Imagination Lab is a truly unique school that doesn't get enough recognition for its innovative approach to learning. Unlike traditional schools that often rely on outdated teaching methods, ILS was designed from the ground up to help kids truly thrive both at school and in the modern world. The school focuses heavily on project-based and student-directed learning. This approach not only makes learning more engaging and fun but also cultivates creativity and independent problem-solving skills that are essential for success in today's world. Instead of adhering to a rigid, predetermined curriculum, ILS takes a refreshingly flexible approach. They try to meet kids where they are, both individually and as a group, ensuring that each student remains engaged and appropriately challenged. One of the most innovative aspects of ILS is their mixed-age classes. This setup offers greater flexibility and creates a unique learning environment where younger students can learn from older ones, and older students develop leadership skills by helping their younger peers. The school's philosophy emphasizes positive experiences and reinforcement, understanding that nothing hinders learning more than making kids hate school. There's also a strong focus on social and emotional development, ensuring students treat each other with kindness and respect. As a result, kids genuinely love attending ILS - even those who struggled in more traditional educational settings. The school organizes many fun social events (including some open to visitors), and every semester culminates in a learning exhibition where students showcase their project work and participate in performances. These events are wonderful celebrations of the children's brilliance and creativity, perfectly highlighting everything they've learned. With only about 40 students total, children get much more individual attention, and the staff truly listens to families and tries to accommodate our needs. If you partner with them, they will partner with you, including in challenging situations. While ILS's approach arguably benefits almost any child, it's particularly valuable for students who are somewhat "outside the norm," such as gifted children or those with other learning differences. Although not specifically specialized in giftedness or any type of neurodivergence, the school's philosophy, openness, and flexibility make it naturally more accommodating and suitable for these students compared to conventional schools. Last but not least, the parent community at ILS is incredibly welcoming and close-knit. We all know each other and have become friends, adding another layer of support to the school experience. The tuition isn't cheap, but it's comparable to other private schools in the area. Financial assistance is available for qualifying families, and the tuition includes aftercare until 6 PM - a fantastic feature that my son loves so much he never wants to leave! Bottom line: If you're looking for an educational environment that nurtures creativity, independent thinking, and a love of learning while providing individualized attention, Imagination Lab is a great choice. P.S.: There are some negative reviews that seem concerning. I don't know what may have happened in the past, but that has not been our experience, nor do we know of any families who had such a bad experience. read more

We are very happy with ILS and think it's an outstanding environment for our child. Socially, the school offers a lot of opportunity for kids to interact, play and explore together. The mixed aged groups provide opportunities for the younger kids to learn from the older ones and for the older ones to coach and mentor the younger ones. We have regularly seen our kid go to the older children for support or comfort which warms my heart every single time. Academically the school is very flexible and adjusts content to our childs strengths and weaknesses. For example, our child is studying next grade math and spends more time practicing writing and drawing which are a bit of a challenge. The school also nurtured a great community for families and it's fun connecting with the other parents and siblings. read more

Our son just completed his K-year and we could not be happier to see his development at ILS. The first thing is that he loves ILS. He is happy going to school and he is always excited of the things that he learns there. In addition to the academics, we are most impressed with the growth in communications, self-reliance, self-advocacy and social collaborations. The school is small and their staff are excellent learning guides. Our son loves them all. The principal is a great example of how to make ILS a great experience for everyone. We are so thankful that we found ILS. read more

I wrote my first review when my son was in K and now that he's in 3rd grade, it's time to revisit to see how things are going: We continue to be happy with the school, and my son continues to be eager to go to school, always asking to stay back for aftercare, and have been more vocal when he needs to (this is a big win for us), takes interests in the things that is happening in the world and how we as individuals can help make the world a better place. His ability to work as a team with other kids that he learned at ILS is phenomenal as I see him being able to collaborate and strategize playing team games with others (even random youth strangers of different ages) when he's not in school. Learning is so much more than just academics. Any teacher can teach you how to do a math problem, read or complete a science experiment. But not just any teacher can teach all these and at the same time guide kids on how to work together as a team (imagine all the SEL going on here without even needing to sit in a class for it), think of the bigger picture, applying textbook knowledge in the real world and problem solve by thinking out of the box. You need exceptional learning guides to do this and I can say that the learning guides at ILS are truly exceptional. read more

I am one of the first group of parents for ILS but my experience with this group of educators has begun more than 2 years ago when my son enrolled in TK-K class at AltSchool Palo Alto. Several things to note first: - This is not a group of inexperienced folks starting a new school. Most of the educators worked with Chris (the head of the school) at AltSchool Palo Alto for years. They are simply trying continue what they did and what they are passionate about despite the unfortunate decision that AltSchool closed down its Palo Alto site. - This is not the old Imagination School. The information you find on the internet about Imagination School most likely won't be accurate about the new school. Why do I like about this school: - The overriding philosophy of the new school is to enable our kids to be a better version of themselves through self-driven learning. - Even when a kid is very young, Chris and his "learning guides" aim to let the kids themselves drive their own learning. - This is easier said than done. - But kids are born with tremendous drive to play, it is the job of the learning guides to channel that energy into learning. - In the end, there is a lot of -- project based learning -- social emotional learning -- community connection (not your dad's field trip) -- mixed age classroom -- individualized learning This is not your ideal school, if: - you want assignment and worksheet for your kids - you are uncomfortable with risks of a small school - you are not curious enough yourself (and willing to learn and practice it) about this new style of education read more

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We want to write this review from the perspective of parents of a neurodivergent child. We spent a lot of time trying to find a school that would provide a safe learning environment for our kid and was committed to inclusivity, especially in terms of neurodiversity. Our child had an ABA aid during preschool and we wanted to find an elementary school where we could continue this aid, in an environment where both neurotypical and neurodivergent children would thrive together. Let me tell you, there are not a lot of options out there. Not a whole lot of schools are willing to provide an inclusive environment and commit to form well-rounded children. Imagination Lab stood out as the best school in those regards, and, after a year and a half with them, it has been an amazingly positive experience. 1. The teachers. The most important aspect we've observed is how much dedication and interest the teachers put into the children's formation. They got to know our child and what motivates her, and offered a lot of support to understand our child's strengths and limitations. They were very supportive of the ABA program and created an inclusive space for our child to thrive on. 2. Their commitment to inclusivity. We are very thankful to the school for their continued support for our child's needs and working with us to make her feel included in all activities in the school. Chris (The school director) and the teachers worked with the ABA team and us to develop the best plan for our child. Thanks to this cross-team effort, our child grew in ways that we couldn't have anticipated, developing her social skills at an accelerated pace and becoming a well-rounded person as the school year progressed. The ABA team expressed their admiration for the deep knowledge of developmental needs and care the school teachers showed in the past year. Thanks to their support, our child was able to graduate from ABA support faster than expected. Imagination Lab is genuinely committed to ensuring an inclusive environment for all kids, and they do it because it's the principled thing to do. 3. Their approach to learning and academics. Before we arrived at Imagination Lab, we had a less-than-ideal experience with other schools in the area, which were known for their strict and rigorous approach to learning. We discovered that rigidity hindered imagination and creativity, and wasn't a good fit for our child. With Imagination Lab, we have seen an explosion in creativity and curiosity from our child, as she shares with us her thoughts and questions after connecting the concepts she's learning at school with the things she observes every day. We strongly believe that the future leaders, especially in Silicon Valley, are formed in an inclusive environment with emphasis on fundamentals and a holistic approach to learning, and ILS is doing all the right things in that sense. We've seen our kid transfer the skills and lessons learned at school to other aspects of her life, at home when we play, at the playground, with other kids, and this we think is the ultimate metric of success for elementary education. 4. Leadership and Management. We were very impressed, during the first months of Covid-19 lockdown, on how well prepared leadership was to deal with remote learning. While other schools struggled to support a new mode of learning, ILS was pretty much ready from day one. Her experience during the first year as a remote learner was very positive and we didn't feel she was missing out on any activities. We switched to in-person mid-year earlier this year and it was incredibly smooth. The rapport and friendships she had developed online were evident from day one when she met her teachers and classmates in person. 5. Community Building. We as parents feel a part of the ILS community. We feel welcome in the school meetings and we're eager to contribute and help create experiences for our children. The kids love it too and they get to feel part of an extended community of teachers and parents. We were, for example, part of the Halloween activities this year and everyone had a blast. We've been very pleased with the care and dedication the school has shown towards our child, and we are enormously thankful for their support to make our child feel included and empowered to become a well-rounded person. read more

When we moved to the US two years ago our daughter had a hard time adjusting to the school system in the US. She is bright but constantly felt overwhelmed by how much pressure she had to learn. She started disliking learning, and this was concerning to us. She was also starting to get frustrated when she did not know the answer to things. In January, we visited several schools in the Bay area, and came to realize quickly that ILS would be the best fit for our two daughters. The staff is caring, they listen, the teachers see the potential of the staff, and they see that you can learn when your mind can also take breaks. Our two daugthers have come to love ILS, even asking to go on the weekends. We are so grateful to have discovered this place, which did not only become a school, it became a community. read more

I am delighted that you are reading this, because that means you have stumbled upon ILS, (Imagination Lab). It has been quite the learning curve to be a new parent and a journey to figure out all the things that come along when you have your child in primary education. Choosing a Daycare you can say was easy compared to choosing the foundation of your child's learning. With Covid, Preschool and Kindergarten was a wash - 1st grade in our local public school was truly horrible. The blanket treatment and stoic sentiment didn't help. I could see my son was not enjoying learning. I couldn't do that again in 2nd grade. I did my research, and found ILS. The school feels like a community and all the kids know each other and they treat and greet each other with the utmost delightfulness independent of grade. The staff is quick to provide feedback when need be and as a parent where everything worries me; I feel that ILS understands this and helps not just the kids, but the parents along this journey. The monthly coffee hours are great to meet other parents. The school events are inclusive, thought provoking (think reserve trick or treating) and the community comes together. In just one year (2nd grade), I see his joy and the confidence to create from his imagination. It's great to see him figure out things on his own, he isn't afraid to start a project and find the resources. He understands composting and can't wait to be in 3rd grade where he gets to work on the vegetable garden. ILS works for our family because it allows my son to thrive in his learning and in his community. read more

My son transitioned from spending almost three years in a wonderful program for dyslexic kids (Touchstone Learning). He is very well remediate but still needs some accommodations and extra support in writing. I've been very impressed by this program. The teachers are very caring and find authentic ways to support the kids' social emotional growth as well as academic growth. It has been a great place for my son to transition from a special program focused on remediation to a "regular school". read more

We've been with the ILS team since 2017 (AltSchool days) with a brief break in 2018 during the transition to ILS. For context, we have five children and have been at multiple schools in the area--private and public. We have been at some of the most gorgeous, most highly sought-after, gifted, diverse, homogenous, and privileged schools in Atherton, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto. Our kids are smart (as are most in the area!), but humble and down-to-earth. We wanted a school that reflected our values of high expectations while being supportive and loving. We have always valued diversity and as a graduate-level educator myself, I have a strong appreciation for pedagogy and the value of innovation in education. We have been at nearly eight schools between preschool to middle school in the immediate area. Not because we have been asked to leave but because we have a high bar for character development alongside academic achievement, and I'm not afraid to make a change when I see that there isn't a good fit. We have always appreciated the strong partnership we have with Chris and the entire team at ILS. They build curious, resilient, and motivated lifelong learners. Learning guides (not teachers--there is a distinction!) are there to help our children grow, discover, and feel. We appreciate the emphasis on social-emotional learning (SEL)--a buzzword many schools use these days but don't always employ (likewise with project-based learning (PBL)). We have always valued the efforts to build community through partnerships with local sources of enrichment--art, agriculture, robotics, chess, and financial empowerment. The curriculum offers dedicated English Language Arts, STEAM, Math, PE, and Mandarin. I love Painted Reflections--a time for students to reflect on a particular video or reading through artistic expression. Our children learn at their own pace, which means they may cover advanced topics in math, reading, and writing--which I know my kids appreciate. Disclosure: I'm not a helicopter parent--I give my kids the autonomy to learn as their minds desire. We have a mix of learners (some very highly gifted and others who are average to above average) and I trust the team at ILS to help my kids set and achieve their goals. I have been extremely pleased with the caring individuals my children have become under the ILS team's tutelage. read more

This message was left to parents for their consideration who might be interested in an application. My son has been in this school from 2018 till early May 2020 that we called for an early withdrawal from this school, because we found out: 1. This school has not yet registered with California Association of Independent Schools, which means it cannot be held accountable as it doesn't have any accreditations. You might wonder what this might influence us as parents, well, it basically means you cannot protect your child if anything bad happens. What you can do is to write a negative comment on yelp with anger like what I am doing now, and pack yourself up with more work to find a new school for the children while you still have shadows over the mind if the experience in his school might take a long time to fade. 2. My son was left unattended in a seclusion room when he was punished for 'misbehavior'. 3. My son was bullied by the teacher due to his mental disability by being blocked from accessing the Zoom class which he was supposed to sit in. It took place in April 2020. 4. It was from last year. The school is not professional in campus security. My son had a serious accident at school that he fell off and badly hurt his mouth that we had to take him to see the doctor right away. Unfortunately the school and the teacher failed to give us any written report after it. 5. The school refused to support the student and the family when he had special needs. The school kept complaining about my son's behavior in December and January, which always made his day tough at school and after home we had to spend a lot of time dealing with his bad emotions brought from school, however we were accused by school for not well parenting before he was sent to school. In order to support our son at school, we decided to take our son to run a psychological test in February. And it was sarcastic, as when we resorted to professional advice, the school failed to cooperate with us in this assessment, which led to a consequence that our psychologist was not able to draw a diagnosis for our son because she cannot get any classroom observations from the school. What made this worse, the teacher who was supposed to help us in this submission, lied to us about her doing her part, however our psychologist has never received anything from her on system. 6. Discrimination based on culture and mental disability. Our son is highly suspected as ADHD who might have special needs but he cannot be equally treated by the teacher and the school. My son is always the only one who was punished even if it was a collective 'misbehavior' because the principal considered him as an attention seeker. He was seldom listened to, but was forced to admit his mistakes without asking him why. When I complained to the school for the first time, the school pretermitted my email and twisted my story by indicating our family did not understand the American culture as we are immigrants. 7. The school ignored concerns from parents. Our son is highly suspected as ADHD but he was also very superior in academics. Our psychologist told us he was literally feeling bored because the school was definitely too easy for him. We gently proposed to the principal that if it was OK to adjust our son's learning level so that he could have more academic challenges and it might also help to solve his problem of being distracted in class. The principal turned down our suggestion, by telling us they had more superior students at school. Other than this confusing answer, we have never received any constructive proposals to improve our son's efficiency at school. Don't forget this is a very small school with a teacher student ratio at 1:4 that claims to provide with progressive and social emotional learnings. How could a school be trusted if what it is doing is detached from what it boasts. If the school refuses to listen to parents when it is small, an anticipation of it would grow better would be an airy-fairy idea. read more

An update after 2.5 years at ILS: This is our son's 3rd year at ILS now and we couldn't be happier with our experience with the school and with the growth our son has undergone both academically and socially. There are numerous points that I could mention as to why we keep choosing ILS as our school, below are just a few of them: First and foremost, ILS keeps our academically challenged with goals that are individual to him as a learner. The learning guides are really great, they take time to connect with each learner and provide a program that is truly engaging, sparks thinking and is connected to everything else they are doing at school at a given time. We noticed that our son is developing a bigger sense of responsibility and ownership towards his classroom assignments and projects as well as his behavior. We see him being empowered and believing in himself, being happy every single day at the idea of going to school and not wanting to leave it as the day finishes. We appreciate the ILS environment, the space and the schedule, with aftercare following the school day, that provide a healthy balance of social time with the peers and movement breaks on top of the academic work, all in addition to their daily PE class. The environment and the program is setup with a whole child and the newest research about child development and effective learning in mind. Creativity, flexibility, scientific thinking and problem solving are at core of everything they do as a community. This was also reflected in the school's response to the pandemic and transition to online learning. Our child did not miss an academic year like some of his friends in other schools, unfortunately, had to. All the learning guides were present for the classes daily and available for the learners online, including at independent work time. This helped us as parents tremendously and we avoided the home-schooling nightmare that many other families around us were going through with parents having to take on teacher's work or be active participants in their child's school day. After full re-opening this year, the school supported every learner to smoothly transition back to safe in-person learning. We've been very happy with enrichments classes as well in the last two years, they did coding and financial literacy class last year, and have been doing chess for the second year now. There are a couple more classes offered during the aftercare this year, we, however, did not sign our son up for them at this time, since when he has time to stay in the aftercare, he seems to be too busy with the student-lead clubs that are currently being setup by some of the learners. read more

As a parent of three school age children living in Palo Alto, we feel it's our responsibility to let people know about this, otherwise this may just keep going on. We are new to the Bay Area and when we were researching schools for our kids, we found ILS to be shockingly unacceptable. We found that there were kids injured due to teacher negligence during school time. But this was covered up because that very teacher was having an affair with the school head! We even saw middle school students getting overly physically close without any teacher on site when we passed by the school, which is just randomly situated in a local community center. We were also taken aback when we recently saw students and teachers having a yelling match against each other. We reckon that with such unethical school head leadership, their student body would be deeply problematic. read more

I have compiled a list below for why you might want to think twice before sending you child to Imagination Lab School (ILS). This is based on our observations, and observations from 3rd parties who spent weeks with our child in the classrooms. They have nothing to gain by telling us what they saw. We had been with the current head of school, Chris Bezsylko, for 1.5 years. 1. It is a red flag when parents are told that they are not allowed to observe the classes when your child is in class. Parents are only allowed to go into school if they have a skill that they want to share with the children. Otherwise, no parents are allowed even if you have a concern. 2. Another alarm is that Chris Bezsylko, and the Chair of the board, both have ILS school age kids of who do not go to ILS. 3. The school's website boast 1:5 teacher student ratio. That is not true. In fact, injuries have occurred because of this false statement (my child burnt off most of his skin off one finger when left alone with another child in the lab.) Chris has repeatedly told us that he was understaffed - a fact he ignored and does nothing about to ensure the safety of the kids. 4. They call themselves a "Global School". Unless you consider China and US the only countries in the world, they are not global in any way. Also, you are "encouraged" to download a Chinese App call AmRhino in order to see updates and pictures from school. Do you really want your information out there for China to have access to it? The App is also very inept. 5. Chris is not really interested in the children's curiosity. Ask a question & you are challenging him. There were a lot of "You know why" when the kids are confused as to why they are being punished, and a lot of "just do it" when kids question the point of a project or assignment. 6. It was also observed that most teachers didn't use positive reinforcement. (There are a couple of good teachers left there to be fair.) The third parties also observed a lot of yelling and neglect by a couple of the staff. 7. Lessons are poorly executed and shallow. For example, kids were given a squash and they were to make cars with them. To measure how good the cars were, they were to go down a ramp and distances were measured. There were 3 ramps and all were built differently, at different angles, and w/ different supports. There was no advice from the teacher about how the cars should be built, no discussion on what might make them better. Distance measurements of the cars should not be compared for merits when the ramps are all different. There was also no discussion of speed, velocity, momentum, etc. Kids built the cars, threw them down the ramp, distances were measured. Period. It is unclear that the kids are learning anything. 8. Their boasting of diversity and inclusion is a huge lie. Chris was repeatedly observed to be bullying kids who have special needs / neuro-diversed. He singled these children out and shamed them in front of other children by taking them out of class, yelling at them, and /or punishing them w/o explanation. He complains to the parents of neuro-diversed kids things that a normal child would do, but when non-neuro-diversed kids do them, they are not disciplined. When the leader of the school treat certain group badly, all the children will follows suit. This created a hostile environment for all the neuro-diversed kids. If your child fits into a mold, this might be an acceptable daycare. If your child has any exceptions, be it intelligence, learning disability, or even for having a tic, then I advise you to reconsider. The Head of School is a good sales person and talks a good pitch. He calls himself a life learner, but reality simply does not reflect this. Chris stubbornly applies the same methods that he believes would work on all children, and when it does not work on one child, he resorts to complaining and bullying. He once grabbed my child's face and got into his face to yell at him. My child has started to push his face into ours when he is experiencing the slightest frustration. When we helped him by making suggestions on methods that we know would work, hired third parties to help out our child in the classroom, and asked professionals to advise him, he still did not listen and kept trying his methods that did not yield any results. When we gently asked if he was perhaps focusing on our child's behaviors more than others, he denied it and was defensive immediately, refusing to self reflect. Moreover, Chris likes to blame kids without investigation. Once he admitted that he wrongfully accused and punished my child (not to mention publicly humiliated him), but he would not apologize. I spoke with 3 parents and 4 children and found out the truth. It wasn't a lot of investigating. Accountability does not exist with this person who has no place in education. read more