I was a teacher (directress) at Cornerstone Montessori for 3 years, teaching Kindergarten, grades 2…read moreand 3. I left when I opened my own Preschool/ Kindergarten. As a new teacher I learned many skills from my wonderful co-teachers and learned qualities of generosity, caring and trust from the principal Rita Gausman. All through the years I have kept in touch with Rita Gausman and benefitted from her wisdom in managing my own Montessori classrooms. I cherish my days of teaching at Cornerstone and the valuable qualities of work ethics, cooperation and kindness learned from Rita and Helga. Way to go Cornerstone Montessori!

This school is going over the top with perhaps the best teachers in the province teaching our kids…read moreonline during the Covid-19 situation. They have even dropped off learning materials at our home on weekends. A first rate supportive atmosphere, teachers with Masters degrees and an extremely low student to teacher ratio.

We love Creative Kids Montessori & Fine Arts Academy! The teachers are caring, the classrooms are…read morebright and welcoming, and our child has grown so much in confidence and learning. The staff communicates well and truly creates a nurturing environment. Highly recommend!

I want to give a shoutout to Creative Kids Montessori & Fine Arts Academy. My 4.5 year old son…read morejust completed an awesome year there and we were excited to send my 2yr old daughter there in the fall but unfortunately a family issue has taken us away from Vancouver. They have an opening for part time enrollment (Mondays and Fridays) if anyone is interested (a rare and potentially very attractive arrangement for someone who wants to ease a young child into school). Matoula and her team are awesome, the program is intimate with about 8-10 kids, and the families we met were great. Thanks!

My daughter was one of the first students at My Whole Earth Academy back in 2014. At that time she…read moredidn't have very good English and had some sort of separation anxiety. Thanks to all teachers and especially Miss Jen for giving my daughter lots of attention and helping her to overcome that anxiety. My daughter has very good memories about her preschool. I always recommend My Whole Earth Academy to all my friends who are looking for professional child care.

Worst school experience, on our first day, my 19month child was playing with some musical…read moreinstruments and one the the teacher was afraid that my child will break it, so she grabbed the tambourine out of her hand and put it behind her......The teacher was playing a plastic box as a drum, and she's not worried if it will break since it's already half broken? My child is only 19 month and she took the chance to let her discover and learn, without teaching her with patience. After circle time that teacher stood up walking with out care and bumped into my child and kicked her into a very sharp table corner, dented her forehead and my child started bleeding. The whole classroom wasn't protected, but right after this happened they started to put up all the protection for sharp corners......I was very upset and disappointed. The principal also called me after, but her phone call made me felt worse, and she said she was going to check back with me and I never received another phone call from her! My child has a scar on her forehead and the dent is still there after more than a month. I have taken my child to many daycare and community center, and we are still waiting to be called on a few wait list, since this school has opening, I thought I could take her there for the time being, but This is the worst school we have been to, and I suggest moms that wants to apply think twice, because they are very unprofessional. If this system could let me choose no star, I wouldn't have given one！

I was charged a banned $150 waitlist fee in 2025. Beware! Combined with the high tuition (see West…read moreCoast Child Care fee survey), overall, I get the impression they prioritize collecting fees and deposits from desperate parents, using pressure tactics, over following rules. I also found out their contracts violate the BPCPA in several ways and that I actually held the right to refund despite non-refundability clauses. Update: when I brought this to their attention, they returned the waitlist fee but refused to return the deposit, in violation of the BPCPA. Buyer Beware! (Noticed this comment in another review too) As Principal Jelena told me, measure twice, cut once.

I've observed in this school, and volunteered several times. During my initial observations, I was…read moreimpressed at the level of discipline in the classrooms; it was only the third week of the school year, and already the children's activities were humming along smoothly. I haven't been in a Montessori environment for a while because I've pursued other career choices, but I wanted to get back in touch with it so I set up observations at a couple of nearby schools, and after visiting this school I was happy to spend some time volunteering there as well. (I found schools near my house by using the yelp search feature, of course!) The classrooms are located in the very large church hall of a Russian Orthodox church, and are each spacious and cheerful, with plenty of windows and bright decorations, and classical music playing in the background. There are also pianos (one grand and one upright), which are used for the weekly music class. There are 3 classrooms, and a fenced (locked) outside play area along the side of the church. If you aren't familiar with the Montessori way, the children - in mixed-age classes from 2.5 to 5.5 years old - were working quietly and independently at child-sized tables and on mats on the floor, either alone or in pairs, using Montessori materials to explore and develop their practical life skills, sensorial processing, shapes (2-D and 3-D), letters & writing, numbers & addition, and other benchmark preschooler/kindergartner skills. Per provincial requirements, there are two teachers for 20 children, so if you have any experience of preschoolers you know that it takes true talent to channel their exuberant energy into focused activity like that with that many children in the same room. As a "responsible adult" volunteer, I visited for 3-hour shifts in the downstairs classroom. I was also impressed when the children approached me and asked for assistance with their work and took pride in their roles as learners, not asking me to do things "for" them, but rather asking me to assist with specific issues so that they could complete their work on their own. They brought their work to me so show off their accomplishments with true pride. Several times, children approached me and took my hand, wanting me to walk with them as they looked around to choose another activity. This is a fabulous Montessori moment, in my opinion, and it showed me that these students are benefiting from a genuine Montessori approach. This particular school also offers French, music, art and Mandarin, but I am qualified to judge only the first two (I am ... 'challenged" ... in the visual art department, and I don't speak Chinese, but I speak French and I studied music for many years): the children spoke to me using intelligible French phrases and understood simple directions the same as in English, and the music class included not only learning to sing a song with synchronized movements, but also a music appreciation exercise of listening to a short piece played on the piano, which I think is a great idea for this age group; the children sat thoughtfully and really listened to it all the way through. P.S. If you care about such distinctions, this school is on the AMI side of things and is run in accordance with AMI principles and practices October Challenge 31/31

We made an appointment with Shaun the director for a tour with our son today. Arrived and rang the…read morebell and no one was there. We waiting for fifteen mins before we left very disappointed. While we were there, we called and mailbox is not assign and we email Shaun also. I guess the first RED flag was it took him around a week to even get back to us for this appointment. Definitely not bring my kid here. I'll make sure this is posted everywhere online for other parents to see. Place was not very secure too, someone could have easily came into the premises and took all the toys away.

We've looked at about 14 centres at this point. In that pool, I would say there was 1 5 star, 3 4…read morestar, and the rest were 1-2. Needless to say, they all cost an arm and a leg. This is the 5 star. From the moment we walked in the door, we were hit with a sense of both home and calm. The environment was all about calm, neutral colors, child lead art, plants, animals, and natural materials like wood, branches, leaves, and pinecones. When we walked past the kitchen, it smelled like fresh baking (the children were cooking with one of the teachers). On the rug in the adjacent area, an instructor was leading a group of children in a yoga class. It was almost comically amazing. We were lead through to the main activity room and talked a bit about the philosophy of the centre, where we learned that they follow a 'emergent' curriculum, which is apparently about learning the children's interests and building the curriculum to suit. Naturally. Though I wasn't surprised, I was still very disappointed to learn there are more than 100 families ahead of us on the waitlist. Still, we may get in depending on the circumstances. Here's hoping!

Great everything. Ms. Mandy and Ms. Margaret are super with the kids. Each class is organized an…read morethemed with things that kids are into and can actually learn from. It isn't just play, play, play, but it isn't learn, learn, learn, it's a good mix. The class sizes are good too, and the number of field trips taken were nice. All in all, the YMCA has the largest pre-school program in this area, but after hearing things about both programs and the decision was made to go with The Biggest Little Pre-School. And next year will mark the second year in a row for the little one. Incidentally my daughters class, which had 20 kids in it, had ALL 20 kids re-up for the 4 year old class starting in September.

The teachers are positive, caring and encouraging to all of the children…read more I have been visiting this preschool for 10 years with my music program. The children are engaged and excited to learn and the space is open and bright. A fun place to learn!

We have been lucky enough to put our 3 children through Extra Steps, first discovering this gem…read moreover 10 years ago. Teacher Robb made our eldest, and us, feel comfortable leaving him for the first time. Our son took a few days to get adjusted, then didn't want to leave. The 3.5 hour duration and choice between am or pm classes are such a benefit. Our daughter attended a year later and loved teacher Christa. Our youngest is now in his final year of preschool and he loves Larry and Nicole (and Christa too!). The preschool space is bright and fun, teachers take the kids to the nearby parks and/or senior centre everyday and our kids always tell us how much they enjoy/ed the school. The teachers support each child's development, offer to assist with any learning requests and instil the confidence and love of school which led to our older 2 thriving in private school kindergarten. We have recommended Extra Steps to numerous families over the years, even those who have been hesitant due to poor experiences at other schools, and they have all been so grateful for sharing this wonderful preschool with them. Kids are all treated with kindness and respect, which allows for personal development. As our time with Extra Steps will end at the close of this year, we wish to express our appreciation to the teachers for the love and support our kids have enjoyed- we really can't recommend this preschool enough. Larry and Nicole also run the most fabulous outdoor program on Saturdays, which our youngest loves and will continue to do next year.

My son used to go to preschool here and he loved his teachers a lot. Originally he attended…read moreanother preschool half of the week but the head teacher at the other preschool was terrible and treated him like he's challenged kid and she even talked to him like one. At Extra Steps Learning, they helped him to come out of his shell and helped him improve with his personal development without judging him any different from other kids. He improves tremendously ever since he attended preschool here 5 days a week. He's now in Kindergarten and he still talks about his teachers especially Ms. Christa. I like all the educators there but my favourite one is Ms. Christa. She really helps my son to develop social and personal skills there and always treated him with kindness.

I'm delighted with Claren. Honestly I never thought I'd put my kids in a private school. However, I…read moredid not have a good experience in the public education system, so when the time came, we considered our options. In Claren, we found a great school that has a focus on resilience, independent thought, and entrepreneurship, on top of a good academic education. Every year they have a "Claren Marketplace" where students have to generate an idea for a product that someone would want to spend money on. They have to manage the planning and creation of this product and then sell it at the end of the year to excited and supportive parents. They get coaching in this process of course. I think this kind of value oriented thinking is incredible and not something I ever encountered in my youth. Add to that Claren's forward thinking philosophy with respect to technology and equipping kids for a rapidly changing world, and I'm absolutely thrilled to be here. I'd recommend it to anyone.