Incredible dual-language programming in a Montessori setting with experienced and caring teachers and admin. Strong and vibrant parent community. read more

Our family's experience with IMS Durham has been deeply disappointing and frustrating. We enrolled our three-year-old expecting a safe environment and constructive communication with parents, but repeated injury-related incidents and the school's responses ultimately caused us to lose confidence in both. And as it turned out that IMS is not licensed, it is unclear what governmental or other oversight bodies are responsible for oversight of student safety. Among other incidents, our daughter cut her finger while provided a manual pencil sharpener with a metal blade in the classroom to use independently and later came home with unexplained scratches near her eyelids. In another incident, according to the school's own account, a staff member took her hand while redirecting her to sit down, after which she began crying. She reported an arm injury and requested ice. After pickup, she was in significant pain and unable to lift her arm; she was subsequently diagnosed with nursemaid's elbow and required medical reduction. On another day, she sustained a significant tongue injury during nap time. When we picked her up, her shirt and blanket had substantial blood on them, yet we had not been contacted beforehand. We were told that approximately 16-17 children ages 3-6 were in the room and that one of the two people supervising them at that time was a 15-year-old girl on her first day. What troubled us most was what happened when we repeatedly raised safety and communication concerns. At our first and only in-person meeting with the Head of School, which primarily concerned our child's safety, our recollection is that she told us early in the discussion that if we were uncomfortable with the school's practices, we could look for another school before discussing the concerns. We followed IMS's own Handbook process and ultimately escalated our unresolved concerns to the Board Chair. We met with the Board Chair online to discuss them, but before receiving follow-up, IMS terminated our three-year-old daughter's re-enrollment only days before the new school year began. Our daughter had not been accused of misconduct or behavioral problems. The termination letter instead cited the frequency and nature of our communications--including concerns about injuries, supervision, parent notification, and regulatory status--as part of its reasoning. We were left scrambling to find another school at the last minute. In the previous two years in a daycare in another city, our kid was doing quite well. Based on our family's 7-month experience with IMS, we cannot recommend IMS. read more

My wife and I are professors at UNC and Duke, respectively. We have researched most of the schools in the area and decided to send our older child to Duke School with mixed results. With our youngest, we tried IMS and have been amazed at the level of dedication by teachers and administration. Solid education with emphasis on intercultural competence and language acquisition. Simply the best school in the Triangle. Excellent management of Covid issues by the administration and staff. Cannot recommend it more in terms of education and community. They have their priorities straight! read more

My children finished 6 years at this school and it was a wonderful experience. Bilingual education is an amazing academic foundation and they blend this with everything that is wonderful about the Montessori Method, making this a beautiful and peaceful-filled refuge for your child's first home-away-from-home. read more

My daughter has been in the Mandarin immersion program at IMS since preschool. This school also offers Spanish and French immersion programs. I have been extremely impressed by all the teachers and administration. The smaller size of the school allows for the teachers and director to know all the students and parents well. Our daughter has loved all of her teachers in the Mandarin program, and we are so impressed at the work she has done at the school. At the age of 4 she was already able to name all the colors, planets, and continents in Mandarin! read more

Our daughter has gone here for the past two years. She's not yet 5 and is speaking Spanish at home all the time. She has made wonderful friendships with her classmates and couldn't adore her teachers more. She feels confident and enthusiastic about learning-- not just mathematical and linguistic concepts, etc., but also about patience, independence, collaboration, courtesy, and other skills. We feel she is truly becoming a global citizen and learning to highly value cultural diversity. We love this school. read more

We've been in this school for a year now, and really appreciate it. The teachers are smart, committed, and very observant. I feel like they know our child as an individual really well. They helped us to identify some mild issues our child was having that a little bit of occupational therapy has helped to address, which is now allowing him to get so much more out of school. He's just a happier kid, and better at school, now that we know what's been behind some of his struggles that if they were not addressed would have made him start to feel like he's not good at school. Our kid speaks in full sentences in his immersion language and he's only 4.5 --on top of starting to read and write, counting and number recognition well past 100, knowing a ton about the solar system and the planets, plant and animal classifications, geography and geology, etc. The school has been slightly disorganized from an administrative point of view in part because it has been growing, but never in a way that has impacted my kid's experience there. They are hiring a new head of school administrator to help with the administrative load, so this can only improve what is already a great educational experience. read more

My family was an IMS family for two years and we made some of the best friends that we have in the area. The IMS community is strong, supportive and familial. read more

We love International Montessori school. We moved to the Triangle after spending a year in Mexico, and chose IMS because we didn't want our 4-year-old to lose her Spanish. What we have gotten is so much more than just language learning, however. Her teachers in La Casa are wonderful and truly care about her as an individual, and I know she'll always have a relaxing, calm space to go to when she gets to school in the morning (which is great because there's often kid-chaos at home!). She loves math, and takes pride in the work she does in her classroom. The only critiques I have are the near-constant fundraising (which I assume is necessary for the school to run, but feels like a lot given what we already pay in tuition), and the number of activities for parents that take place during the school day (I have a flexible job, but feel bad for parents who might not - they'd miss out on a lot). It's a very diverse school, as well - racially, if not economically - and the teachers are from all over the world. We truly love it there. read more

Our first year attending IMS held good thoughts but the second removed them all. The administration lacks ability to manage educational instruction sufficiently to ensure children who leave IMS transition into other schools gracefully. We found very frustrating that the school director/ owner is extremely disorganized and unable to meet commitments after acknowledging and agreeing to address parent concerns. The elementary Spanish and French homeroom teachers are committed and dedicated and are the true jewels of the schools, but with lack of direction ALL suffer - including children. During the summer of 2012 IMS expanded their office space which spilled into the start of the school year. One of these offices were the assigned English classroom. With only 2 days of 45 minutes of English instruction per week the school somehow thought delaying English would not be a problem. Elementary school children started English 2 months AFTER the start of school. The school did not find it important to utilize the space they had prior to ensure children were taught during those 2 months. Furthermore, the had hired a new, inexperienced English teacher who turned out to be psychotic and was fired a couple months before the end of the school year. When the school administrator was asked if they had any intentions to ensure 3rd graders were meeting standards by offering extra help to compensate for the lack of instruction or provide tutoring to these children she made VERY clear they felt their program was strong and IMS would not support such things. Can you image hearing this from a private school??? We've have had three full jobs since... parenting, working and home schooling after paid private school tuition. You're better off somewhere else. read more

We've had an overwhelmingly positive experience at IMS. Both of my daughters are in the Mandarin immersion program and have had excellent language development. Language comprehension, Mandarin vocabulary, and accents have continued to improve and exceed expectations over time. My first grader ended her school year giving an entire report about tigers only in Mandarin. For English class, which she attends twice a week with students in French and Spanish immersion, she has learned how to write beautifully in cursive and how to compose sentences. She has learned how to research subjects (like animals) in which she is interested, with her teachers support, and presented them to her class. In terms of math, she has been working on multiplication and division as a first grader. My preK'er has not started English class yet but already loves the English teacher, who is incredibly warm, supportive, and strives to get to know students and their families! In her preK year, she can count in Mandarin to 100 and do simple addition/subtraction problems. While academically our girls have had a well rounded education, just as importantly, the sense of community responsibility and world views that my girls have obtained are invaluable. read more

My daughter has attended the French immersion program at IMS since preschool, starting without knowing a single word. She recently finished grade 2, and is able to speak and write simple sentences fluently. Her teachers are loving and accessible, and she has thrived in the mixed age classrooms. Although we didn't initially seek out the Montessori program, we love that it is child-oriented, she can work at her own speed and level. She does grade 4 division, grade 3 english etc. and she doesn't even realize it. The children learn to work effectively in groups and are confident to give presentations and speak in front of a large group. They emphasize peace education, teaching kids about courtesy and respect. The small community might lack certain resources that a big school may have, but also allows for more opportunities such as more field trips and sense of family -almost all the teachers know her. I think my daughter has everything she needs. Having said that, we are really excited about the plans for a new campus, which so far looks very promising and beautiful! read more

We had such an unfortunate experience at IMS. The teachers were inexperienced and over reacted to any behavior they didn't like i.e calling parents to pick up their children all the time, labeling certain boys as "problem children" to their parents, taking recess time away for interruptions (from three year olds), and suggesting evaluations when a child did as much as not wanting to wash their hands. This school does not follow its discipline guidelines. Our child was put in time out for a whole afternoon. The teachers have diagnosed several children with learning difficulties without any professional ground to do so. The school director was rude at times, as were some teachers. The school director wanted to charge parents hundreds of dollars for not "volunteering". The school has such little consideration for working parents. It closes at least once a month, and charges extra for those days. As a whole the school is as rigid as it is unorganized. i.e they will send 10 pages of emails regarding parking. I regret sending my child there for an unproductive time with unprepared teachers who could be very negative at times. I am very glad we have moved on and now my child is thriving in more competent, compassionate, and experienced hands. read more