Head Royce is a great school, but not perfect. There are plenty of great schools in Oakland and Berkeley, none of them the best, nor are any perfect. The academics are challenging, and the teachers are dedicated, but the school could improve on inclusivity and economic diversity.

I love Head-Royce so much! I’m in my 9th year here, and I could not recommend it more. I’m a three-sport varsity athlete, one of the leads in the school musical, a part of many clubs and affinity groups, as well as a 4.2 GPA student, all thanks to the tight-knit group of teachers and students who genuinely just want to see you succeed. The school is diverse culturally and in family structures, but there isn’t much economic diversity, mostly because of the tuition. The sports are amazing, and I have nothing but amazing things to say about the volleyball program, track, and basketball team. If you are engaged in the community here, we will engage right back.

I went to Head Royce for grades 6-12, and while it definitely has its issues, the education I received was second to none. IMO the issues were pretty small in comparison to the quality of education I received. College was pretty simple after Head Royce. The sports teams are also very competitive, and are good every year. On the whole, I enjoyed going to Head Royce, and I recognize that the tools it gave me were absolutely worth dealing with the competitive atmosphere.

I cannot say enough great things about the faculty at Head-Royce. In our experience thus far, the teachers have been passionate about teaching, dedicated to the children, and concerned about the children’s social-emotional development. We have found the academics at Head-Royce to be appropriately challenging without pushing the children too much. The teaching is interactive, fun, and multidimensional. The focus has been on developing critical thinking skills, true comprehension, and depth of knowledge versus rote memorization of facts. Another way in which we feel Head-Royce really teaches to the whole child is found in the richness of the children’s experiences each day. They are not only learning the core academic subjects–they are also engaged in music class, physical education, dance, library, art, drama, computers, foreign languages, and hands-on science in the science lab.