I would not recommend this school to anyone who was planning on their 3+year old going there…read more
If you want a daycare that masquerades as a Montessori school, this is it. They "follow the child" in a way that also doesn't help to guide, help, educate , or keep the child safe.
After 6 months of our eldest being there, she said she was repeatedly being bullied by a child. I contacted the teachers, asked for help, and they said "it's normal childhood development." I said I would like them to keep an eye on it, they didn't.
After more bullying, I talked to the bully's parents. They stated, the teachers had never even talked to them about his behaviors (You might be asking how do you fix something if you can't talk about it at home, the answer is you can't). The parents stepped in and it was better for a short time, but then he began to bully my younger child instead.
The owner of the school, is too afraid of conflict, so she does not address bullying. She was completely unable to have a constructive conversation around a child's abusive behavior, AND she scares the other teachers away from those conversations as well.
She also didn't address a random mom that frequently taught there, yelled at my 2 year old after the abusive 5 year old had lashed out towards my son. There is no reason a caregiver should yell at a two year old to the point of tears.
I watched said 5 year old physically shoulder check, push down, and call my son mean names on the playground at various pick ups/drop offs. He also shamed him about being friends with his older sister and her friends that were girls, to the point of which he would not come into a woman's restroom with me (it was later determined the bully repeatedly called him a girl), my son was 2 years old, being bullied about gender is totally inappropriate. Yet, the school would not talk with me about a possible safety plan after all these incidents.
The interaction with the mom "helper" (also friends with the bully's parents', below), was the last straw, despite family hardships we made it work
without child care, rather than leaving our children in the unsafe environment with these people.
I want to reiterate, I asked for a plan to help these kids at least 4 times, over the course of a year. I even offered to help find services to the other child's family. The owner gaslighted everyone involved, including her other staff members who had observed the situations. The other staff members confirmed that not only that the child was bullying, but that he was also stopping lessons for everyone in the class. The owner denied everything, until our exit interview, which she acknowledged the child was abusive and encouraging his younger brother to act in an abusive way as well. She had no plan to curb the behaviors.
Do what you have to do for child care, but don't expect the helpful, safe, kind values they state. They can't uphold them.
