We've been at Orion Montessori School since 2017, and all four of my children are enrolled here. We couldn't be more satisfied with the school. Beyond the authentic Montessori program, what I appreciate the most is the small, close-knit community. I feel my children are safe here, not just physically but also emotionally, as they're surrounded by strong moral values that the school fosters daily. That alone is priceless and something I wouldn't trade for anything. The school team has always been communicative and responsive to our needs, and we are entirely happy with our experience. I wholeheartedly recommend Orion to any parent looking for a nurturing, value-driven Montessori education. read more

My son has been here for four years now in the elementary classroom. It's one of the two AMI accredited schools in the Bay Area and came recommended by our previous play school in Boston when we moved here. We came here after a disappointing public school experience in Cupertino where my child was expected to be a compliant robot. We moved him here and in the first week itself the teacher Ms.Melek said he was exceptional, and since then he has been thriving. Mr.Shawn and Ms.Melek are the best teachers we can ask for, Ms. Soraya is very kind as principal of the school and Ms.Shriee is a wonderful head of school, constantly listening to parent's feedback. The school has field trips including an overnight farm trip, has activities like French and music baked into the tuition and other supplemental activities like Kung Fu, Robotics and Soccer. They have a class pet which has taught my son a lot of responsibility. They do gardening and grow produce. They do trips to the library and the park every week. The mixed age classroom is great as the younger kids learn from the older kids and older kids like my son learn to be role models for the younger kids. They are gentle and patient when we are occasionally tardy for drop off or pick up- no late slips or humiliation or fines or anything like we experienced in other schools. My son was a mathy kid but the teachers gently nudged him to be well rounded. He now enjoys writing and reading. The parent teacher conferences are the best, where the teachers don't talk about mere grades but overall development milestones emotionally, socially and executive function. My son is so emotionally mature because of what he learns from his teachers. I can't say enough about how amazing Ms. Melek and Mr. Shawn are. My son has outgrown the Montessori material in math so the teachers are now supporting him with advanced math from art of problem solving. What a fantastic school that values every child's uniqueness. And for all this, the tuition is on the affordable end compared to other private schools in the Bay Area. read more

We truly recommend this school! Our son goes here since he was 3 years old, since 2022, and he is thriving. The teachers and staff here are great, very loving and caring, trying to improve the experience by listening to feedback and being involved with the parents. Beside being a truly Montessori accredited school, they offer lots of optional extracurricular activities for the kids during school hours, in all fields, like: soccer, french, kung fu or lego robotics. So the kids can develop every aspect of a healthy bring-up, not only academic, a thing we didn't find in other schools that we looked at. read more

Let me start by the summary: If you care for your kid's safety, their education, or your own piece of mind, STAY FAR AWAY from this school. This school has been a nightmare for us and so many other parents. If you are interested in the details, keep reading. #1. Safety Earlier this year I learned from parents that were still at Orion that they lost a kid! The police eventually returned the kid unharmed. They apparently told that this was the first time something like this had happened. Unfortunately this had already happened while we were at Orion. That time the school was lucky that some parents were in the parking lot and were able to bring the children back right away. #2. Education While we were there, there were subtle signs that education was not great, but we didn't know better. We got more materials back from our kids in the first 2 months at the new school than we got in 2 years at Orion. As we switched school, we realized during the assessment that both our kids were quite late on many things. It took over 1 year to have them catch up to the level of their new classmate. The education weakness at Orion was the hardest to gauge. We blamed ourselves for not taking our kids out earlier, but Orion's lack of transparency made it hard for us to know anything. Teachers at Montessori are supposed to guide your kids for 3 years. Unfortunately, their staff keeps changing so your kids won't get the stability they need. #3. Piece of mind Orion's management is working very hard to hide everything from you. There is no transparency whatsoever. If you ask questions, you will often be brushed off in a very arrogant way, and reminded that you know nothing about education and montessori. We have had so many arguments with the school, even sometimes just for asking simple questions. Some examples: - The first red flag was during the initial school visit before enrollment. I asked Shriee (head of school) about sibling discounts which I believe was mentioned on their website. The answer I got was to first register and then "we'll see what we can do". After we enrolled, we met some other new parents. To our surprise/disbelief, we all realized that the tuition price was different for each family! - A few months after we enrolled and paid the school tuition, Shriee sent us the registration paperwork. To our surprise, tuition had been raised (+$100/10.2% more for 5 half days, $230/+15% more for the 5 full days). We complained and her answer was that in the agreement it said that school policy/price change can occur with 30 day notice. I have never heard of schools changing the price between the enrollment and the start of the school year. We felt completely cheated at that point, doubting if we should leave the school. By then of course, most schools had already finished their enrollment, and so we didn't have too much choice than to stay. Unfortunately, this behavior was aligned with pretty much the whole management at Orion. The second year, we had similar tuition cost surprises and again had to fight for them to do what they had initially said. Every time it was just draining us mentally. - The first week of our second year, Orion had a conference with the parents for upper elementary. To everybody's shock, they had decided to change the program by sending our kids to Watsonville every Friday by bus, and that we should be paying an extra $420 a month (a 24% increase!). If we would not agree to this, our kid could stay in the library every Friday without any teacher. As you can imagine, almost every parent was mad and angry at how the school was once again doing their thing in our backs and trying to get more money in dishonest ways. Another family and us always fought against these behaviors. Shriee probably knew that we would not react well to this. She told the other family that if we (the 2 families) were to accept the new program without a fuss, they would waive the extra $420 for us. WHAT??? Is that even legal? Anyway, we were angry and with the other parents wrote a petition to show our discontentment and that we would not agree to such a thing. Eventually the school had to back down. That day, we decided we would leave the school. At the end of that school year (2020), if I remember well, about half the kids from upper elementary also left. Best decision we ever took for our kids and ourselves. As parents we always want the best for our kids. My kids seemed happy at Orion with their friends so we ignored all the red flags. I have been regretting not having switched after the first year. The new school has been the exact opposite. Great teachers and education, transparency, a community encouraged by the school. My kids are very happy but more importantly they are also learning a lot. And above all, we found peace of mind again. These 2 years at Orion brought so much stress to our family, it took over a year to get over it and get our kids at the same level as the other kids in their new school. read more

Our kids went to Orion Montessori School for 2 years and we encountered many issues along the way. Mostly in the administration aspects where there was no transparency whatsoever about the communication with parents, changes in the tuition, changes in the program. The founder is not to be trusted. I remember one time where I talked about the school to my friend who was looking for a preschool for her son. She called me back after meeting Shriee telling me that the price she gave them was higher than the one I mentioned. And stories like this happened way too many times... read more

OMS is really amazing school. My son was in the school for 3 years and my daughter for one year. Both love the school and their teachers so much. There is amazing balance between academic study and playing so kids are learning by fun and professional way. The school has amazing family environment so your kids will totally love it once they join the school. The school has gymnastics, french, music and art classes there is also Mandarin and spanish classes. All teachers in OMS loves their work and each child is treated as if he is their own, they truly care and so professional. The CEO and director of operation are amazing, they are doing all they could to make it wonderful environment for the kids, teachers and the parents. If we didn't move to another area, we would never leave the school. I totally recommend it and I am missing the school already. read more

I am very happy I decided to enroll my son at Orion. I can tell he loves it and I feel he is thriving. He always asks to go to school in the morning and talks about his teachers with joy. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a place were your child is well taken cared off and comes home everyday with a smile on his face. read more

This is my long pending review . We moved to California in 2015. We were looking for a good preschool for my daughter and we visited 'n' number of places before we met Shri in Orion Montessori and I had lot of confidence that she will be in very good hands. Orion Montessori School is a focused , safe and clean facility. The teachers are awesome . Special thanks to Mrs. Tania and Mrs. Hema. She had learnt a lot and especially the school taught her how to be a caring human being and responsible citizen. My daughter remembers each and every moment that she spent in school. Thanks a lot Orion Montessori. read more

Love the school. The school is clean, teachers care and the curriculum is truly child focused Montessori. As parents we got not only the opportunity to see the material but also use the classroom material our child uses in a one day program called 'Silent Journey'. The program was on a Saturday when school was closed. Parents were provided the Montessori experience with ample time to learn every material in the classroom so that we could understand the principles. I think doing that was really cool as its easy to understand the kid at home. My child is 4 years old and has learnt a great deal in the past year without bringing home any tracing or reading homework. She can read small sentences and write the alphabets. There is a lot of attention on gross and fine motor skills, my kid is doing good at pouring work, setting up table, winding up her work and organizing things etc - so very happy with all that . She loves the music class and sings a lot of songs she learnt at school and makes our Alexa sing them too :) read more

LOVE Orion! Couldn't be happier with the methodology and execution. Highly recommend to families looking for a child focused curriculum

Our son has been in the Toddler program for a year. We appreciate how the school communicates to the parents and always keeping us informed. The school also provides exciting educational activities and events outside the regular school curriculum. We also like how each staff member of Orion Montessori cares for each child as we would. read more