My child is at the Hickory Ridge location and I cannot speak highly enough about the staff. My child, 8 months old, comes home each day happy and tired, which to me indicates a great and stimulating day. read more

Warning to parents about school's Hickory Ridge campus: On several occasions when our child was in the care of a classroom aide, particularly when the lead teacher was absent, our child came home visibly upset--this was unusual given how typically happy and loving our child is. Our child would often share concerning incidents involving the aide, such as being unfairly singled out, including having food taken away. The most alarming moment came when the aide told our child, "don't tell mommy and daddy" about something that happened, which caused fear and hesitation in sharing further. When we reported these issues to the administration, they dismissed our concerns and defended the aide's actions. After consulting both a pediatrician and a childhood psychologist, they both flagged the aide's behavior as a serious concern and advised us to remove our child from the school. Despite this, the school has yet to address the incident and continues to support and employ the aide. While there are wonderful teachers at this school, the administration's defense of harmful practices leads us to advise against enrolling your child here. read more

Excellent School, the Hickory Ridge location specifically are warm, empathetic and caring. The children thrive, and each student (even if in need of learning supports and IEP's are given the opportunity to learn at high levels). The teachers are well educated and are up to date on current emergent practices. The school is usually full and most families need to join a waitlist, but this school community is well worth the wait! Some reviews may not provide an accurate standpoint on how wonderful the overall viewpoint of this school actually is, and our enrolled students and families are so excited to be a part of this school system. Highly recommended as one of the top preschool environments in Columbia, Maryland. Administration is caring, licensing compliant, clear policy and protocols, all current teachers are exceptionally​ dedicated and all children ages birth to five, are supported by all academic members of the school community, leading to a lasting and true love of Montessori learning and educational practices. read more

We started our first child at GMS in June 2018 when she was 2 years old and she has flourished - she has learned so much over the years she has been there and the teachers really do care for the children like they are their own. Now almost 5, she gets mad if I pick her up too early because she just enjoys being at school. We started our second child there in August 2019 at 3.5 months old and she has a blast at school. She loves being around her friends and LOVES all of her teachers. The involvement, activities, curriculum, and atmosphere are exactly what we were looking for when trying to decide on childcare. read more

Please do not take your kid here. This place is clean and everyone acts nice when someone visits, but the way it is run is HORRIBLE. My daughter said she was being yelled at by THE CENTER DIRECTOR so I wanted to make sure I had proof before I started any drama. I had my daughter take an old iTouch to school and record when she started yelling. First thing you hear is this woman yelling at the kids to go to sleep, telling them to stop talking, all things that are NOT Montessori. I would never want anyone to take my kids here. Snake filled places, starting with management. The owner seems to just brush everything aside too, nothing changes. I'm making sure to post this everywhere. Horrible absolutely despicable place read more

A Wonderful, Happy Place! We were looking for a Montessori preschool for our 2-year old twins and were very happy to find this lovely school in Columbia, MD. We love the cozy, house-setting of this school where teachers are able to give lots of attention to the children. The staff is well-versed in the Montessori method, at the same time they incorporate the fun and art into the learning process. Our twins,2 yrs old, had never been to a daycare before; my wife stayed home with them all this time. So we were very sensitive with the choice. Even though I work in Arlington, VA and this location is opposite to my route, we opted for this school due to a warm connection we felt from day one. I remember the first day when we dropped the kids to school, my wife cried a little - worried - and we had a hard time getting kids to leave the school- they loved it so much. Couple of things: - Every thing is SUPER CLEAN. I mean we visited so many daycares during our process of finding a perfect childcare and no one was even close to cleanliness. - We started with 3 half days for 2 weeks, then 5 half days for 2 weeks, and finally transitioning to full day all week. The kids gets exited everyday for the school and are SO TIRED when they get back home. - Everyday we get a report on how they did, what they ate, how much they ate, how many times and when the diaper were changed, etc. - Everyday their pictures are uploaded to their online portal - both my wife and I have separate accounts and can access kids' profile. It says on the portal that their mobile app is coming out soon, which is nice. - I noticed that on the 3rd day they started dining on table-chair, which was a wonderful surprise. - The staff is SUPER friendly and always there to assist you anyway possible. Kudos to the director Ms. Lorna. In a nutshell, if you are looking for a school with warm, loving teachers who will help your children grow into their own individuals, this a great place! read more

This school has undergone a name change ,the new name is Greater Montessori School. I know my daughter really enjoyed Ms. Shari as a teacher. There was also a young man that she connected to. And I did see some other teachers that seemed to standout . Overall though I got the feeling that the director did not have a true passion for the school. It just felt like a business. I was recently contacted by someone from the school and asked to reconsider. But I was also asked to remove my review because it is hurting business. Again the feel I have of this center is that is more of a business than a place to bring my child for growth and development . My daughter is currently enrolled in a wonderful center that highlights to me further how much this place lacked during our time there read more

Let me start off by saying that our experience is not how everyone's experience will be at this daycare or any other daycare establishment; but this review is to point out recurring issues that parents like myself and other parents in my son's school faced, and continue to. I would say this school, in particular, the management needs to improve in the following areas: communication, willingness to take constructive feedback, and incident mitigation. We have encountered several instances where management has failed in these three areas, but one example can be shared which will hit all these areas. Our 1.5 yr old son got hurt while in school, pretty bad causing us to take him to the doctor to get him examined. The school did notify us immediately, which we do appreciate, but things started to go downhill after this. As parents we were concerned that he hurt himself so badly inside the classroom, in the presence of teachers. In our copy of the incident report, there are several sections that the management/teacher fills out. One particular section is the remediation section, and in this section their remediation plan was to tell my 1.5 yr old son not to run; which is fine but that only solves maybe 50% of the problem. What should have been written is to tell my son not to run and in addition to do a quick safety check to make sure that there are no sharp corners, sharp edges, and to stow away the bed cot which is where he got hurt in the 1st place. None of that was written. It's as if they think telling a 1.5 yr old boy to stop running will solve it all. Now we don't know if the bedcots were in the way or he ran into them or he got pushed or he tripped or he fell..we don't know any of those details as none were put in the report. When we asked for these details, we were met with hostility and we were met with a certain defensive mode. We were asking as concerned parents, who have yet to see the inside of the daycare or meet his teachers, due to COVID. We continued to ask them but we got no answers. We tried on numerous occasions to follow up and find out what happened, but were continually met with hostility. Then we realized that there were cameras in the school so we had asked to see the video camera and little to our surprise the cameras did not work that week nor were they working for the past 2 weeks. You can imagine the frustration at this point. Management showed no remorse no sympathy no emotion at all in this matter they simply Disregarded the entire situation when we asked why the cameras weren't working if they were installed. The only answer that we got from management was that they are for the teachers more than they are for the students, which is by far the worst answer anyone can give. Again in this situation management failed to understand that cameras are BOTH for the teachers as well as for the students. We wouldn't have even known that the cameras were in there, until management brought it up themselves, but I'm glad that they did. At that point we decided to again reach out to management who quickly dismissed our concern and made it hard for us to meet the teacher who saw this happen. I get it, at that point, cameras weren't working, they want to be careful from a liability point of view. It got to a point, where we lost trust, as they weren't willing to communicate, hear us out, nor admit to their shortcomings. We all understand accidents happen, but how you handle it with the parents is quite important. Once we lost trust we had no choice but to take him out. Again, this exact incident didn't happen to someone else, but we are aware from other parents that communication, among other issues, are a huge issue here at this daycare. I would caution new parents and recommend you to have a open dialogue with the management before you enroll your child here, and hold them accountable to certain standards which are Basic, in my opinion. I truly wish, management will try to learn from every opportunity and learn to communicate better with parents, as they rely on educators like this school to lead by example. read more

I know that the school as received some negative reviews, but so far we've had a very positive experience. Our daughter began in January, 2017 and she has been thriving! We came from a different daycare that she was enrolled in for 8 months, and that daycare had high turnover, wasn't as clean, and didn't have as good of a curriculum - so to our family, Greater Montessori has a higher standard. I have had positive experiences with Ms. Bhatt, she has responded to me via email and phone and I have also been able to meet with her whenever I would like. She truly cares about the children and knows them all by name. All of the teachers that my daughter has had (in the infant room and toddler room) have been caring and nurturing. There is a new owner who is great at listening, friendly, and is making more and more improvements to the program. If I have felt that the end of the day report isn't thorough enough, I simply ask the teachers in person. They have all been very professional, warm and attentive, and my daughter (she is now 19 months) loves them all. The facility is clean, there is a nice outdoor space with a playground, and they do numerous activities with the children; they even have yoga once a week. They took an entire month to transition our daughter from the infant room to the toddler room to make sure she could adjust with naps, eating, doing activities, getting used to it, etc and that was great because it was not a shock for her at all to switch rooms with all the time, care and planning they put into it. We have moved so this is my daughter's 3rd daycare since she has been born. The first was a home daycare in which the owner turned out to be condescending, rude and controlling (after she appeared nice) and wanted to tell us how to raise our daughter. The 2nd was a center but it was super disorganized, not as clean as we thought, and the management would rather have staff work sick than give them days off. At one of the daycares, they slapped me with a late fee for being 5 minutes late in my first month. The one time I was late here, they were understanding and nice (it is hard enough being a working parent with a long commute) about it. So, we were nervous to switch our daughter again after moving to the Columbia area. After what we've been through with the others, we know what is important to us, is: Is our daughter sleeping, eating, learning and having a good time? Is she loved, cared for and do we feel comfortable leaving her there? And the answer is Yes. Sometimes when we pick her up she doesn't want to leave because she's having such a great time. So while I do understand and hear where some parents are coming from, for our family Greater Montessori has been a good fit. It is also super diverse which was important to us. We plan to enroll our 2nd child when we have one. read more

Our 2.5 year old has been attending Greater Montessori since January and we've had a positive experience so far. The teachers seem to be loving and caring, the school is clean with nice open backyard and enough space for kids to run around. We receive written progress reports at the the end of each day. Our child comes home every day singing songs and reciting nursery rhymes he learned in school. They also integrate art, yoga and foreign language into their curriculum, which is amazing for children's development! The only thing we would like to see improve is better communication in case of school being closed due to inclement weather or other emergencies. But it seems like they are in process of implementing those extra communication features. We already recommended Greater Montessori to our friends with young children! read more

We are very happy with our daughter in this school. Its been 5 months now that she has started and we have seen a lot of progress with her. She is learning a lot of things with also music, yoga, French and Spanish as extra languages. One of French friends listened to her song and was amazed that she is non-French kid :) The teachers are loving and very attentive to the kids. They know Montessori process very well and definitely is helping my child grow right. I would definitely recommend this school to anyone who is looking. read more

TL;DR....If you love your child, don't go here. We enrolled our child at this school last year (May 2016) and were sourly disappointed with the administration - we should have followed our instincts. After we paid 10 months in advance, there was no response from Ms. Bhatt after we made multiple attempts to communicate via email and phone just to confirm our child's start date. We were so frustrated that we physically went to the school looking for Ms. Bhatt on MULTIPLE occasions just for this confirmation. The teachers at the time were very nice, and tried to help us. Even the business partner who just so happened to be at the school to do repairs, etc. went out of their way to welcome us and make us feel reassured that we were doing the right thing - he was super kind. However, the main issue was trying to figure out when we would ever hear back from Ms. Bhatt, the head of the school! In what ended up to be our short time there (we enrolled for 10 months and only stayed 3 months), we were concerned with the change in staffing within the same month. In fact, we had two teachers in 2 months and the third one started when we left. We were concerned with the supervision of children before "school" hours. There was no administrative support during before-care hours; only one (1) teacher was available in the primary class,who also served as the same person to handle phones, and let in parents such as myself who couldn't get in the main door (i.e. the sign-in system was terrible and most times resulted in ringing for help). This would mean kids already in school would be left unsupervised in the classroom!! A phone call was made to the Office of Child's Care Licensing Branch to complain and report this observation. We could list the other things that we observed and communicated directly to Ms. Bhatt, which included the lack of social support for our child, false impression for our child to access certain amenities/curriculum, and lack of daily reporting to understand what our child did on a daily basis! While the classrooms looked nice and felt clean, we were extremely frustrated. It was not worth it for us to wait for things to get better. We came from another center that was much more established, organized, and caring. So glad and relieved that we left!!! read more

Worst parenting mistake we have ever made was sending our young and vulnerable child to GMS in Columbia, MD! We hope we are not too late in sharing the negligence, injury, cover-up dismissive and scamming our child and family had to endure. We thought this was a real Montessori school, it is not, very under-qualified and just a name to collect payments from unsuspecting families. DO NOT risk your child's well-being and safety. It is painful to even recount but our perfectly healthy child was returned to us with an open wound on their bottom (in their diaper) due to infrequent changes. No real explanation, no record of exactly who was handling diaper changes, no camera footage to fill in the holes of information (conveniently). It was terrifying and a regret no parent should have to feel for placing their child in the wrong care. We had to seek medical attention for our child and have the worst thoughts race through our minds since no one could tell us what exactly happened or how they could let it occur. It was devastating. The assistant director first admitted fault but withheld information, showed a lack of record keeping, began changing details of her account...leading to cover ups which later became blatant lies for the group to skirt liability. It was an awful thing to experience and a nightmare for weeks even after pulling our child out of there. They had the audacity to offer a classroom promotion if we stayed but were otherwise not phased by the physical pain and injury our child had suffered due to their gross negligence. What an insult. We fear they would do this to another family, disregard the impact of their careless actions, and worse, get away with it time and again. Not acceptable. read more

If you care anything about your child's well being and safety...please read on. We enrolled our 2 girls here after interviewing the previous director (Lorna). The facility seemed clean, organized and teachers were nice. We liked the schedule and loved the Montessori style learning. A little less than a month in our daughter came home with a bruise on the back of her arm and no incident report. As the evening went on, you could visibly see teeth marks. We took photos and immediately emailed the director that night. No one saw anything! My daughter had a huge bite mark and you're telling me that no one heard her scream or cry??? Our daughter wasn't old enough at the time to give a name or much less understand what we were asking of her in identifying the other student. Since the school has cameras we asked to see the footage that day and were sure to catch everything on camera. Conveniently it turns out that they did NOT have security cameras installed on the side of the playground on the buildings perimeter where our children were but had them in other locations. My husband, military and law enforcement had several meetings with the owner and after much applied pressure to ensure our children as well as others were being sufficiently taken care of the additional cameras finally went up. The director (Lorna) and the front desk receptionist that attempted to cover up the incident were both immediately terminated. Fast forward, there were 2 other biting incidents and the 2nd involved the SAME child that bit our daughter the first time because they moved them both up to the same class and my daughter could now speak and communicate. The last straw for us was when I went to pick our girls up and heard our 21 month old crying hysterically as I'm checking into the building. I frantically start looking for her and she wasn't in her classroom (where I normally pick her up) I keep looking and see a woman I've never seen before peering out of the door and as I approach and look through to find my daughter, I look down and see her with tears rolling down her face and hysterical with the woman's foot holding the door closed. My child just have been there for quite sometime and as I ask who this woman is with my child I learn that it's a mother teacher they're training for their school their opening in another area of Columbia. I gather my child's belongings and head back to her class and speak to one of the assistants who informs me that they began to transition our daughter that very day without our knowledge. She further explained what a mess it is there and how they can't keep staff and how there is always something happening. After learning all of this information I directed the receptionist to have the director call me immediately and of course she did not until I emailed both her and the school that night about what occurred that day. This school and the owner believe it's ok to bring in employees and not introduce them, make an announcement, send an email or post their photo about who they are and where they will be working. The owner runs this like a business and has zero concern about your children. You will be a paycheck to him. After finally getting into the school we initially wanted, Julia Brown in Columbia we learned that Greater Montessori had hired employees that Julia Brown had let go for not meeting performance standards. This school is not a fully functioning Montessori school, it's a scam! I have all of our email chains with the owner and director as proof of all of the issues we have experienced. read more

I should have listened to the reviews, but I so needed a school that was walking distance to my home that I went ahead and tried to enroll my child there. We visited the school a few times and spoke with the director a few times. Things seemed nice and therefore I went forward with the application. My child was supposed to start March 1, 2017. We are still waiting to hear from them. They cashed my check and I never heard from them again. I call and call and they tell me that the director Ms Jipsy Shukla Bhatt is always in a meeting or busy. She never returns the call. When I stop by the school they tell me that I can't see her because I don't have an appointment. Seriously I am baffled because they literally took my money and didn't provide any service. Looks like we are headed to COURT! Do yourself a favor and pay attention to these reviews. read more

I can honestly say that the staff is exceptional and nurturing. They are very welcoming and always greet the parents with positivity. However, I find the director's actions to be questionable. She is rude and unprofessional. I have noticed her speaking to staff members on numerous occasions in a very demeaning manner. Two of the teachers quit only months after the school opened and when I asked one teacher her reasons for leaving so suddenly, she informed me that the director Ms. Bhatt had been very unprofessional and made the working environment hostile for her employees. She was difficult to get reach of whenever we had concerns and would often not reply to our emails. I also noticed when I came to pick up my child that the student to teacher ratio was not what it should be. We were very disappointed with this school and would not recommend it. read more

Although the school has gone through some changes in staffing and name as other reviewers have mentioned, overall I feel that the teachers do create a very positive and nurturing environment. I love how the Montessori curriculum promotes freedom in learning and exploration, with new themes every month. It seems as if my child comes home every day having learned something new. I know some parents have some issues with the director, but I for one found my interactions with her to be pleasant and helpful. I have always heard back from Ms. Bhatt promptly, and any issues or questions I had were handled in a professional manner. Honestly, I encourage any potential parents to visit the school in person to make a judgement for themselves. read more

A loving, caring place where my two year old has thrived! We are so glad to have found Greater Montessori!

13 OFFICE OF CHILDCARE VIOLATIONS ON THIS SCHOOL. My 4 year old son had the misfortune of attending this school for almost 3 months. I hesitated to enroll him based on the very reviews I read here. However, a new Director, Ms. Lorna, was in place by July and I hoped that this new hire would make an improvement in the school. I was VERY wrong. The Director who is a former teacher and appears kind has no management skills and is woefully incompetent as proven by her lack of communication or follow up. She is in over her head and always appears stressed and overwhelmed as evidenced by her perpetual promises to add your concerns to her "list" of items that she rarely addresses. Ms. Lorna's go to response to concerns is to throw her staff under the bus or say "I don't know, I wasn't there when it happened". In addition, to the Director, they apparently have poor hiring practices. Ms. Dilara was hired around the time my child started and she appears to be frigid, lacking emotions, untrustworthy and lacking the maturity necessary to nurture children properly -she is by far the worst, incompetent teacher I have encountered -I would highly recommend an "Emotional Intelligence" training for her. In addition to Ms. Dilara's aloofness, she has trouble remembering the truth when it is not convenient for her. Leading up to my decision to withdraw my child, he had multiple instances were he was hurt while he was in their care. He has multiple scars from a variety of accidents he had there. Strangely, my child has never injured himself so frequently in any other school environment, but in the space of three months, he has at least 4 scars on his face neck and forehead. This leads me to believe he was not being watched closely at all. The last two straws were when he sustained an obvious HEAD INJURY while in their care and no one reported it, treated it or seemed to know how it happened. Ms. Dilara in her wisdom claimed it happened somewhere else. These people didn't even put ice on his head. When he got home there was a very obvious knot on his forehead. I had to take him to the doctor to make sure he did not have a concussion. But, that's not even the worst thing they've done. I arrived to pick my child up and they had LEFT HIM UNSUPERVISED on the playground for an unknown amount of time. When I arrived they asked if my husband had picked him up! They ran around the center looking for him, while I became hysterical at the thought of my child being kidnapped, hurt or killed. The Director claimed that since Montessori is suppose to teach independence, he should know to come back to the group somehow even though he is 4. Don't take my word for it, call The Office of Child Care and request a report on this place. As of 10/06/2017, GM was cited for 5 VIOLATIONS related to my child's experience including: 3 related to NEGLECT, 1 related to failure to complete CRIMINAL BACKGROUND Clearances and 1 related to failing to assign QUALIFIED child care teachers to each group of children. By the way, as of this review, none of these have been corrected, I'm sure they are working on it. In addition, to these 5 VIOLATIONS I discovered there were an additional 8 VIOLATIONS this center was cited for in a previous inspection done on 7/26/2017. Wow! A total of 13 VIOLATIONS in a little over a year! I have the detailed reports on all of these violations as documented by OCC. This is public knowledge and accessible to anyone who wishes to obtain a written report. This is not something you can find online, so be sure to call and request it directly from OCC. In my son's short tenure there were a small number of kind, competent (front desk) staff and teachers (about 4 I can recall) but they either left or will eventually leave when they find better opportunities. Enrolling in this school was a decision we very much regret and we hope our child will recover from this negative experience. We hope our experience will help others make the wise decision to avoid GM. Don't risk your child's well-being at this place. read more

The only reason I gave this " school" one star is because of the convenient location. That's about the only positive reflection. My daughter attended over the summer as I thought she could learn while having fun and still being in a structured environment. I was wrong. I should have known from the sometimes working sign in computer system that this establishment needed work. Yes some of the staff were pleasant but the director is a horror story within herself. Unprofessional and business minded is not the qualities of a school "leader." I complained about an going ant issue. They were walking around as unattended to as the children. We disenrolled...disappointed. read more

I have two children attending Greater Montessori School since May 2016 and there were challenges in the beginning due to it being a new school but it quickly turned around. All of the teachers that have been with my children have been nurturing, accommodating, truthful and reliable. The teachers have been consistent for a year or more now and I haven't seen any turnover unless a teacher leaves due to personal relocation. The previous location my children were at, the teachers were changing on a monthly basis which didn't provide consistency and security for the children. I have to say that at GMS, the teachers know all of the children and the children know all of the teachers in all of the rooms. It makes me so happy to see the extended family that has been created at GMS. You know your children are in good hands when they get upset if you pick them up too early and they want to stay to be with their friends and teachers. A couple of examples of my experiences are: Recently my older daughter went for her Kindergarten assessment at her new private school and the principal and director were shocked at all that she could do. They mentioned a number of times that at 4 years old, she has already mastered many of the skills that kindergartners and some 1st graders are currently working on or going to be working on. I can say with 100% confidence that due to the teacher's ability, dedication and love for learning/teaching is the reason that my daughter is thriving at GMS. It was time for my younger daughter to move up into the next class and leaving her current teacher was going to be hard on her. I was extremely nervous that this would set back her progress with attachment issues. They were willing to accommodate my requests to move my older daughter into the new classroom to help with the adjustment and it has made everyone's lives so much easier and happier. She is flourishing in ways I couldn't have expected so quickly. My older daughter had febrile seizures prior to attending GMS. When we first started at the school, I was concerned about safety protocol around this condition and other potential health concerns for other children. When Mrs. Lorna moved into the director role, she immediately worked to ensure that the staff was trained in administering the special medication my daughter would need in the event of a seizure as well as other children's medical needs. This reaffirmed that we made the right decision sending our children to GMS because safety is our top priority. I hope this review truly reflects the culture and environment that is currently at GMS. read more

Our daughter started going to this school from March. She was home grown prior to joining this school. I was worried about how soon she can adjust to the new environment. But surprisingly, She adopted quite well to the environment given the teachers hospitality and care. The minute we step into class with her, she would just run and hug the teachers. What else can you expect from teachers!. We have also observed tremendous change in her skills and her ability to learn new things. We researched a lot before joining this school, but couldn't find any better school in this area in terms of cleanliness and infrastructure. read more

Our son started at Greater Montessori School formally know as MKU early august 2016. We are absolutely blessed to be at this school. The Head of School Ms. Bhatt is extremely dedicated, humble, soft spoken and down to earth person who shares a passion for montessori education. Our experience with the school so far is absolutely satisfactory. read more