I registered my both kids to summer camp here. Their friends recommended to do the camp together…read morethough we usually go to other coding school. At first, my kids were really excited and came home talked about what they learned and created. It seemed like they had fun. Then problem started as my child told me that her file was deleted couple times and she couldn't find it. I told her to ask the instructor since they supposedly are good at computer. She told me that she couldn't log on because she forgot her password. Apparently this issue has been going on during the week long summer camp. I was not aware until Thursday evening from my child. Then I asked her what was she doing if she couldn't log on and no one could help her. She said she just sat there and listened. 1) we don't learn by sitting, we learn from doing and following step by step (so she wasted her learning time and my money) 2) no instructor aware that she was sitting there and not doing anything? Didn't raise their attention? 3) she claimed she forgot her password and instructor couldn't help her. Coder instructor should be able to trace back her password or reset password for her, correct??? 4) I emailed my concerns and I got back the response from manager that my child was joking with instructor. Yes, if she wasn't engaged and couldn't log on, I know my child would be bored and fooling around. Any child would. All the kids were laughing and having fun in class. I don't see any problem with my child enjoying the class and laughing. 5) couple kids said they had WiFi issues during class. Why would it be WiFi issues when this is a coding school. 6) when I emailed to the manager, his response was trying to point finger at my child that she was joking with the instructor instead of solving the issue and take responsibility about his instructors in class. No customer service. For sure, I won't recommend anyone to this place. Very disorganized and no customer service.

My children attended a summer camp at the coder school. This what I experienced:…read more Pros: the kids had fun there. When we entered or whenever we picked up or dropped off, you can see that children were having fun. You could see children laughing and smiling. They did complete some coding activities. Cons: 1. Limited staff- No one answered the phone. There was no front help person to answer phones during camp. I was running late, and called the office no one picked up the phone. When I picked up the children, the teacher gave his personal phone number to contact them. He said there is no one to answer phones during camp. Considering the amount of money as parents we pay for this activity and they should have someone in the front office answering the phone or have the teachers in the camp pick up the phone while the camp is in session. I know they are trying to cut cost, but the business phone should work during camp hours. 2. Each child are placed on their individual computers. If they have problems with the computer, instead of putting them on another one, they waited to repair it. So one of my children missed time during the day completing a project until they could the computer to work. We were not told about this until my children told us. We inquired about it and did not get a response why they were not put on another computer or that my child's project would be delayed. 3. Passwords- I have a younger child who forgot her password on the computer. The teacher didn't have the password that day, so she couldn't use the computer to complete her project. The following day, we contacted the manager to find out why the teacher didn't have it so our child could complete her work. The manager gave us the password. Then stated that our children were smiling and laughing in class. Prior to that comment, the teachers were giving my children compliments on how well behaved they were. That's an odd response from the manager-- deflect and blame tactic being used. My wife asked again why and we didn't get a response. We never found out from the manager nor the teacher why they didn't have the password prior day so my child could finish the project. Today, after our complaint, staff did have myu child's password. And again they avoided the question why they didn't have the password the day before. Overall, my children had fun. Other kids had fun. They looked like they learned something. However, the management and teachers could not answer simple questions and for the money we pay, there should not be downtime if computer is down or someone can't remember their password. However management avoided the question and was ready to deflect questions by blaming my children. We've gone to Code Ninja in the past and had a better experience there. They have better communication, kids have fun too, learn, and are more organized. If they have technical difficulties they move the child to another computer.

My kid attend their robotic class during after school. She loved it. But the class mixed kids from…read moredifferent grades, she partnered with another kid who's older than her, and she often doesn't get her turn during the class, end up 'watching' during the whole class. I surface the problem to them, to ask why teacher doesn't make sure every kid get their turn. Look what they replied!

If I could, I would give a 0 star. David West / Gutierrez, the owner of Star Kids Academy did NOT…read moreissue the refund he owed me. After sending him the refund request, I waited for almost 4 weeks to get his response, saying that I have to wait another 3 months for him to decide if he'd like to issue the refund to me. He is definitely playing monkey business, not a professional educator at all. I am now trying to sue him / Star Kids Academy in the Small Claim Court, and will update the result of the Court trial later on.

You've got to check this place out if you have kids who are into making stuff like lego and robot…read more Even if not, you should still check it out. Me and my 6yr old son went there on a grand opening and saw full of awesomeness what parents would love to have their kids introduce to the world of coding! They had things I've been wanting to try out such as educational drone class, basic coding in different age levels, lego tech, and etc. So my son is currently taking an Ozobot class (children level introduction to what's call 'STEM' with fun robot coding) and he absolutely got sucked into it. Each class is for 60min, but he told me he loved the time. I feel the enthusiasm when he tells me about things he had to do in the class. he said it was easy and loved the fact that he made a cute little robot move in different ways. I found out all of the founding members are seasoned professionals in engineering and when I talk to them they were super friendly and kind. Right now they have awesome deals for their classes. We got our free 2hours ticket at our first visit! Definitely recommend this place to my firends and anyone who are interested in introducing their kids to world of STEM.

I graduated from Pinewood in '09 and am so grateful my parents spent the money to send me here…read more College was an academic breeze compared to my experience here. Most people are familiar with liberal arts universities. Think of Pinewood as a liberal arts prep school. First of all, you will absolutely learn to write here. Writing classes (separate from literature) are required every year, and you master everything from rhetoric to creative writing. Other classes will require you to write a lot; the best class on campus (a History class, of all things), had us writing 3-4 essays a week. Is this the busy work that the poor reviewers are referencing? I certainly hope not, because each essay was graded with focus and it taught me a TON. Yes, it's a lot of work, but you learn how to think critically and crank out solid material in a short amount of time. Those are life skills you don't learn without repetition. The humanities are also given a great deal of focus, and you study the histories of art, music, and theater. You also pick one of these disciplines to pursue during high school. The arts department is exceptional for how small the school is (50 per grade). The academics are very rigorous. I came from a public school, where I was 3rd in my class, but at Pinewood I was probably in the bottom 40% of my class. If I could have chosen my upbringing, I would have started attending Pinewood from Kindergarten, because I felt very behind on everything from math to grammar to foreign language. Everybody who grew up going to the lower campuses were at the pointy end of the stick. Like all small prep schools, there can be some politics among the faculty, and if you get on the wrong teacher's bad side it will stay with you past that year, but overall it's a fantastic atmosphere with solid teachers. Yes, some of them don't spend every free moment pondering how to influence their students for good, but there are many teachers for whom that does seem to be the case. They are devoted and academically nurturing. And EVERYBODY IS SO NICE. It's borderline weird. Although having so few students means a not many options for friends, everybody will be beyond polite to you and you will never eat lunch alone. Oh yeah, and I still go watch the Girls' Basketball team dominate.

Pinewood provides an outstanding education. Their writing program is the best. The teachers are…read moregreat. Students are lucky to be accepted to this fine education establishment.

Do Not Attend!!! This review has nothing to do with my teacher Dr. Abaya. This is strictly for The…read moreadministrative department and enrollment department specifically Kimberly Kunde and Julie Vo. I was so excited to be part of this program to have a better life for my daughter and myself as a single mother I completed the academic side of the program and when it was time to do the Externship program I was hit with medical setbacks which I have doctors notes for but unfortunately I was told that six months after I completed my academic portion of my schooling I can no longer be part of the program. I wouldn't be able to finish my externship meaning I wouldn't be able to get a job as medical Assistant after I begged and pleaded to just give me one more month to complete two more weeks of Externship due to medical issues. This place is uncaring and a money grab. They crushed my dreams because I had a medical issue. Funny this is the career we all joined the medical field to take care of people who are having medical issues. These people are not nice and uncaring.

I understand that this school provides a valuable service to those seeking further education, this…read morereview is less about the school's programs as a whole and more about how absolutely poorly the Pearson testing center is run here. I was scheduled for a certification exam on a Thursday night, one of their only two exam nights per week. I showed up well over an hour before my exam was scheduled and began studying a little bit more. I noticed that there was literally only one person in the front for the better part of the hour I was waiting. It wasn't until about 20 minutes before testing - 5 minutes before the people taking the exam where supposed to check in - that the rest of the test administration staff started rolling in. This is a bit of a red flag, as MOST places I have been to try to get there well before check in to make sure the computers we're testing on are working properly, and if there was an issue they would have time to try and fix it. This is not at all what happened. The exam I scheduled myself for was supposed to start at 6:00 pm. I wasn't told what was going on, aside from "Technical difficulties" until around 6:40 pm at which point the staff mentioned that their wifi in the room was down, and had been for a while and no one had done anything about it. Very shortly after this, the entire facility lost wifi, and the servers were not on site - a poor design choice in terms of a "quality" testing center I was assured by the staff that the director of the facility would "look into this first thing in the morning on Friday." Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and most of Monday came and went, and nothing from the testing center, or from Pearson VUE. So I showed up today 12/16/2019 to ask what the status was, and was givin a piece of paper with a phone number and case number to call. Only, they gave me the phone number THEY should use to call as it pertained ONLY to the testing center. My issue with this site is the gross negligence and incompetence of the testing staff in this unfortunate situation for myself and the other people who where essentially hosed on Thursday night, assured something would be done, and then, shockingly (HEAVY SARCASM) nothing happened. As of now I am out $400 for this exam, and am expected to handle this myself after their extreme lack of foresight and laziness in this situation. I will not be taking another exam here, nor would I suggest any one else do the same. The extra drive will be worth the avoidance of the headache caused by this site.

Great afterschool with lots of outdoor space. Kungfu and taiji programs are the best in the area.read more

I register my daughter in after school program and summer school…read more Teachers are warm and they care about kids. The environment is like family once kids are accustomed to it. Summer school program is also enrich and interesting. I will keep sending my daughter here.

Complete waste of money. There were over 144 participants and $850 per person, they are getting…read more$122,400 for 15 hours of virtual teaching. Predatory and useless material.

"Where's Dorothy?"…read more Ten years ago, the answer might have been that I was buried knee deep in books at the San Francisco Public Library... In 2010, I'm alive, well...and taking a short story writing course with Shimon Tanaka at : "The Stanford Online Writer's Studio" continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/onlinewriters.php and you can too. "Courses are open to all adults and all levels of writers are encouraged to enroll." That's what the website says, but here's the gosh-darn truth... This is one of the best writing programs available. Its both flexible and challenging . And both the teachers and your fellow students will stretch your "mental muscles." You'll do a lot of writing and read a lot of material...but you'll come away from the program with a new-found respect for what it takes to be a good writer. Trust me, on this. See you soon..........D.

Merry Merry Learning Center provides an excellent programs for kids. Its engaging curriculum,…read morepassionate staffs and supportive learning environment make it an excellent choice for parents seeking a quality educational experience for their children.

All the teachers were super supportive and caring towards my student. She is taking Chinese and…read moreEnglish here and she has learned so much through these courses. Recently, she took a SSAT course and did amazing on the test. Highly recommend Ms. Yumi and Mr. Max.