Awesome and caring teachers here at Peter Pan in Bay Farm. My children learnt so much here while feeling like part of the play. They learnt their first letters, pretending to read :) , build smaller projects (which I was lucky to keep them as lifetime memories), beautiful valentine gifts made by kids for their parents (the best part every year) and Most of all loving and caring teachers. I was very speculative and very selective in choosing the right place for my kid and today I am grateful for taking that decision. read more

Hi, my son has long since graduated from Peter Pan at Bayfarm and my daughter has finished and continuing in their summer program before starting K in the fall. The teachers are knowledgeable and have lot of experience. They are very loving, warm and friendly and have a genuine care for the kids. On my son's last day, one of the teachers actually teared up which shows how much care and attachment she has towards the children. I love how the teachers were also very knowledgeable and supportive with potty training and helped both of my kids get potty trained very quickly. I also remember being very impressed by their infant care and appreciated that one of the teachers was a mom herself with multiple kids of her own, and can see why she was so good with babies and toddlers. They teach the kids how to interact, play, and share with each other, which are important social skills to have. Lots of different activities (singing, arts/crafts, learning sign language, and Spanish, etc.) with a very cute graduation ceremony for all the pre-k in cap and gown. I do wish they taught more phonics, but my son has done fine at K public school so wouldn't say it's a huge deal. My daughter is able to recognize her alphabet letters and write her own name very well. Definitely give them a 5 star for the care and attention they've invested into my 2 children. read more

I'm a little frustrated with this place. I was looking for daycare for my little one and this place seem like a gem since it was near our home and had great reviews. But my frustration comes from trying to get into contact with someone. Me and my husband tried e-mailing them. No response. We requested a tour from their website. Great! My husband shows up for a tour and was told that the owner was on vacation and wasn't able to receive a tour. Ok that's cool - everyone deserves a vacation! The staff took down the name and number of my husband and was told that when the owner came back from vacation next week, we would hear back and finally able to get a tour. It's been more than a month and we haven't heard back. Maybe they are overwhelm? Maybe they have more business than they can handle and don't want us applying? Either way, we are just sad that we're not getting any communication from this place. read more

Day Care review Picking a daycare is such an important decision since they will be taking care of our children. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that the kids are properly taken care of. Seeing most of the reviews here on Yelp are 10+ years old, it doesn't reflect how this center is currently operating. We decided to leave this center due to multiple reasons such loss and misplacement of diapers, wipes but the most important one was the concern of not having any updates to all the injuries our infant/toddler would come home with. He would have scratches, bruises and teeth marks upon pick-up and not even once during our almost 1 year stay with them did we receive an incident report. When asked about the injuries they would tell us "let me ask their teacher" but would rarely follow up again. We wanted to document a specific incident, since we did not receive an incident report, by taking a pic of a bruise that looked like teeth marks and send it to them by email. They responded by calling us back and indicating that those are not teeth marks and bruises from probably playing with the building blocks they have. Regardless of how the incident occurred, they should provide us the proper notice for accidents and incidents at the center or else it just looks like the kids are being ignored. This is actually a licensing requirement that they are violating, and they are currently being investigated by licensing. Since none of the parents are allowed inside the facility anymore since the pandemic, it is more important now than ever that we can rely on the teachers there to report back incidents to make sure our kids are being properly supervised. After talking to other parents, they had the same feedback but afraid to speak up due to the lack of open spots at other daycares around this area and afraid of retaliation from their management team. Sure enough, once we gave our 30-day notice (which is uncommonly long for a daycare), they retaliated by charging us a daily-rate instead of pro-rating the monthly tuition so they can keep all the deposit. They are claiming that they don't do pro-rate for the tuition and it is indicated in the contract, however, upon enrollment we asked the same question and they said it did not apply to full-time kids and they did in fact pro-rate our enrollment month. We clarified at that point with the center director as well if that would apply for the last month too and she said yes. Now that we are on our 30-day notice period, they decided that is not true, regardless of the verbal communication that was given to us during our enrollment but also decided to charge us another for other things that we never agreed upon which left us paying almost all our deposit to them. When we brought the issue back with the director, she basically said that her hands are tied, and the management team handles it. She also mentioned that this is an issue they have had with almost everyone leaving due to the extremely inconsistent way they enroll people vs their last month. We did request her to provide us with the owners contact info for us to talk about this but she said that Mr Kamrani would call us instead. Up until our last day (over two weeks later after requesting to talk to the owner) we still had not heard from him and it wasn't until I emailed the director the issues (for documentation purposes) that we saw a response back from Yasmeen Kamrani basically justifying their reasoning to charging us more and indicating that sometime accidents happen. As of today, Yasmeen (their spokesperson) has not responded back to why there were no incident reports for our child despite multiple injuries occurred or providing proper signed agreement or documentation of why they were charging us extra for items never agreed upon or changing the pricing methodology during our 30-days notice. We left with an extreme bad taste in our mouth dealing with their management since they just see everyone coming there as dollar signs instead of humans/kids and when I brought up the issue of why they are not providing any incident reports they completely ignored it. Please be careful choosing this center. read more

Peter Pan Academy has been on Bay Farm in Alameda for over 30 years. My daughter has been there since pre-K. The director, Ms. Lucas, is the best out there. Not only did she teach her phonics, but she also taught her how to sing, dance and act on stage. My daughter's teachers, Mr. Hallford and Ms. Steenhard, have taught her how to read, spell, and do math. She's only in 1st grade, but is already subtracting in double digits. She reads at the 2nd grade level and loves her science and social studies classes as well. Peter Pan is not just a school, it's family. All the teachers know every parent and watch the children closely. I know my daughter is well taken care of there. read more

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I write this with sadness and through tears because I just found out that the former director of Peter Pan Academy, Mrs Lucas, passed away today from cancer she has been battling for years. I felt like she was in a partnership with my wife and I to see that our child was the best she could be. She really recognized my daughter's strengths and weaknesses, and brought out the best in her. I would sometimes come in to pick her up, and find the two of them in a room dancing to Elvis. She introduced the children to great art and artistry that most schools overlook. She will be missed. My daughter attended Peter Pan Academy from Pre-K through 1st grade. They hold high standards of education. Very clean. Good food. Both kids and parents love this school. ALL the teachers were superb and caring! Even after my daughter went to 2nd grade in a public school, she insisted on visiting Peter Pan school often and keeping in touch with the teachers and other kids. read more

In 2007, I enrolled my son into The Academy's program for Kindergarten. He stayed in the program through 2nd grade. Although it is a very small program, The Academy offers an excellent educational program. Kindergarteners typically start spelling tests by their third month in school. They start learning math, science, reading, language arts/grammar, and art. By the time my son left The Academy, he had started with the basics of multiplication and could add and subtract multiple digits (including borrowing). He could break down a sentence into its grammatical sections; was reading; and understood basic scientific concepts - just to mention a few things! The teachers - Ms. Steenhard, Mr. Hallford and Ms. Lucas - all work with the children. It is easy to talk with the teachers if you have any concerns or issues and trust me - they will talk with you if they have concerns or issues. It truly is a community unto itself and everyone - the children, the teachers and the parents work together to ensure that everyone's expectations are met. This is why my daughter will be starting The Academy in July. read more

My baby (age 2.75 years) recently started Peter Pan in their full time x5 days per week program! It's a SUPER safe neighborhood, they have an AWESOME playground, serve hot lunches and 2 snacks a day, have a healthy attitude about treats and don't have a "NO SUGAR" rule like a lot of other schools... They encourage the kids to eat their food instead of saying nothing and letting them starve, they also have a healthy attitude about TV and on occassion let the kids watch a little Disney, they are reasonable in cost, they don't take a lot of holidays, are open long hours, and they don't require Parent Volunteer Hours or split up Snack Duty amongst the parents like a lot of the other schools. Their Director Theresa Clement is the best too! She is totally hands on and involved - and in my opinion the reason this school rocks! read more

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When I moved to Alameda, I didn't think I could ever again love another preschool as much as I loved the one we left behind. Happily, I was wrong. On the first day, my oldest daughter walked in insisting that she was not going to like it. When I picked her up that afternoon and asked her how her day went, she smiled and said, "Great!" She hasn't changed her tone since. Every day we are greeted warmly when we come in, and are sent home with evidence of how active and creative they have been all day. They are on track with learning their letters and numbers, learning Spanish and sign language, and making good friends. They have a wonderful playground, safely fenced off from a lagoon with ducks and geese that they can look out on. The school provides lunch and snacks. There's an on-site gymnastics/sports enrichment program that my girls love. I must confess that, as with the old preschool, this one didn't blow my mind when I first toured it. But, as with the old preschool, it quickly became clear that this is a dedicated and caring group of people and I feel so lucky that they had spots for us. And I decided it was time to write this review after my middle daughter's teacher Brianne provided my daughter with a "Frozen" toy and activity book as a reward for all the hard work my daughter did in not having a tantrum for several days! This is a lovely place. read more

Ethical, educational and the best out there.. I attended this school from Pre-k to 5th grade (1993-1998) and have benefited enormously from their methods of teaching and to the emphasis on ethics. When I had eventually attended public school in Alameda, I realized that the curriculum in middle school had almost entirely been taught to me before at Peter pan, public school was literally easy and ease became confidence to work harder to excel. Am I gifted? No. Where they tough on me? No. The answer lies on their stubbornness in not giving up and patiently spending ample time one on one with teachers helping me learn and excel on subjects that I had not grasped. You don't get much of that in public schools. I still remember the feeling during the holiday seasons at Peter Pan, walking in the class smelling cookie treats and looking at the decorations hanging on the walls, (some bought and some made by my fellow students) a home outside of a home. Mr. Hallford would always be like a father to us, whether playing basketball or putting his foot down and making sure we were properly behaving-- if we were bad, the whole class would go quiet once he stepped in. He was in no way mean, just very well respected and fun. Ms. Lucas, the Director/ Principal, was also a treat. What I remember most of her is her laugh, lively and heartfelt, she brought along with it a feeling of comfort and inspiration. Of course we used to dread the idea of being sent to her office, but it was never as bad as we thought. In the office, Ms. Lucas, among others, would find out all sides of the story and also take time to talk to us in a manner that would allow us to think about our actions and the more appropriate ways to handle them. Of course, then after, they would purposely directly or indirectly make us feel better. You would never feel behind in class either, because of the effort each teacher makes in getting to know us throughout a grade year and taking time to personally work with us in class, after class and during recess. I can go on, but you should go and see for yourselves. We were all enriched by a well rounded experience from the education to table manners, from performing on stage to physical fitness and wellness. They expected the best in each other as staff and brought out the best in all of us. I am thankful that my parents were able to give me that experience and thankful for everyone in Peter Pan and their great work. I am counting on them being around for when I have children of my own. They deserve the recognition, they receive all my appreciation. Best Regards, Jonathan Ng read more

Ms. Lucas passed on Wed., May 2nd, and a service was held Thursday, May 10th. We are deeply grateful for Ms. Lucas' work, saddened by the loss, and saddened further that our second child won't get to benefit from her tutelage. read more

I am very pleased with Peter Pan and only have very positive things to say about it. The staff is great and work very well with the children. My daughter is excited each day and always has so much to tell me when I pick her up. She has been going since she was 2, she is now 4. She has progressed a lot and is able to write, spell, speak a bit of Spanish, and is now drawing her own characters to color. She loves her teachers and classmates, which makes it very easy to leave her there 8 hours. read more

My child has been going to Peter Pan Schools since 15 months old. She is now 7 years old and still enjoys going to school at Peter Pan Academy. The teachers and care givers are professional, caring, and wonderful in everyway. The Peter Pan staff has provided my child with an excellent education. My child loves reading, homework, and just really enjoys learning ... Peter Pan School is responsible for why my child is thriving in education. The hours are from 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM. The cost is very reasonable for what your child and you receive and lower than many other schools in the Bay Area. I highly recommend the school without reservations. L.P., Alameda, CA read more

My son started at Peter Pan Academy in 1991. It was one of the better decisions I made. The school is small but has a very engaging program. The foundation for education was set at an early age. I never asked him about his homework since he was a member of the homework club in the second grade. His test scores were at least a grade or two above the national average and when he graduated from the 6th grade some of his scores were in the high school level. They put a lot of attention to the students which I credit for the basis of his success. He has gone on to graduate from University of California Davis and is now attending the University of San Diego Law School. Peter Pan Academy is a school that cares , I am reminded of that every time I see a member of the staff and they would asked how my son was doing at Davis and now in law school. We finished there in 1998, we feel they are a part of our family for life. read more

My daughter has been with Peter Pan School since PreK. At first she was scared on that first day of school but there was an instant click between her and her PreK teacher Ms. Melanie - who is always enthusiastic and caring with all the kids. Kindergarten came, her teachers are Ms. Lucas (who is also the director), Ms. Steenhard and Mr. Hallford and all are very professional and dedicated educators. My daughter does her homework at home without being told to, reads above her age and does Math with ease. They even have a Spanish class which is a bonus. The cost is reasonable since it also includes 2 snacks and a hot lunch. I could not have asked for anything else. I am so happy my husband and I made this decision 3 years ago and the benefits are priceless! Thank you to all the staff of Peter Pan..and if ever we have another little one on the way, for sure this is the school we will go to...again. read more

f you are looking for a top-rate pre-school this is the place! My son (who is now 10) went to the bay Farm Island (Mecartney Rd) school from age 20 months to 5 years and we loved it so much that my daughter is now there (started at age 15 months). AND my daughter has the SAME teachers as my son had. This kind of staff consistency is one of the many pluses at this school. Many preschools change teachers constantly but some of these teachers have been there for 20 years. Next, the quallity of the care and education provided exceeds expectations. The Director and teachers provide loving care -- there's always a hug or cuddle available. The children have a varied and full day that includes plenty of outside/running around time, art and music and academics. My 2 year old is learning colors, letters and her numbers right now. More importantly, the school really stresses good manners - please, thank you, good table manners, holding the door open for others are all part of the expectation for these children. The children eat a hot lunch together every day (prepared by the same wonderful cook that's been there since my teen-aged niece was there!). As you can see, I can't say enough. There's time every morning to paint. They celebrate all the holidays so diversity is taught to these children in the best way possible. Charity (I colorful collection jar for Japan, for instance) and citizenship are also valued here. We are lucky to have this resource in our community. read more