Amazing school with an amazing team of leadership, teachers, and support staff. The school…read morepersonnel are all very caring and work creatively to quickly address any changes or opportunities needed to support students and families.

Conway is a great school my grandson love. And here was his teacher Miss Smith. He had loads of fun…read moreat trunk or treating and the dance

I signed up for multiple classes and paid upfront for my son to get the discount. he went for…read moreabout 4 months. after that it was like pulling teeth to get him to go. everyday. eventually he refused to go. I requested a refund which was promised to me. Here is a copy of the email. Good afternoon, I wanted to update you regarding the refund. The information was passed to the current owner, who asked that I pass it to the previous owner due to your time with Sylvan. The refund falls under the previous owner, who has not responded to the email I sent. I let the current owner know and she is currently trying to reach out to the previous owner. I apologize for this delay, but wanted to keep you updated. The amount on the account $1806- cancellation fee $666 = $1140 refund. I have yet to receive the refund and they have continued to ignore my emails and requests for more information regarding who owes me the money. Do not trust them with your money or your child.

My son Myron goes here and he loves going here He goes two…read moretime a week and the staff and teacher here are a blessing. Thanks Sylvan for the extra help

Excellent school with amazing curriculum and staff. We started our youngest here when he was a…read morebaby. A++

We have officially had our children here for about a year. They have done very well for our family…read moreand the owners Gary and Lori are very professional and caring. With the current covid pandemic, our 5 year old was to attend kindergarten. Given the circumstances, not only have they been able to accommodate our needs BUT they have provided challenging learning experiences for our child that are above and beyond their standard curriculum. We cannot express our gratitude and recommend this center enough. If you have the opportunity to send your child, please know the clean, caring environment is definitely worth it.

My children have been going here for 6 years and I have enjoyed every bit of it. They do an amazing…read morejob with working with both my sons and their needs. We currently are on before and after care. They assist my children with reading and homework. Love this place!

avoid at all cost, they do not care about the families or the family safety. be going here for…read moreyears and I've had enough. my friends warned me but I didn't listen so hopefully you listen . just care about a paycheck only especially the corporate office, they are worse than the staff. That's the main reason I left corporate is trash, whole company is trash. won't get anymore of my hard earned money. ITS NOT SAFE AT ANY OF THEIR LOCATIONS especially this one. parents are rude as well, no way to live in my opinion.

This review is for the preschool. If you are expecting an outdoor / nature school it is not nature…read more- centered under age 5. They include some things like a barn tour, and they ride a pony at the end of the year for the 4 year old class, but they aren't outside playing or incorporating outside learning. They are largely inside with ditto sheets, and doing typical preschool curriculum (ABCs, 123s), circle time, coloring on a coloring sheet, music, art and PE. That was a little disappointing and maybe I should have done more research on it. There also aren't stations in the class. They get moved to various locations like the music room, PE, library and that was not a fit for my kid. She was afraid of having to leave the classroom as a child getting used to going to school for the first time. The farm felt big for her They are also not very supportive if you have a child who regresses with the potty. They need to be 100% potty trained and must stay home if they have 2 accidents in a week. If you need an accommodation, like using a different potty in the building, that's not accommodated. Their stance on child psychology and education principles are largely old - school and not at all geared towards the child. It's more one size fits all. There is also limited time to volunteer in the class if you want, or even interact with the teachers. You drop off at the door, pick up later, and need to call the front office to schedule anything further. You don't get many updates on your child, just a "they did good or they had a hard day " if your child is out sick or for another issue, they do not check in after an extended period of time. I found that to be strange. Communication lacks as there is no email or way to communicate with parents outside a red folder with some assignments and a calendar. There is an app they use for (I think weather alerts?) but they never once updated it with any information. If you have a concern you have to call the office. They could benefit from an upgrade into the year 2024 on how to communicate with parents and use technology. For a parent with a 3 year old or 4 trying school for the first time, I can imagine communication feels very important to feel your kid is ok. I'm writing this as neutral as possible for parents to make up their own mind on if this could be a fit for their child. A huge positive is the option for half day Kindergarten when that time comes. The class sizes are also fairly small.

While I have not had a chance to visit the farm or take classes, I wanted to give them credit for…read moretheir excellent customer service. I contacted three stables in the area and all but Hazelwild gave me the runaround; requesting call backs and emails only to be told in the end that they were available for the service I was requesting. My time and effort were wasted and I ended up having no time to develop an alternate plan. However the Hazelwild staff were responsive and let me know the first time what they offered and that they were unavailable for me. I can't say how much I appreciated that.

**** I cannot say enough great things about The Merit School…read moreof Stafford. My daughter just graduated from kindergarten here, and the education completely exceeded what we paid for school. We actually enrolled her a couple of weeks late, but her teacher, Mrs Sleydin, took her time and got my daughter acclimated to the learning environment right away. Here is what makes this school so special: *Individualized Learning:* They structure lessons to meet each child's needs. They know how to recognize children who are more advanced and those who need a little more help. Because of this, my daughter made incredible progress in reading and math. *Well-Rounded Activities:* I love the art, gym, and playtime. Plus, they offer great extracurriculars, tutoring, and before/after care. *Caring Staff & Community:* Every teacher cares about every student, even if they aren't in their classroom. The director, Sherry and the Asst Director, are wonderful in not only the way they run the school but their personal involvement with the children. The PTO also works hard to bring the best environment and value to the school. Every dollar spent on my daughter's education was worth it. If you want a school that truly delivers, I highly recommend them!

My son and I have had a wonderful experience at The Merit School of Stafford. The staff is…read moreprofessional, attentive, kind, and very involved with each student's development. It's clear they care about the success of their students on a personal level and go above and beyond to ensure progression. The small class sizes allow for each child to have individual attention from their teachers to work with them one on one. My son enjoys the music and language specials and has a great time in the after school programs. The campus is beautiful, clean, and secure. I'm so proud to be a part of The Merit School of Stafford family and highly recommend this school.

My children went to the Leeland Station location for nearly 3 years. Over that time, there were…read moreNUMEROUS instances of negligent behavior including specifically an assistant putting her hands on my child's neck to redirect him, leaving claw marks from her long nails (no video evidence and my son wasnt old enough to explain well plus no other adult saw ... so oh well nothing they could do). Moved his room and the next teacher, though nice, missed him going out to the playground and left him there crying and reaching through the gate. They claim it was a few minutes but he was so upset it took a long time for him to calm down - that was more than a few minutes and another teacher was the one to notice him. There are constantly new, untrained assistants rotating around and they arent observant. My son was assaulted and violated in the room out in the open and no one helped him. Police report, hospital visit and cps involved but because it was a child there wasnt much they could do. No exact date to figure out which adult and they dont record the videos anyway. That is their way out of everything. Sons were pulled immediately but it is so disturbing that when you reach out about such serious things you are dismissed by the director and assistant director. They are good friends with the person in licensing who claims they dont have a violation for that or no way to prove this... its all a big run around and no one is really looking out for your babies except for the few amazing teachers that are too good for that place. Oh and an added awful detail - they (directors) forged my signature on my sons medical document they redid. The few good qualities do not come close to having your child neglected and traumatized. My oldest had a great experience, but my youngest literally has a standing appt for therapy through the county after they heard his video account of the last incident. That trauma was 100% preventable with decent supervision and they should be ashamed of themselves for not doing more to prevent these instances before they happen. Every concern was brushed off and no matter what route I went I was known as being a pain to deal with instead of an educator and parent bringing issues to the forefront before something awful happens. LLE is their management group and clearly not correcting things from the top down. Be careful when enrolling your kids around the area - MANY daycares in the area are also LLE and ran/trained by the same people. There are better options. The violations on the DSS website do not reflect all of this - they find ways to not get the violations or it falls in a gray area with no evidence. Dont just use those in your research - reviews matter! Best of luck finding a good fit for your little one. Like I said, we had one good experience and one traumatic one - are you willing to roll the dice? I wouldnt risk it.

I toured here a year prior to touring again and enrolling a few months ago. I wish I'd listened to…read moremy gut. Throughout the enrollment process I didn't even realize who the director was because she could hardly answer any questions about facility procedures or regarding my child's food allergy. I actually thought the assistant director was the director since she was the only one who gave me information. More days than not my son was picked up with poop in his diaper, dirty hands and dirty face. I understand they are little kids and there's a lot going on. I didn't want to be that mom so I waited a while to bring it up to admin hoping it would get better. It didn't. I bring it up to the assistant director, she says she'll check in with the teachers. It gets better for a week or so but not consistently. On top of this, the door to the outside toddler playground is left unlocked and cracked with no one out there open multiple times at varying times of day. Each occasion I let a staff member know it was open. At a 630am drop off, it's open. I told a staff member and she replied that "they had a training the previous day and someone must've left it open" not seeming surprised. Concerned that this door was open all night I emailed the director asking if there was a reason for this that I wasn't thinking of. I detailed days and times this previously occurred and who I let know. She responded that this is the first she's hearing about it and she'll address it. Not even two weeks later it happens again. This tells me that she doesn't walk around the building and employees don't bring concerns to her attention. The final straw was coordinating with the director about moving my son to the next room. She thought he would get more attention and better care with the next teacher up. I definitely wanted to do this since his current room was chaos with no consistent lead teacher. Director and I agreed that he would transition for few hours a day for a week and then move up. The week he is supposed to be moved I see notifications from his old room. I call asking what's going on with the room situation. She doesn't know what room he's in, why he didn't go to the new room as he was supposed to etc. just in general no clue about the plan for my son. This was the last straw for me. The next day I grabbed his stuff and went to grab his EpiPens from the medication box where staff showed me it was since there was no one around other than the 2 opening room teachers. It was unlatched and unlocked. I didn't even find my son's EpiPen's in the medication box. Immediately emailed the director saying he wouldn't be returning or fulfilling the two weeks notice because of my documented concerns and to ask where the epi pens were since it wasn't in the box. She said that they had it, but didn't tell me where it was. We did pick up the epi pens but they were clearly not where staff previously told me it was kept. In addition to all this, one day I had my mom pick up my son. I gave her the door code and told her to bring her license. She walked in, the director was in her office with another staff member. They didn't pay her any mind. My mom asked if they needed to check her ID. They hesitated and then the director said "we'll take a look since you have it out." I filed complaints with DSS about the medication box and the door being left unlocked and open multiple times. The investigator called me and said she couldn't cite them for the door being unlocked and open since there's no specific code for that, but recommended I reach out to their district director. I did reach out to the district director who told me the door and medication box had been fixed. Too bad the center couldn't do that all along with my concerns instead of me having to submit complaints with DSS.

Two of our children had the wonderful opportunity to start their education at FPI. FPI's teachers…read moreare the dream team for preschoolers! Kind and caring, they get to know each child and take the time to gently guide them in their social, academic, and developmental skills. This school is a cooperative so every family pulls together to run the school, which gives each family the unique chance to get to know everyone. Some of my best friends in Fredericksburg were made from the FPI community. If you are looking for a school that encourages individuality, kindness, and family involvement, then FPI is for you! You will not be disappointed.

Two of our boys have attended and now our third will be beginning in September. We have been so…read moreincredibly happy at FPI. One of the other reviewers talked about the teachers being a dream team, its true. They really are spectacular with young children. They really make learning fun, as it should be for children all their lives, but especially for their first few years of school. And because it is a cooperative the parents are very involved which enriches the experience for all children.