My daughter is now in kindergarten after three years at Wellesley Montessori, and she is thriving!…read more I credit the wonderful teachers and staff for giving her the building blocks to be successful in her kindergarten year. My son is in his second year, and he has made amazing strides from toddler life to being a pre-K student. He loves his teachers (a different room from his sister, but just as wonderful) and will be as ready for kindergarten as her sister. The families at the school are wonderful as well, and I feel like it's been an amazing home away from home for my kids. I will be sad when my youngest moves on from the school. They both learned so much, had so much fun, and made great friends! It's also been a practical choice for our family -- with two working parents, the ability to have our kids there from 7:30-5:30 has been a life saver!!

Not the school it used to be... This used to be a great…read moreschool, and it still has some good teachers (not all, teaching staff is mixed), but with the loss of Miss Martha, a teacher there for 20+ years, the addition of a relatively new director, who has no imagination or problem-solving skills, does not know the local area, and is not very nice to the children, the school has taken a nose dive. Combine that with a tiny playground, not a lot of indoor space, and you do not have a great situation.

I had a meeting with Maria who is a director of the school and almost from the first few minutes it…read morewas clear to me that she is a professional and knows child psychology very well. She is also an amazing person who will spend time with every parent as much as needed to answer and discuss all questions you have. She is a very attentive person and definitely loves what she does.

I was so excited to bring my little guy to Montessori Escuela. The director Maria was super sweet…read moreand welcoming. I felt comfortable the minute I walked into the program and saw the huge yard with lots of outdoor playspace geared for my energetic little guy. The learning space inside was airy, bright and impeccably clean. There were so many hands on activities that I have never seen before in the regular preschool classroom because I never really knew what a Montessori school was until I met Maria and she guided me through her extensive curriculum. Apparently he will choose the activities he is interested in and they will provide him with lessons. Since each child could be learning something different at any given moment they have up to three teachers with only 10 children. It seems there's so much opportunity for our child to grow and learn in this warm and nurturing environment. I didn't feel this comfortable when we walked into the large daycare facility by our house so that is why I was so happy to have found this Montessori. The Spanish is an added bonus! Now I cannot wait until our little guy turns 2 so we can enroll him in.

My 3 year old daughter goes to this school and we really enjoy it. The teachers are kind, patient,…read moreand truly dedicated to each child's growth. The Montessori approach has helped our daughter become more independent, confident, and curious. Communication with families is good, and it's clear that the staff genuinely cares about the children. We are grateful to be part of this school community and recommend it to any family looking for a nurturing Montessori environment.

I have two boys, one who is still at the school and the other who is in kindergarten in our town. I…read morehad been looking for a Montessori program and was immediately drawn to this one. I appreciated the calm, educational environment - one that has no sense of rigidity. The staff have been wonderful towards my family and my children have always been excited to go to school there each day. They have learned so much and my older child had an easy transition to his new public school. The new director has many great ideas she is implementing this coming year and is making a big effort to foster an even stronger school community.

My daughter is thriving since enrolling at the Suzuki school. I can't believe that at 3 years old…read moreshe is already writing her name, learning music/violin, and having so much fun she wishes she went to school on the weekends too! The teachers are amazing and really thoughtful about each child's needs. They've done a great job during COVID as far as putting protocols in place to keep everyone safe. Deb the director is super responsive and has been flexible to work with our family's changing schedule. I do wish it was a year round program but they pretty much follow the Newton Public School calendar, and then offer summer camp for the majority of summer.

Suzuki is a wonderful school. The school schedule is flexible, tuition is reasonable, and the…read moredirector is helpful. The teachers cares and loves the kids. The artwork they bring home are creative and beautiful!! The school emphasizes on fun activities, loving environment, and cognitive development. Their program includes music, Chinese, art, PE, violin, and piano. It's the best school for our kids. It is so fun that I wish I could go there, too! Highly recommended!

My daughter has been at TNN since she was 9weeks old. I am comfortable leaving her there 40 hours a…read moreweek. The staff constantly shows how much they care about the children it really puts my mind at ease knowing she is there with people who really care about her. I look forward to her years to come at TNN.

Our daughter was in the infant class for 8 months in 2020-2021, and the previous reviewers are all…read morespot-on. Her teachers were amazing, showed genuine care, and provided a weekly curriculum. We appreciated the daily photos on the Facebook page and the renovated playground. On the downside, the owner was terse and we found it impossible to have a constructive conversation with her. She was more interested in lecturing than listening. Organizational skills of the staff are weak, often losing or misplacing paperwork. We had to leave when, at 19 months, our daughter was still in an infant class (other kids 9-15 months) because TNN was not prepared to have space for her in a toddler class. Our daughter was safe and cared for with appropriate activities during her infant months, and TNN is reasonably priced for the area - so we started this rating at 5 stars. Minus 1 star for sloppy organizational skills, and minus 1 star for the poor communication on several interactions with the administration. There's room to improve, but we always felt our daughter was well cared for and engaged in activities throughout every day.

When we were considering Lesley Ellis for preschool, we asked around on the playground, and just…read moreabout every parent we talked to told us, "It's excellent! The only negative is the cost." That matched our experience perfectly. The tuition is steep - though financial aid is available! - but everything else was fantastic, and we were consistently impressed with the teachers, curriculum, field trips, awareness of kids as individuals, interaction with administration, and more. My mom worked for decades in early childhood education, and (as an interested and involved grandparent) was also very impressed. They welcomed/encouraged heavy parent involvement, from "come into the classroom to talk about something you're knowledgeable/passionate about" to occasional parent-meetups-over-coffee in the morning and more. But I was never, ever made to feel guilty about not being able to participate heavily, which was the norm once we had our second kid. (Who also went to LES for preschool, once old enough.) We can't speak to their K-8 experience, but for preschool/pre-K/TK they were fantastic.

Lesley Ellis is an independent school from pre-school to grade 6, but expanding soon to 8th. Our…read moredaughter is in her third year there and we have been delighted with the program. The teachers are an outstanding group and attuned to the needs of each individual student. The administration is truly exceptional as they create an environment where parents, children and the school come together to form a nurturing and vibrant community.

There are so many wonderful things I could say about this preschool. The teachers are so giving and…read morepatient. They really take their time to get to know every individual child and they encourage their strengths and really help them to grow. My oldest child went here for two years and left very ready for kindergarten. My youngest will be at the school for three years and she loves going everyday. There is a very special parent community at the school, because it is a co-op all parents are asked to be involved with some aspect of the operations of the school, helping in the classroom once a month as well as fundraising activities. I have enjoyed this aspect very much, feeling very much part of a community and becoming friends with other parents has been very special. I would whole heartily recommend this school to anyone in the area looking for a preschool for their 2.9-5 year old.

Our son is in this third year at WCNS and has grown so much! He started at 2 years 10 months old,…read morehaving spent most of his time home with me. The first few months he was very interested in what the other kids were doing, but didn't want to participate. He was very much a watcher, figuring out how the other kids interacted with each other. After the Christmas break he became more involved, articulate, and participated more in group play. His second year he was still in the same class with the same teachers and thrived as a "big kid" knowing the ropes and helping out. He still liked to play by himself a lot, but was better able to invite kids that wanted to help to build a building next to his building. He also became better at stepping back from group play to go to the book corner when he was over stimulated. This year the school has moved to a mixed age format so he is with children 2.9-5 years old in his group. He is very much enjoying being a mentor to the younger children. It has also provided an opportunity too see how much he has grown over the last two years. Behaviors that he had when he started, like not wanting to share toys or wait a turn, he is now very patient with in the younger children. The teachers are wonderful and provide a range of craft, free play, and structured activities every day. The children play outside daily except in extreme bad weather. Early drop off and late pickup options are available and can be signed up for the day you need them.

Our experience was very similar to Zara S.'s--said all the right things, but their actions didn't…read morematch up. I think that they just don't have the experience or expertise to work effectively with children who may need a little something different. As for the actual day? It's very structured, with very little outdoor time, and high staff turnover. In the three months we were there, our sons had three different primary teachers for the classroom. I wonder: if we had been there for 12 months, would our sons have had 12 teachers?!?! Bright Horizons had come very highly recommended to us, but we were terribly disappointed. We're now in a preschool with a play-based curriculum, plenty of outdoor time and teachers who have been with the program for several years, and our kids are thriving.

On first look the facilities look amazing - a great indoor place space, a fantastic art studio but…read morethe place the kids spend most of their time is the classroom that we had 2 independent experts tell us it was small and cramped with furniture for 9 kids 2 teachers and parents coming and going all day. Our son didn't last even 3 months in the toddler program because they deemed he was 'aggressive'. Yet he has displayed none of those behaviors at his new, more spacious daycare. So much time is unstructured play that if kids don't yet know how to play on their own they end up a bit lost. At least that's how Early Intervention explained their observations of BH Sudbury. Bright Horizons say all the right things but in our experience rarely actually followed through on the things that were going to make a difference. When an action plan was put together the staff were 3 weeks late putting together a cozy corner to help the kids have a relaxing space for when they got distressed. That was what upset us the most they didn't seem to put the action that would have benefitted our son first. We care that other children were being affected, which is why we acted immediately upon being informed it was a growing concern. Initially they said it wasn't a problem and deemed just toddler behavior between the children until the center could not cope. It felt like that they had decided that he became too much hassle and because they can fill the available space ten times over it seemed to us they just couldn't be bothered. They asked for our agreement to bring in 2 outside agencies, Early Intervention and Enable who could not start with the center until Dec 4th and yet he was asked to leave on Dec 11th. Enable had not even completed their assessment of the situation or plan to support the center and our family. Early Intervention had been only twice. When we offered to pay for an additional teacher to support the center it was deemed not necessary in the early stages and we should wait for the intervention of the supporting agencies. But they never gave the experts the time to help. All this coupled with the fact that we signed an agreement the week before our son was due to start and the center director got the price wrong on the contract and she also told us she had made a mistake while we were on the wait list and that the place she had reserved for us was no longer available makes our overall experience of Bright Horizons Sudbury very unsatisfactory. It's not like we are biased against Bright Horizons our son went to Bright Horizons Wellesley for 3 months while we were on the wait list for Bright Horizons Sudbury and we can't fault them. During the process we would have done anything to keep our son at Bright Horizons Sudbury, in the end you couldn't have paid us to keep him there.