My two older children started at this school when they were 8 and 6 yo. At first the learning was great, they went nearly every day, and they learned a lot. They were told they were like family by Jenny(the owner) and her mother, the principal tutors, and my kids were happy. This was true even though they both would relay to me that Jenny would bad mouth all of their friends who weren't students at her school to them during their lessons. Her comments were subtle, but corrosive, along the lines of 'that boy is not very smart or she's a bad influence', the purpose of which was to create a very much insular student body. The only "good" kids were the ones in her school. She would also share deeply personal information about her current students to the other students(and parents) who were also affiliated with the school. I found all of this utterly inappropriate, but my kids were admittedly learning, so I mistakenly disregarded the warning signs. The level of learning diminished dramatically as the kids got older, where by 6th grade, my daughter was being asked to grade the papers of her younger peers in the school during her tutoring time.
After 3 years, my kids stopped going; Jenny began bad mouthing my daughter to other current students, both of whom she was previously friendly with, who were on her sports team. Those kids immediately began alienating her on the team, so much so that we felt obligated to switch to a different organization altogether. Incidents like these continued over the years, both to my own children and those of my friends whose kids had also left, where Jenny would disparage them to her current students, thereby creating needless division and tension within the public school community. There was almost a cult-like sense to her school- you were either in it or very much out. It was indicative of a continued pattern, of pitting kids against other kids and creating a general sense of discontentment within the very public school community of which she is trying to serve. Although I do believe there are children who could stand to benefit from what this school is able to teach, I personally feel it is far outweighed by the destructive social ramifications and interpersonal conflicts which Jenny intentionally creates, especially in an age cohort that is ill-equipped to handle it. read more