When my wife and I checked out Lakeside Montessori we were wowed by the modern design of the school. During our tour we found Carolyn, the school's director, to be aloof and robotic, but we didn't think much of this at the time, and ultimately decided to register based on our initial impression of the school, but as the saying goes, looks can be deceiving. Total monthly payment was about $1,000/month.
The nice facade started falling apart during my daughter's very first week of school. There was no friendliness or warmth at Lakeside. Most parents and staff, including Carolyn, wouldn't look at us or even say hello. We expected a bit of transition period for the first month or so, but our daughter really wasn't herself. She dreaded morning drop offs, and at pickups I noticed there was a sad, almost depressed look to her face and in the way she carried herself. This behaviour persisted and continued until the end of her three months at Lakeside.
Things quickly got worse. At the six week mark my daughter got a terrible case of diaper rash. When we spoke with the teacher about the issue she implied she came to school that way, and that staff always ensured children received regular diaper changes. We decided not to pursue this issue further because after voicing our complaints, and our expectations around diaper care and overall hygiene, the teacher promised this would not happen again. Three short weeks later we were shocked when we came home to find our daughter had another extreme case of diaper rash. We again brought this to the teacher's attention and requested a meeting with Carolyn. When we met Carolyn the first thing that came out of her mouth was not an apology or a promise to fix things, but rather the question of whether we wanted to leave the school.
Although taken aback, we responded we didn't want to withdraw our daughter from the school, but that we had serious concerns with the level of diaper care our daughter was receiving. The conversation ended with Carolyn telling us she would talk with staff about this issue - again with no apology. She didn't even have the courtesy afterwards to follow up and ask how our child was doing or to let us know the problem was fixed.
The real kicker came during my daughter's last week at Lakeside when she was bit by another child. At pick up the teacher told us there was a "minor" incident today in class where another child bit our daughter on the arm which left a "small mark". The teacher then handed us an incident form that she asked us to sign which we quickly did in order to comfort our distressed child. Upon further inspection at home we saw the bite left more than just a small mark. The other child bit my daughter so hard through the thick fleece sweater she was wearing that it left a full impression of their upper and lower teeth on her arm.
The next day we pulled up my daughter's sleeve and showed the teacher the full extent of the injury. We demanded the incident form be revised to reflect the true nature of the injury, and that she follow up on the situation with the parents of the biter. We told her it was obvious the three staff in the room were not paying proper attention if one child had the opportunity to bite another so hard to leave full teeth marks. We also told her we wanted the biter to be kept well away from our daughter for her remaining time at school. We believe Lakeside should have called us immediately given the seriousness of the injury and the shock of the attack. We also found it odd that we were directing Lakeside staff on appropriate follow up actions, and again there was never any follow up from Carolyn. Although her skin wasn't broken, our daughter complained about pain from the bite three days afterward.
The lack of leadership, incompetent staff, and poor standards of care is what ultimately made us leave Lakeside. We believe that Carolyn's main motivation is financial gain rather than any true love or passion for educating children, and that people need to be careful about trusting their kids to Lakeside. read more