My child attended Ashcreek's summer camp in 2022 and unfortunately it was not a positive experience. The director, who is also a teacher and happened to be my child's teacher for camp, does not possess qualities one would expect. She lacks the ability to make competent decisions regarding children's safety. Today, a 2 year old camper broke her arm, having climbed up the playground wall multiple feet, not having been supervised close enough. As a parent volunteer, I was there at least 1-2 x a week assisting in the classroom and outside during playground time and lunch. This school is currently located at a church with a playground designed for kids ages 5 and up. Sadly, the camp teachers did not believe it was a concern for kids as young as 2 to be climbing up steep structures. All the children in our care were 4 or younger, yet allowed to go on a very large, tall playground structure including a bridge with no side railings. I expressed my concerns multiple times to the director/teacher and she dismissed them, having replied "well, if the kids fall, it would be a soft landing". What??? I encouraged her to close the structure, or at least the most dangerous sections, and she dismissed my ideas. When kids got hurt, she would downplay the extent of these kids' injuries to their parents. Very unsettling!
Another major issue is that most of the teachers and a good portion of the parent volunteers spend more time chatting vs. watching the children outside closely and engaging with them. There were multiple times I felt nearly alone watching approximately 24 kids! I have worked at multiple camps and schools over the last 20+ years and would say this school is a poor example of what a preschool level camp / school should be like in regards to safety, both inside and outside. Inside, the classrooms lack use of secure doors. Doors are left open and although there are baby gate roll up screens, these are not used regularly. One parent's son escaped the class recently and ran out the door into the parking lot. The parking lot is right next to the playground area too. There is no fence.
Inside the class, teacher Julie was often unable to get a handle on behavioral issues multiple children had. My daughter was slapped, shoved, and had items thrown at her from other children on a daily basis. If it were not for parents volunteering in the class, I think there would have been even more accidents. Every time I volunteered, the parents were doing the bulk of the work (disciplining, cleaning, supervising children, etc.). I do believe Julie would do well working one on one with a child, but anymore than this, doubtful. I pulled my child out before the month long camp session ended given the unsafe environment and number of sick kids showing up.
My reason for 2 stars vs. one is that they do follow a fair amount of COVID procedures and there is a fairly responsible newer teacher in the young toddler classroom who would likely thrive further if the director were more engaged and could serve as a quality boss. My hope in writing this review is that the school will come up with stricter policies, enforce the rules, get rid of staff that are unqualified, and hire a director that can direct sufficiently. The children must be cared for more closely and by staff that have high quality training in early childhood education. I do want to state that I did my due diligence researching this school prior to enrolling my child. I did know of a few negative reviews from parents but also read many positive ones. Given the relatively short length of a camp session, I assumed it would be okay to try out and there were no other camps in the area that I could find. I have had positive experiences with Creative Hands Preschool and Southwest Parent Child Collective (both co-ops) over the last few years, so do know there are other options. read more