Belle Meade is a marvelous place.  There is always something going on, whether we’re doing chores, playing around, or all of the many classes.  Belle Meade School is a peaceful and amazing place.  Everyone gets along and we students help everyone else out.

—Hayley

 

I have been going to Belle Meade for three years.  Belle Meade is a place of fun, laughter, games, and learning.  This school is full of beauty.  We have amazing field trips like canoeing, hiking, skiing, and museums.  Belle Meade teaches us how to build community and make friends.

 

Belle Meade School is a peaceful place with animals, beautiful views, and amazing people.  I would suggest every child come to this amazing school of fun, laughter, learning, and peace.  I have had great experiences here and have met amazing teachers and new friends.

—Emma F.

 

Belle Meade is a place where I can feel like I don’t have to worry.  The academics are engaging.  We try to have fun and bring in the outdoors.  If I am not doing well in one class I can be moved to a class that will better help me, and the teachers will try to spend more time on stuff that gives me trouble.  If I am doing well in a class I can move into another class that is better to challenge me.

—Natalie

 

Belle Meade is a really great place.  Because of its size, you build better relationships with everyone… and it makes for a much nicer environment.  It is really an amazing place that is just less hostile and less alienating.

—Griffin

 

To me, Belle Meade means a safe harbor to grow.  It’s a place where I can learn how to be a good person and where I can be taught to be a good person.  Though we are still learning to be able to accept people for who they are, this place is safe, and I would love for everyone to have the experience to learn to love.

—Naomi

 

Belle Meade is a really good school.  It’s fun and has good academic teachers.  I think that it is way better than public school because you get to do stuff physically, like math, for example.  If we need to find the area of the garden, we go outside and measure the garden.  Overall, I love this school.

—Thomas

 

At Belle Meade I like it because you have a lot more freedom than at any other school that I have been to and you have a better chance of learning things one on one with the teacher.  I love especially history because it’s a class I’m good at and I like PE just because I am an athlete.  I also like how everyone likes to be supportive of everyone else, especially when people aren’t in the best of moods.

—Alex

 

Belle Meade is the best school ever! You will never find another school like it.  Everybody that goes here is great.  I love how everybody here will accept you for who you are.  I love all of the farm chores and being able to interact with animals, which is something you can’t do at other schools.  I love all of the things we do here—the hiking, the swimming, the field trips, and canoeing.  Everything we do here we actually do instead of sitting at a desk with a textbook, trying to imagine what it would be like.  This is an amazing school that even the richest person in the world would be lucky to be a part of.

—Kristiana

 

It’s pretty much a basic school, except we camp, we sleep over, we canoe, we ski, and we snowboard.  Oh, and we do chores.   Belle Meade means a lot to me.  My mom says I need to be more active.  I climbed Old Rag and I was wiped.

—Justin L.

 

Belle Meade is awesome.  It’s not like any other school.  We’re a community.  We don’t just work all day.  We have fun.  We canoe.  We have sleepovers.  We do our chores.  We even hike Old Rag.  Sometimes we get to jump in the pond.  I wish I had come last year.

 

The chores we do are laying hens, turkeys and chicks, housekeeping, the garden, and horses.  I like collecting eggs.  Belle Meade goes from 6^th to 12^th grades.  It’s so much better than public school.

—Summer

 

I love Belle Meade because of, well, everything.  The classes are great, the teachers are great, and no matter how mad I get, so are the kids.

—Destiny

 

Belle Meade is the best school ever.  We hike, canoe, and have chores.  Sleepovers are hilarious.  Now, it’s even better—it goes to 12^th grade.  No one is ever making fun of you like in public school.  If you can choose a school, choose this one.

—Trevor W.

 

I like to jump in the pond to get wet and cool off.  I like to be at Belle Meade because it is 99.99999999 times better than public schools because it is all done around nature. 

 

I liked the canoe trip because it was beautiful.  It was like sunrise, like earth in person.  It smelled like pond water.  The water was warm and the current was nice.

—Philip

 

Belle Meade is a place to have fun, feel good, and build steady communities.  Anyone who spends as little as three hours on the premises will come out a happier person.

—Noah

 

I love Belle Meade.  It’s like a home away from home.  I love how it looks, smells, and sounds.  What I really love about it are the people.  I used to have very few friends, but ever since I came to Belle Meade I have many friends.

—Emma E.

 

Belle Meade is a place where I can come and learn in the sanctuary of no stress.  I can also learn other things such as mechanics and work on the farm.

—David

 

Belle Meade is surely a contrasting experience from the ordinary, enriching the knowledge of students alternatively, yet creatively.  Farming responsibilities are an excellent addition to the fulfilling and amazing experience that Belle Meade can offer to life.

—Eliot

 

It is fun jumping in the pond.  Latin is fun.  We do community service so we can get to know everyone.  Belle Meade is a good school.  The farm has horses, chickens, pigs, turkeys, all kinds of animals.

—Alexus

 

My favorite thing about Belle Meade is all the laughter.  There is always something to laugh about!  Everyone has the chance to have fun and express their inner comedian.  Even the teachers try to humor the kids, but we end up laughing at their attempts more than their jokes.  If one person laughs, everyone instantaneously joins in.  Even if someone is having a bad day, other people try to enlighten them with a little laughter.  At the end of the day, I love to look back at everything and laugh!

—Delaney

 

We’re in our canoes with our snacks and lunches, smelling the fresh air and paddling, hoping a rapid will come up soon.  As we paddle with joy, we end up getting very tired, so we hope that the campsite will come soon.  When we get there, we tie up our canoes and get all the camp things out.  When we have it ready to go, we set up our tents and fix our beds.  Then, we cook dinner and boy does it smell good—spaghetti or steak, or even burgers.  After dinner, we have circle around a campfire at some campsite in the middle of the Shenandoah River.  Then we get ready for bed, and in the morning, the cycle starts all over again, until the end, at least.

 

We have more sleepovers than just sleeping at a campsite.  We sleep at the school, too.  We have our school day, and then just like the canoe trip we get our beds ready.  But we don’t go to bed just yet.  First, we play a few games like speedball or capture the flag.  Those games are awesome at Belle Meade.  When we’re done with the games we go inside the school and get ready for dinner.  The nutrition class cooks the dinners.  When we are done with dinner, girls go upstairs and boys go downstairs and then we go to bed around 10:00.

 

In the morning, we go do chores like feeding and watering pigs.  We have to pull the hose all the way over to the pigs and give them water.  If they have enough food and water, they’re fine.  If the pigs don’t have any food, you go get a feedbag, bring it over, and dump it in the bucket where they eat.  With chickens, you give them food, water, nesting hay, and in the afternoon you give them food and water and collect their eggs.  In horses, you give them a certain food in a bucket and a flake of hay.  You also muck up their poop and pee.  It’s gross.  In garden, we pull weeds and harvest vegetables.  The turkeys, meat chickens, and geese we water and feed every morning and afternoon.  Those are all the chores we do.

—Kathryn

 

As a parent you want the best for your child and when my granddaughter was born I found that I wanted no less for her.  We heard about Belle Meade School through parents that could not say enough good things about the growth and experiences that their daughter was obtaining through Belle Meade School.  We placed our granddaughter in the care of the loving teachers at Belle Meade with hopes of seeing the same results that we had so often heard other parents express to us.  Our biggest concern was our granddaughter’s confidence and self esteem.  Having seen the results of what one year has brought to our granddaughter has amazed me.  I have watched her blossom into a happy young lady that is no longer afraid to get up and go to school in the morning and truly enjoys going to school. I know with all my heart we have made the right choice in placing her at Belle Meade.  I am looking forward to seeing the academic development and confidence that this year will bring to her.
—Mrs. D. Heckethorn

 

I wish I could have gone to a school like Belle Meade! A nurturing environment that educates the whole person, while also providing a high-quality academic program that takes into account the skills and needs of each individual child. We couldn’t be happier with the experience our two children are having, and they feel the same way. Thanks Belle Meade!
—Peter Rice

 

This school is a hidden gem.  I only wish that we had found Belle Meade sooner. I sit at the bus stop and watch different schools drop off their kids.  Most kids get off their buses fairly somber faced and looking slightly stressed and pale in the cheeks, then the Belle Meade bus rolls in... The kids are like a bunch of puppies, they bundle out of the bus laughing and giggling all with smiles on their faces, usually looking nice and dirty with healthy rosy cheeks chatting about some wonderful event that has happened that day and all looking forward to seeing each other the next day!
—Corinna Pearson



(Back to Home Page)