This is a review for Synapse's TK program. My son has been in Teacher Mickey & Teacher Natasha's class for a year this year. My son's TK experience has been truly above and beyond what we wanted for early childhood education. All the great activities that foster joyful learning, all the field trips, events that bring the community together have been so beautifully thought out and planned, we had no idea this kind of education was even possible for little kids. We were grateful each day when we sent my son to school, because we trusted that he would be well taken care of and have a good time. It meant a lot to us as parents. The teachers cared so much about students' happiness, well-being, and materials they were learning. They truly, genuinely cared, and all the parents of TK students could feel it. Throughout the year, we were constantly impressed by the teachers' willingness to go above and beyond. These teachers are not ordinary teachers who rely on easier field trips or simpler projects. They take kids to the most interesting and enriching places on their field trips, places such as ice skating rinks, beaches, ponds where you can catch tadpoles, senior centers, pumpkin patches, cactus garden, etc. Their creativity and willingness to get messy were also truly inspiring. The TK class built an awe-inspiring life-size whale shark together and had so much fun celebrating Holi. The TK class cooked great lunches and sold them to parents as well. The teachers went an extra mile, even though it meant so much more work for themselves, because they have a genuine passion for sprinkling curiosity and exploration in their students. We also deeply appreciated how they created so many opportunities to recognize diverse cultures and bring families together for events like Diwali and Lunar New Year. They were extra careful to include all of the countries' traditions, which gave my son a sense of belonging and harbored a pride in his heritage. We are immensely grateful and feel incredibly honored that my son had such thoughtful, dedicated, and innovative teachers like them. Knowing he was in their care gave us immense peace of mind. And this review is not just about TK teachers at Synapse. Everyone we met at Synapse has been genuinely nice and down to earth. All the teachers, staff, students and parents formed such a warm, wonderful community. read more

The children are marvelously guided to follow their curiosity and do meaningful projects like study change makers in society. I have worked with many schools and never seen such attentive care for children and teens by teachers. It's a joy to see! read more

We love Synapse! Our experiences in TK and Kinder, have been exceptional, largely due to the incredibly dedicated and empathetic teaching staff. My kid loves going to school everyday and is well engaged. What distinguishes Synapse even further is its embrace of neurodiversity and its application of research-backed methodologies, in collaboration with Stanford, which go beyond the typical progressive school approach. Social-emotional learning (SEL) and amazing changemaker themes are seamlessly woven into a broad array of subjects, including science and art. This integration fosters a rich and comprehensive educational experience that is well positioned to setup the next generation for success. Their approach is aimed at meeting the unique developmental needs of each student. For instance, my child, who is signficantly advanced in math, is encouraged to explore and apply mathematical concepts in depth across various disciplines and real-life scenarios, rather than simply moving ahead in a traditional, grade-skipping manner. The recent addition of a new math specialist has injected even more creativity and progressive thinking into the math program! My kid has also been well supported in her areas of struggle such as transitioning between activities. We highly recommend Synapse School to families seeking a warm, down to earth, holistic, forward-thinking educational environment for their children. read more

Weird campus. Seemed unsafe to drop kids at their disjointed sports place (sports house in Redwood City) and have kids cross the very busy road multiple times daily. Also the campus is very industrial and unappealing. Apart from that I found some of the teachers to be over the top in their interactions. Also they have a collaboration with a stanford research lab- I am not sure applying unproven ideas about cognition is such a good approach. Whatever is known about good education is common sense- rest is speculative and especially in cognitive sciences is at a very superficial Level right now. I had a feeling they use Stanford lab as a marketing tool. Some of what they proudly displayed - putting headgear on students and having them 'control' electro mechanical devices with their 'brains' seemed outright silly and superficial. read more

Our child was only there for middle school. Jim cares very little about 8th grade matriculation and unless you want them to go to kehillah, nueva or boarding school, your options are limited. now the school is constantly interested in us as alumni and where we are going to college as if to take credit somehow that where our kid went in middle school has anything to do with where they are landing for college. the math program led our child way behind a traditional math curric but we were one of the few not supplementing synapse with Russian math. read more

This is a repost - all my previous yelp reviews just disappeared, and I am making an effort to repost reviews for my kids' preschool and elementary schools because I feel the reviews help other parents who are searching for the right fit. Synapse School is a great school. The curriculum is innovative and engaging, teachers are passionate, and the community is diverse enough to be able to find your tribe. It is true sometimes their curriculum didn't seem accelerated enough, but when you take a long view, the interdisciplinary project-based, integrated curriculum really builds the foundation of habits of a learner's mind (curiosity, engagement, persistence, collaboration, communication). The one example from my son's last semester here, the early US history unit integrated with the geometry of land area calculations, the science of the natural habitat of various US geographic locations, the social science of the economy of trading natural resources, and eventually writing of declarations of independence and the constitution in one long semester arc while the students played out a part throughout the semester. While the children are investigating all these different aspects of early US settler's life, their social-emotional learning was bootstrapped daily through twice-daily meetings to decompress their emotions- some students were given the role of oligarchs having all the wealth and power. That emotion of injustice led to the writing of some powerful declarations of independence. We left the school after three years, because while we found our tribe in the community, ultimately, the distance and traffic to Menlo Park made little things difficult - like playdates. At a young age in elementary school, playdates are an essential part of healthy social development, and without them, my son had a harder time forming a larger base of allies and friends. He had a couple of best friends, but in a setting where those friends are not present, there was almost apathy from the other kids. When we moved to the local school GATE program, he gained the whole class as friends, but he really missed the teachers and curriculum from Synapse dearly. All in all, my son gained a great foundation in habits of a mind for a learner here at Synapse. At his current middle school, his leadership, kindness, his academic achievements are praised, and I believe some of that growth was planted during the years at Synapse and continued to be well nurtured in the current middle school. read more

This is our fourth year at Synapse and we couldn't be happier. I'll share something I said at a parent tour event. When considering different schools, parents will often try to figure out what the focus is of any school. Synapse makes a bet that to succeed in the 21st century, kids need to have advanced EQ stills. Success is not based on knowledge, but rather their ability to learn, be compassionate and work with others, and iterate through failure. However, it's a false choice to think we must chose between EQ training and traditional skills development and knowledge acquisition. Synapse does both (ask admissions about its stellar test scores) with humility and a never ending quest for innovation and improvement, much like the people in the broader community it serves. read more

My daughter and I LOVE this school - from the teachers to the students to the challenging curriculum. Synapse school integrates compassion and academic excellence into their teaching standards, emphasizes the importance of values, rigor and builds leaders through each of their classes and lessons. It is a great fit for my daughter, she has more confidence when asking questions and engages wholeheartedly in school activities. Her teachers are always there to support her one one one. This has made her a better organized student. Teachers and administration are passionate about seeing their students and school succeed. Every child is unique. The staff are so great about sharing moments of growth and joy they see within your child - their good behaviors and achievements; and they know the importance of getting the parents involved should an issue arise, and do it in a very respectful, approachable manner. The parents community is aligned behind the values of school. I've felt welcomed at all times. Great team - great school! I would strongly recommend Synapse school to prospective parents. read more

I have four kids and they have all attended Synapse School. We love the EQ program (it's real!) and the integration of EQ into every lesson. I love that EQ gives parents, teachers, and kids a common language of empathy and thoughtfulness for communicating about all sorts of subjects. The teachers at Synapse are exceptional and the "secret sauce" in the school's overall success. They are hardworking, creative, and have EQ in spades. The teachers create a brand new curriculum every trimester, and the whole school has an overall theme and a Changemaker, whose core messages and lessons are also intertwined with all the classroom experiences. The school also creates a Personal Education Plan for each child which sets goals, tracks progress, and creates a wonderful narrative record of your child's learning. I love the true project-based learning methods used where kids start their lessons with a question and learn through experimenting and projects to find the answers. The Middle School solidifies intrinsic motivation, executive function, self-advocacy, and critical thinking which are all skills that my children have used a ton in high school. Having wonderful and solid adults in the Middle School that kids can talk to as they cruise through early adolescence is very comforting to me as a parent. The social environment is developmentally appropriate and there are really nice friendships between boys and girls. My kids want to go to school every day at Synapse. My children who have graduated are doing very well in high school, academically strong and socially and emotionally healthy. I have been very happy with our experience. read more

Our 2nd year at Synapse is over and we're off to summer. I've decided to reflect, and post here, because 3 years ago when we were looking for schools I would have appreciated it. Synapse has many strengths. The staff is passionate. They work hard and give it their all. There's an excellent energy. The curriculum is creative, and I'm inspired by it. Other 5 star posts detail more positive aspects, but omit areas of concern. My first concern is academic. The school claims it "prepares exceptional learners [with] an advanced academic curriculum fully integrated with social emotional learning." We have a child both strong, and needing help, in different subjects. We specifically sought out a school that could, as synapse puts it, "develop gifted learners into the change makers of tomorrow." Gifted children are asynchronous. http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/social-emotional-issues/asynchronous-development This means they often need help in some areas, while it can be hard to keep them learning at subjects they excell in. We didn't feel the top public schools in the area could handle that, but hoped Synapse could. Unfortunately, Synapse still relies on requesting families to pay for tutoring for subjects where children need help at the same time as not offering math groups. We were hoping for more differentiation than Synapse is able to offer. Another concern is that two families were removed from the school this year. For a school that markets social emotional integration, it doesn't seem they put this into practice for either the children or the adults in this case. The school didn't comment to other families as to why students were removed. Speaking with the affected parents has left me with only one side of the story. In summary, the school didn't have resources to help the children. One family was given very short notice, and the other more time but still no options. 1st and 2nd graders are still quite a young age to not be working with the children on behavior issues. The school's actions communicated that they'll help with emotional development, but not in the moments when the child needs help. Some school actions were counterproductive, including frequently sending children home. Staff was reported to comment, "I don't care if sending them home reinforces a negative behavior, it's not my problem." This whole experience has left me feeling uneasy about how the school puts social emotional development into practice. Other concerns seem minor in comparison. Many teachers are very inexperienced. The facilities aren't great. These we did know coming in. As I get to this point, I'm unsure if we'd re-enroll. But, that was decided in January and we're paid in full for a year. This fall we'll see how synapse goes, and take a closer look at our public schools and other private options to decide for next year. I hope this review helps others have a more complete picture and a starting point for questions to have in mind when evaluating schools. read more

Our son attended this school for one year. We had some good- and a lot of bad- experiences. First, the good. His teachers were eager and engaged*, and the curriculum was very hands-on with a strong focus on building social intelligence. Moreover, the other kids in the school were stunningly intelligent and intellectually active. We found this mix to be a blessing and a curse. Our son got some exposure to some very interesting kids, but most of them had social problems. It wasn't a very good environment for him to work on his own social problems. Now, the bad. I can sum up the most fundamental problem in one word: hypocrisy. For example, they asked us over and over not to let our son watch anything remotely violent- and preferably nothing at all- on TV and in movies. But on my first classroom visit, the teachers put on Scooby-Doo for an hour or so. Not such a big deal to me, but it had the average slapstick, "bonk the perpetrator on the head" stuff you'd expect in old Scooby-Doo episodes. And this was hardly the only time they asked us to do something at home and did the opposite in their school. Also, with all the lip service they give social intelligence they simply didn't know how to handle our son's social challenges. Our son was taken out of the classroom about once a day on average. These problems were escalated to us about once a week; this was a huge disruption as we would have to drop everything and pick him up. Every time I picked him up, my son would tell me what a bad person he was. Eventually, they asked us to send him to a psychologist. After thousands of dollars of tests and a lot of time invested, the psychologist's recommendation was to take him out of the school and put him in an environment where his good nature was reinforced. To top it all off, the principal initially told us she would gladly talk to the psychologist to help her with her diagnosis, yet when the psychologist called, first she was too busy, then she couldn't talk about our son because "he was no longer a student at Synapse." A fitting finale given our overall experience there. There was a lot of talk about some innovative curriculum involving a spiral and some 6 points of social behavior or something. I probably got that wrong, because I didn't hear anything about this outside of the brochure we were given when we first visited the school. None of it came up during my frequent classroom visits. Now our son is doing very well in our little mountain public school. His teacher has almost 30 years of experience and is really impressed by how hard our son tries to do good things. The academics are a bit below his level. But, ironically, we've found it's not an issue due to the most valuable lesson we took away from Synapse: bright kids don't have a problem with academics, so don't sweat it. They often are behind socially, however, and we are now much happier with his very experienced teacher and an environment in which our son can focus solely on getting along with others and making himself a good person. * This is intentional. We were told that inexperienced teachers were preferable because they could be trained the Synapse way. In the end, we found that the teachers were learning alongside our son as the year progressed. While it was heartening to see, we've found that our son's best teachers were also those with the most experience. read more

Our older child has been attending Synapse for the past one and half years and LOVES it. He looks forward to attending school everyday. The teachers and staff are positive, caring and engaging. They pay close attention to each child's needs, strengths and weaknesses, be it emotional, social, academical or intellectual. The open communication between teachers, staff and parents ensure that concerns are immediately addressed and have positive lifelong impact on the child. There is almost zero teacher attrition. The students are very curious and most have age appropriate deep and logical thinking skills. Each morning the teachers check in on the children's emotions/ feelings and their subsequent progress during the day. This helps the children to be emotionally secure and confident which is fundamental for their social, intellectual and academic development. After a year at Synapse, our older child (who is a member of Mensa) experienced an increase in his IQ score by 11 points, and is more mature and responsible. We sent one of our younger children to Synapse this year and observed that the younger child (who previously resisted trying out new stuff/ ideas for fear of failing) is beginning to take risks and be open to new ideas. Our children LOVE Synapse. read more

We are a new family to Synapse and I just can't say enough good things about this school. The founders of Synapse are amazing. Years ago they founded The Nueva School and needless to say they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to Synapse. The teachers are incredibly bright, hard working and passionate. The families of Synapse are a wonderful group of parents who give generously of their time and talent to fully support the school. My kids love Synapse. They love the hands-on approach and the opportunity to dive deep into the curriculum. They are excited to go to school every morning and even more excited to share with me what they learned at the end of each day. It is an awesome school and we could not be happier. read more

I have two boys at Synapse and this is out third year with the school. This school is truly amazing, from unique and inclusive teaching philosophy to passionate and creative teachers, students and staff. We love the blend of socio-emotional learning style and a project based approach. Our boys have developed true love for learning and get out of bed every morning excited about what the new day at Synapse brings them. If you are interested in individualized learning in a team environment, creative thinking and raising a passionate change-maker, you should definitely check out Synapse. read more

Synapse is an amazing school. My daughter has been attending for a year and she loves going to school so much that she is devastated if she has to stay home when she's sick. She discusses emotions and kindness at home now on a level that I never would have thought possible for a six-year old and that I know is connected with the social emotional learning curriculum at Synapse. I also am very happy with the school's approach to gender; my daughter plays equally with boys and girls and has no sense of any gender division in interests between them. From visiting other schools, I have the impression that that is not the case everywhere. read more

My son has been here for only one half year. There is nothing else like it in the Peninsula Bay Area - and we looked at everything. The administration and school staff are all top notch. My son's teachers are the best we've ever experienced. A lot of schools talk about social emotional learning, but in this place they really deliver. In a period of 6 months I have seen my son's confidence, curiosity, and love for learning grow to a level we have never seen. I wish we started here years ago. Learning is more than memorizing and hours of drudgery, it's teamwork, application, and creativity. This place gets that in a big way. read more

All I can say is that we feel truly blessed that such a unique, incredible school is so close to us and we have the opportunity to be a part of it. Our daughter started in September as a Kindergartner (Level 1) and we could not be happier. At the end of the day we were searching for a school that would keep her fire and passion to learn alive all while having a lot of fun. The things that drew us to Synapse (to name a few) were the block scheduling, the low teacher to child ratio, the helical model, the injection of fun and humor, the social-emotional component and the fact that they were incorporating the latest research as to how kids learn into the school--imagine that?!? The school really seemed "too good to be true" based on what we heard a year ago in the Parent Information night, but I have to say, we are 3 months in and we are thrilled--Synapse is "walking the talk." Our daughter has a great group of classmates that fortunately come with an awesome set of parents that we are enjoying getting to know. Our daughter comes home each day totally charged with all the new things that she has learned and we see her applying what she has learned all the time. Synapse just keeps adding oxygen to that fire and it-is-a-blazing and we love it. As we fall asleep at night we truly have peace-of-mind that we have provided our daughter with the best possible option for her. Thank you Synapse! read more

My daughter started at Synapse two years ago, and it has made a tremendous difference in her life, and mine too. She is thriving there and just loves it. And, I enjoy having her share her day with me. We transferred her from our excellent local public school, where she was simply not engaged. That has all changed, and now she can not contain her enthusiasm and passion. It is thrilling, as a parent, to see your child so happy. The teachers have been fabulous and really know my daughter. My first ah-ha moment was at the first parent/teacher conference and being blown away at how well the teaching team knew her. We made the right decision and are thrilled we did. read more

Our daughter started Kindergarten at Synapse this year and we have been highly impressed with every aspect of the school. Our experience echoes that of the other positive reviews here. The teachers and administrators are passionate, engaged, and kind; the educational program is deeply thought-out, individualized for each child, and both ambitious and fun; the students are enthusiastic, bright, and social; and the parent community is friendly and highly involved. Our daughter has been thrilled to go to school from the very first day. My husband and I were so worried about choosing the right elementary school for her and we have no doubt that we found the right place! read more

Our daughter, 7 years old, is just finishing her 1st year at Synapse school. Although last year she was doing extremely well in her local public school, one of the best in the area, we were concerned about the 'forced underachievement,' and lack of an SEL program there. We wanted our daughter to be challenged, develop skills as an empathetic leader and build on her desire to learn instead of her desire for a particular extrinsic reward (e.g. grade). Thankfully, Synapse has delivered on all fronts. She is thriving and 'on fire' intellectually. Through various assessments and thanks to a very low teacher/student ratio, her teacher is not only aware of her academic strengths and weaknesses, but actually adapts her curriculum accordingly. Our daughters' classmates are focused, kind and intellectually curious. Although we wish our daughter still had access to the beautiful public school campus she left, we are keeping her at Synapse next year because we have seen what experienced leadership, passionate teachers, and a constructive curriculum can do to ignite young minds. There have been many changes at Synapse, all positive in our opinion, and the school seems to be on a positive trajectory. read more