I was very happy with our daughter's development at this school... in the beginning. Unfortunately, the little things that were bothersome started piling up to big things.
First, the director at this location is horrendous. Not only does she try to talk down to parents as if they themselves are children, but she rolls her eyes at parents when they say goodbye to their child. She goes out of her way to create a toxic environment not only for the teachers at the school, but the children. My daughter was terrified of her and would tell me stories of her pointing at her. I knew something was wrong when I escorted her into her classroom later than I usually did and my daughter froze in fear when she saw that the director was also in the room. How long has this been going on?
Second, the mandatory potty-training at two years of age, no matter if the child is ready, is ridiculous. Every child is different and will achieve potty readiness at a different stage and age. Why make every single two year old child wear training pants, regardless of development? I know why. Money. On top of the monthly tuition, they charge $25.00/week for potty-training. At first, it was presented as optional, but when I was told that she was not allowed to wear a diaper to school, it certainly wasn't optional. That's an extra $100.00 a month, sometimes more (depending on how many weeks there are in a month), and that doesn't include the extra cost incurred for washing out clothing and potty training pants every day.
Third, when I would pick up my daughter in the late afternoon, I wanted to know how she was doing, but the only answer I ever got was "I don't know" or "I'm not sure." It got to the point where I stopped asking. There is zero communication between the teachers in the morning and the teachers in the afternoon. And, going back to my previous statement about potty-training: if I wanted to know if my daughter pooped that day, I had to walk all the way to the other building in the back of the school that housed the potty training log to see if she actually went or not. If this ratio at this school is 12-1, how difficult would it be for the teacher to write up a small note to the parents every day about their child's development?
Fourth, if your child picks up bad habits from other students and is labeled a "problem child," they will do everything in their power to see to it that your child is written up constantly, to the point that you leave on your own or they threaten to kick your child out. My daughter was picked on by two other OLDER students in her class and as far as I could tell, nothing was done about the other children pinching, pushing, kicking, and hitting her. My daughter has been taught to tell an adult if someone bothers her, but instead she started to retaliate on her own. Why? Because nobody seemed to notice that she was being hit first. When she finally did report that she was hit first, the teachers didn't believe her, since it was after the fact.
Ugh. I'm so glad I removed my daughter from this school. It made me sad to take her out because I really liked it at the beginning, but the toxic environment the director has created there is not a place I want my child to be in. I thought this was supposed to be a private Christian school? What kind of Christian values are they teaching these kids when the staff purposely teases the children just to get a reaction out of the child and then laugh a the reaction? Or, how about the director telling my daughter that she's mean? Maybe the director should evaluate her own actions. read more