have won countywide awards.

Posted: August 20, 2023

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Posted: June 18, 2022

Posted: June 18, 2022

Good school would recomend. AAP program is helpful.

Posted: March 2, 2022

Our current experience for our two children, grades 5 and 2, has been great. The teachers are very engaged and have handled the volatility of the pandemic quite well over the last couple years. Teachers and faculty are responsive, challenge the students, and encourage good values at every opportunity. There is an active PTA and even a summer camp program between academic years. I have never seen a bullying incident, but these are common issues that would occur at any school, across all grades. However, I have raised a concern to the principal about an off-color remark made by a student, to which she immediately resolved. I've participated in a few on-site programs and in my opinion, the kids are excited, friendly and kind towards each other, and so are the teachers.

Posted: March 2, 2022

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Posted: September 28, 2020

Haycock is a really excellent K-6 school.

Posted: September 28, 2020

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Posted: June 24, 2018

While there has been several teachers who are great at what they do, they are leaving for one reason or another. Over the years, we felt that the academic contents were simply just not enough overall for our child at the AAP Center. The word studies and reading would not prepare the students to do well on annual SOL tests since the during the school year content is way subpar to the SOL level. School has high test scores but that does not mean challenging nor adequate teaching and learning are taking place.

Posted: June 24, 2018

Posted: June 24, 2018

While there has been a consistent high turnover of teachers last a few years, inexperienced incoming teachers have limited ability in class management, teaching content, and delivery. Even at AAP Center, I wish my bright child had access to differentiated and level material, and learned more last 3 years at this school.

Posted: June 24, 2018

Posted: June 24, 2018

Administrators at this school care more about the school reputation and certainly caters to affluent families rather than individual child's well being.

Posted: June 24, 2018

Being a school known with high academic achievement, we hoped that the school had better understanding and ability when it comes to fostering children with academic giftedness. That was a big mistake on our part. The high test scores are more likely due to extremely supportive and education-conscience parents, rather than differentiated, challenging, and content-rich teaching. If your gifted child does not conform to the norm, he/she will have a very hard time at this school.

Posted: June 24, 2018

Posted: April 3, 2018

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Posted: April 3, 2018

The administration at Haycock is truly wonderful! They are so friendly, support teachers, and ensure all students can reach their greatest potential!

Posted: March 16, 2017

This school has a serious bully issue. The staff use the tactic of blaming and punishing the victim. My two daughters have come home and told me the boys make sexual jokes when they eat a banana. My girls are bullied by boys and these boys have parents that work in the front office, so they get away with murder. The priniciple and teachers have students write down a story if the incident and sign it without a parent being present. I just cant say enough bad things about the staff at Haycock. It really is a toxic school and the staff are unexperienced and just dont seem to care about the childs wellbeing!

Posted: June 18, 2015

We just finished our first year here. It has been wonderful--the teachers are fantastic and my child learned more than I ever imagined possible. The "specials"--art, music, science, Spanish, computers, etc.--have opened my child's eyes to subjects where she never had shown any interest (and we went to a well-regarded preschool with these subjects) The building renovation is almost done and when the kids return they will have a new building, inside and out. It will still be large--900+ students,--but class sizes average 22-25 in most grades, which is manageable.
The principal is departing for another school, so there will be a new face there as well. I had mixed feelings about her--she clearly knows her pedagogy, holds teachers to high standards, and I believe she has done good things for the school; however, I must agree with the comments that she was not as visible as an elementary principal should be (albeit very good on e-mail). Also, the PTA leadership is mostly new so it is a time of transition. But given its reputation and Blue Ribbon honor, plus the strong parental involvement, I believe this school will thrive. I am anxious to see the finished building and new technologies.

Posted: October 19, 2014

Haycock is now a Blue Ribbon School! Clearly the teachers and administration are doing great things to be recognized for such a high honor! I find the principal extremely visible. She most recently went camping with the fifth grade and I see her frequently at student arrival or in the cafeteria. She and the staff are definitely doing great things. My children are thriving and I'm thrilled with the level of rigor both in the center and general education classes. The teachers that we have had thus far are outstanding, fair, consistent and communicate extremely well. The Principal communicates via Facebook, Blog, Twitter and emails. I feel that I have a good idea what is going on in the school and feel blessed to have my children at the school!

Posted: August 12, 2014

I rated the Teacher Quality high, because it is whether a child is GE or AP. I had both. And the contrast was my biological child in Fairfax County schools with less money and, as a result, I ended up rearing my biological child in private schools. The principal is invisible. Even my stepchildren stated, "she never left her office," and this was before she became pregnant. I gave Parent Involvement a low score because the school is run (especially with virtually no supervision by the principal) by a core group of parents that are pushy and offensive. So I worked, extensively at times, on a class basis, bypassing the mothers that ran the school. I'm a native to Fairfax and, fortunately, I've never experienced such an environment. Instead, I chose to work at the middle school where the Principal and the PTA run it, and the environment is much more positive and engaging for anyone who is interested in helping.

Posted: April 28, 2014

I have two kids in this school now, one in AAP and one still in the lower grade. I love the fact that school staff, teachers and PTA all work together for the best of the students. We moved from CA to here years ago and my kids immediately loved the school that they don't want to move again until they graduate. LOL~ Thank you Haycock!

Posted: February 16, 2014

I had two children at Haycock, one qualified for level 4 gifted/AAP center. There is endemic bigotry among both students and staff regarding the Advanced kids and the GE (general education) population, with the AAP children clearly privileged. GE kids live with constant reinforcement that they aren't first class citizens. My biggest regret is that we waited so long to put our kids in private school. Several teachers were very good, but both children suffered with teachers who were apathetic, unkind, and/or poor classroom managers. Both children were bullied and received only limited help from the staff. One of my children lost an entire year of learning while the teacher struggled simply to manage the endless disruption caused by clustering children with severe issues into one general classroom - even though the administration was well aware that this group had deep interpersonal conflicts that caused the same problems the previous year. When I asked for help, there were many good suggestions but little follow through. Both kids are now flourishing in private school. Haycock did a great disservice to both my children, who are extremely bright, A students.

Posted: July 10, 2013

I'm an old student, I graduated a number of years ago and am now in college. Haycock was a great school. I realize that it is very crowded. Its always been that way, but what can you expect from a school in THE top county for education in the US? It says that there is about 850 students, when I attended there was about 1,000 so please stop complaining about the overpopulation. My class sizes varied from 18 to about 30 kids each year. Kids from Haycock go on to Longfellow and do incredibly well, many of which get accepted to TJHSST (the top high school in the country). The Haycock/Longfellow/Mclean HS school chain prepares you very well for your future and to complain about your student having classes with 35+ students is completely your loss because these teachers go to training to learn how to deal with it. You are kidding yourself to be writing complaints here. A top 10 elementary school in the top county in the country. Get over yourself. Think of all the kids out there who don't even get a proper education. If you get the chance watch the movie Stand and Deliver. Maybe then you'll realize how privileged your kids really are. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Posted: March 10, 2013

Parents are kidding themselves if they think the bad reviews are entirely because of the AAP realignment. Look at them, they are not all from AAP parents. The school is a good school, but not the mecca that everyone claims. It's riding on reputation at this point. It's certainly not much (if at all) better than surrounding FCPS schools.

Posted: February 25, 2013

My oldest child started at Haycock in Kindergarten and will graduate this year. My youngest child attends Haycock as well. The school is severely overcrowded, which often results in large class sizes. As a result, I have considered sending my children to private school, but after careful assessment based on 7 years of experience at the school, I cannot find fault with the outstanding education they receive that would warrant such a change. The teachers are incredibly dedicated & talented. I have taken an active role in parent participation at the school and have always found everyone from the janitorial staff up to the Principal to be welcoming, warm, appreciative and proud of the school they serve so well. I do agree with the previous reviewer that as a result of the recent School Board decision to send the majority of Cluster 2 students to Lemon Road next year, there is some resentment that has colored some of these negative reviews. Our family is truly indebted to the Teachers, Staff & Administration for giving our children a superior elementary school education.

Posted: February 24, 2013

I have finished reading the reviews here and am shocked by what I see. Haycock is a wonderful school with educated and caring teachers and administrators. I've been a Haycock parent for eight years and find these comments to be ridiculous and misleading. They are obviously the result of a realignment that occurred within the pyramid that caused some children to be moved to another school next year in order to ease overcrowding and enable the renovation to proceed safely. It seems that some of the understandable frustration has been misdirected at the parents and administrators. Please don't let this color your opinion of a fantastic school. The parent community is very inviting and supportive of the school community and students are challenged at every level. We may have some difficult years ahead with the upcoming renovation, but I am thrilled that we will soon have a beautiful new school to house our students.

Posted: February 20, 2013

Not all parents at Haycock agree with the way the administration has deteriorated what used to be a great school. A shame that high calibre teachers and staff are also affected. Some justify the school's unmanageable overcrowding, as victim of its own success. Victims, all right, but of an inexperienced principal who lacks education on community building and conflict resolution. Also, the school could hire more janitors, provide diverse training for teachers besides AAP that would be more in tune with the real needs of a grossly overcrowded school. This is my child's last year at Haycock, but I worry about the sanitary conditions at the school, no to mention the safety of the students. Let's hope the administration will address these and other relevant and pressing issues to the current school year and to the needs of all. The school needs a more representative task force that will look after the interests of all students as plans for restructuring and remodeling are about to begin and it is not responsible to leave all of that in the hands of a few, not to say only one. For such a large and diverse school, that is way too much power.

Posted: February 19, 2013

The experience we have had at Haycock is the absolute best! I have a Kindergartener and 2nd grader and moved to Virginia this past year. The staff, school and administration as well as the students create a great experience. Our jobs moved us from New Mexico where the school system did not even rate compared to Haycock. We felt welcomed from day one! If anything the staff and PTA over communicate so busy parents will never miss an important announcement. Yes there are 25 students or so in each class. This could be seen as a negative but from my perspective in NM the classes had only 14-18 students and they did a horrible horrible job teaching and communicating. My daughters have done much better here despite the class size! Haycock deserves much praise!

Posted: February 1, 2013

When something is good there will be a crowd. This explains the overcrowding at Haycock. FCPS recently addressed this issue by realigning the AAP program that was funneling too many students to the school. Although some parents are upset with the realignment as noted in the recent reviews, this should not detract from the quality education that is provided at Haycock. We have two children at the school - one in AAP and the other in the general -- and are 100% satisfied with the school. Specifically, the administration and teacher are very nurturing and caring. Both curriculums challenge our daughters, and in turn, we feel their academic and social needs are being met. The teachers strictly adhere to the 24-hour response rule and always respond to our emails in a timely manner. In addition to the constant updates and newsletters, we feel engaged and aware of everything happening in our daughter's class. We cannot say enough about the wonderful experience we have had the past 2 years with Haycock Elementary.

Posted: January 27, 2013

FCPS has done a realignment of AAP boundaries and that requires Cluster 2 families to go to the new center at Lemon Rd. This boundary realignment helps draw down the population at Haycock. Haycock has become increasingly overcrowded and a reduction had to be done for the safety and educational benefits of all students and teachers. This was a very difficult process for the community and it did cause different groups of parents to advocate for different things. The process that FCPS has in place to address redistricting forces parents to take sides. There was no possible solution that could be pain free and please everyone. Teachers, staff, PTA and parents agonized over this situation. School Board vote was overwhelmingly in support or new center at Lemon Rd. Negativity has no role in rebuilding community. Parents and teachers are determined to heal and continue their positive efforts to keep the community strong---one of the very reasons everyone loves to come to Haycock.

Posted: January 27, 2013

Haycock is a great school in terms of challenging academics and amazing teachers. They offer a variety of creative in-school activities and extracurricular programs. However, the parent community here leaves alot to be desired: PTA cliques, entitled helicopter parents and a nasty attitude about families of lower social status. If you simply send your child for a great education, volunteer in the classroom, and stay out of the way, you'll be pleased.

Posted: January 17, 2013

Haycock has one of the nastiest parent bodies I've ever seen. They are in the process of kicking out some of the AAP kids because the school is overcrowded, which is entirely the fault of FCPS' faulty projections. Instead of banding together to ask the county to make this work for all of us, these parents have started an all out campaign to force our kids out of the school. They have absolutely no sense of empathy for how changing schools will impact our children. If the parents had been willing to work together, we could have gotten the county to find a solution that works for all of us. Instead, they focused their energy negatively and ran a negative campaign against our children. The education is good here, but the sense of community is entirely lacking unless you are part of the "in" crowd.

Posted: January 5, 2013

Haycock is a good school. Not a great school. But, if you want a good school and you are currently in a less than good school, it will do the trick. The good points are: the parents have to pay enough to live in the school district that they really care about their kids and tend to really care about the school. The less than good points are: the principal and majority of the teachers are immature, less than appropriately experienced or professional, and basically make bad decisions when under pressure (or no decisions). They also say inappropriate things to children and around children (apparently they don't realize children go home and tell their parents stuff like that). There is little security at the school, you will wind up teaching your child a lot of what they are not getting in class (even in the AAP classes), and if you have an issue, it gets overly dramatic for no reason. BTW, the nurse is the best of the bunch. Nancy has been the only person at the entire school who has ever gone one inch out of her way to do something for my child she didn't have to do. And, yes, the school is overcrowded, and no, the staff and PTA don't really care.

Posted: November 28, 2012

They've literally been talking about addressing the capacity concerns for over 6 or 7 years. In all this time the enrollments have been increasing and so have the trailers. The class sizes are indeed smaller this year-- but the size of the actual school has not changed; so this year there are even more students spending their school daze in trailers without any plumbing. The PTA is now trying to delay the poorly thought-out renovation plans that will result in a new available capacity that is less than the current enrollment by about 100 students. FCPS is likely taking away Haycock's shining star of being a AAP center school as it is simply not feasible. The school is too far over capacity to take any new students this year. FCPS needs to come out with real plans to bring down the overall enrollment at Haycock

Posted: November 4, 2012

Haycock is great school. We moved from another Fairfax county scholl to Haycock, and we did not regret for a singe moment. Although overcrowded, the school is able handle the challenge. Kindergarten class size now is 20-22 students and no grades have over 25 this year. The school will be renovated/rebuilt by 2015, FCPS has approved the budget. Let's face it most of FCPS schools have trailers. So, Haycock is excellent school with amazing and dedicated staff, and outstanding PTA. We are all part of that community and we work very hard to support it and make it wonderful place for our kids.

Posted: September 23, 2012

We just joined Haycock and it is as fabulous as we thought it would be. The teachers and principal are excellent. Kindergarten class size is 21-22 students and no grades have over 25 this year. The parents are very involved, and fellow students are super intelligent and respectful. The reason the school is overcrowded is that it really is that good. Do your research, talk to parents themselves, and go see for yourself! To the ill-informed poster, FCPS is focused on the school and is fixing the overcapacity issue. Haycock is a top notch school and we couldn't be more pleased.

Posted: September 19, 2012

We're up to 968 kids total enrolled this year. This is well above the planned renovated capacity of 800 something. As a result the school has now stopped taking on new AAP students.

Posted: August 25, 2012

I'm very disappointed with this school. We had to move to this area last year, unfortunately the school is overrated when compared to another schools.