Fantastic school for your little ones! Our son has been attending since he was 1 year old and it…read morehas nothing short of a wonderful experience. When he started, he wasn't yet walking or talking and now he's almost 3 and has been through 2 classrooms (infant/toddler and now preschool). He's doing exceptionally well - is very verbal and independent - and has made great friendships with both his classmates and the teachers in each of the classrooms he's been in. For what it's worth - my sister and I both went to Montessori schools and that experience was so positive for my mother that she trained as a Montessori teacher and now runs a school (unfortunately in a different country). Since the Atlantic Ocean makes it hard for us to send our son there, we had to look for a suitable alternative near by that is true to Montessori and is well run. We've evaluated 10-15 different schools in the Berkeley/Oakland/Lamorinda area as we looked for the right spot for our son. Here are my favourite things about Rockridge Montessori- + Loving staff, extremely low turnover. The head teachers in each classroom that we've been part of have been there for over 10+ years - which speaks to how the school's administration look after and invest in their teachers. This is very different to other schools where turnover is very high. + AMS (American Montessori Society) trained teachers, plenty of Montessori time and activities from learning letters to practical life (cooking!). + Very clear and protective care policies for your child. For example, they disallow teachers babysitting students on the weekend to avoid favouritism. + Involved parent community - lots of social events and birthday parties. We spend a lot of time with our son's friends and their parents. + Well maintained facilities. Parking is easy, the playground is fantastic (and kids get to spend a lot of time outside, which I love). + Tonnes of communication. It's been very easy to get updates on our son (which was very helpful during those anxious first few weeks). The teachers update us on his progress throughout the week and have been a big help when it came to potty training him. + Diverse student body + Parent friendly hours (7:30 to 6pm) and - starting next year - prepared hot lunches for students. + Location is very close to BART, if you commute into San Francisco - about a 10 minute walk (or you can park at BART parking for $3 - post COVID there is usually space until past 9am). In conclusion - we're very happy we made the decision to send our son to RMS and would heartily recommend it to anyone who was considering it.

My younger toddler son went to Rockridge Montessori for about six months in 2021-2022…read more I thought about posting my experience for awhile, hoping other parents can make a decision. As I know it is difficult to find a caring, loving and trusting place for your young one. In the beginning of the process we were taken care really nicely. Paul and the other partner were communicative and encouraging. As soon as my son started we realized the challenges. 1) they have a lot of holidays/time offs. It almost felt like a school with a general timeframe. We ended up taking a lot of time off and asked family support since the school would be closed occasionally for things like; planning, cleaning, holiday, etc. 2) lots of plastics. Toys outside are plastic which is not a Montessori way. Inside, they were using a lot of plastic materials too. 3) I'm sad to say this but unfortunately teachers are not good at communicating. We struggled and we often hear other parents having trouble understanding what teachers were trying to say or they would be shy or not interested in providing updates. 4) A few times there were incidents in the class regarding biting. We were not communicated immediately. We were told when we picked my son up, and that felt really bad. On top of this, the teacher did not share a lot as she said she was not there when it happened. The other parent shared with us that his daughter was also got bitten and they were not communicating with much. Once we reached out to Paul, his response was very disappointing. He did not take any responsibility on the communication part and did not follow up with any action items. 5) my kid was not necessarily introduced to Montessori way of learning; neither myself. I was disappointed with teachers and the school overall after the teacher conference. We spend 15 mins online and neither teachers were able to communicate and tell us what our son is like during the day, how we can help him. It felt like some daycare. I know lots of good people work there too, so I wanted to keep my experience a bit neutral but these were the main points why we left that school. It is in a nice location but the education is not good. Paul was not engaging and helping. His emails were not supportive; more so cutting things. He did not like if we questioned anything. Also we always sensed that "you can leave if you want" kind of attitude along with, "you signed a contract for a year, so good luck" It is hard to find a good place for your kid, especially in the bay. However, I would like to say, this is not a place I'd send any kids I know. Not worth your time, money and energy. Good luck.

Our daughter Mabel was at OMS for about 2 1/2 years, from 2-5. It's no exaggeration that OMS was…read moreone of the best parts of our life during that whole time. She has thrived there, making friends, loving her teachers, learning independence, learning about the world and just plain having fun. We looked at a few different Montessori schools as we were thinking about preschool, and a huge part of why we chose OMS was the amazing outdoor space. There are two separate classrooms (one for 2 year olds, one for 3-5) and they are separated by a huge outdoor space, so rare to find in urban preschools. It's fully fenced, safe and provides for children to have so much room to roam, explore and play. From the time she was two she was able to explore and have real independence. It was a very special part of her time there. The teachers are also wonderful. They are kind, caring and make the kids feel taken care of and safe while also giving them space to form friendships and choose what appeals to them. We'd frequently talk about how our daughter was a 'little citizen' at school: the manners they teach them, the ability to be in a group and interact with others, the skills to sit in a circle, pay attention, be heard, share. As she gets ready to go to kindergarten this year, we are so grateful that our time at OMS prepared her for this next phase. She is on the young side for K but we feel confident that she is ready for it and a HUGE part of this is her time at OMS. We'd recommend this school to anyone.

We pulled our two-year-old daughter out of this school within two months of her starting…read more Other negative reviews of OMS on Berkeley Parents Network and Yelp mention the same sorts of things we experienced. We regret not fully reading those reviews before enrolling. This was not our first preschool experience or our first Montessori experience. Our daughter was happily enrolled at another Montessori preschool in Oakland for a year. We had no real issues with that school, and our daughter seemed comfortable and engaged there. We moved to another part of town and wanted to switch schools to avoid a long commute. I was wowed during our OMS tour by the outdoor play area and the promises made by one of the school leaders. In reality, this school can be unsafe, unstructured, and understaffed, especially in the toddler class. Two good toddler teachers left within two weeks of the start of the school year and told parents they had been bullied by school leadership. Reviewing old reviews on BPN and Yelp, it seems this is not the first time good teachers have left in questionable circumstances. In the teachers' absence, a parade of substitutes came and went. There was very little continuity of care for the youngest students for weeks. One day, we saw a teacher roughly grab a child's arm in an inappropriate manner. The boy was not in danger, putting others in danger, or doing anything that warranted this treatment.  We ultimately pulled our daughter out after repeatedly seeing kids unsupervised near a gate atop a steep flight of stairs--a gate they could open. At one point, we watched a toddler unlatch the gate independently and go down the stairs without a single OMS staffer watching him. We informed them as to where he was, and no one seemed to take it seriously. At pickup, the kids sometimes seemed to be left to their own devices largely and sort of roaming around aimlessly. We know Montessori involves a lot of independent play and exploration. That's great and an approach we intentionally sought for our kid. However, this felt more like understaffing and disorganization. Our daughter frequently talked about kids crying at school and missing their parents. We didn't put excessive stock in this; toddlers say lots of things and aren't always reliable narrators. But we saw it with our own eyes at pick up. Kids were crying, and no one was appropriately responding to them or helping them through their feelings. The response was sort of clinical and rote. Since moving to a new preschool, she talks about fun things that happened at school and says sweet things about her teachers. She never talks about kids crying and missing their parents. Basic communication with parents was awful. Emails were confusing and haphazard, and critical scheduling information was poorly communicated. The only positive thing I can say about the administration is that they returned our full deposit and unused balance. In short, do your homework and really look into this school's online reviews before enrolling your kid here. It's a shame that this beautiful campus isn't better run.

My 3-year-old daughter has been attending RTG since August, and we love it. The school leadership…read moreis really strong, with several long-term teachers and the highest teacher:student ratio I saw across the preschools we visited. I've been impressed by the variety of activities and the level of continual deep engagement I see by the teachers with the kids, especially on social-emotional development. My daughter is a young 3-year-old (August birthday) and has thrived and grown so much in her language development and storytelling, self-regulation, and climbing skills! There is so much happening, and the teachers make the space feel so big, with everything from a "cozy room" to a dance/yoga space, and a great garden with a very engaged garden teacher who also leads cooking projects. My daughter also really enjoys the art, yoga, water/sand play, etc. She gets a lot of choice, lots of opportunities to burn her energy, is learning a ton, and we've been really happy with our experience there.

I can't say enough good things about the Room to Grow preschool. My daughter went there for 2…read morealmost 3 years and became a real person they helped her to become a better citizen more attuned to the needs of other children as well as her own and they did as much if not more than me and my partner did to make her the successful kindergartener she is today. I highly recommend them. The classes are small and the ratio to teachers is very high. The kids learned to manage their own time, work with others and follow their curiosity.

I sent my child here for less than a full school year, from the age of two to close to three years…read moreold. It's a beautiful school with great teachers. All that you want out of a Montessori education is here. He got a lot out of it and usually wanted to stay at the end of the day. He learned many interesting skills and they took good care of him. The only reason we left is that we had to move far away. Why 4 stars? In a word, it's expensive. The tuition is really high. It costs more than college. One kid at the age of 2 going full time was $1791/month. Add to this various fees. Also add to this that they are closed usually several times a month, and you have to find alternate child care or sometimes they have alternate care for $80/day (!) on top of the regular tuition. If you want to pay for a lunch through their program, it costs $6. Granted, it's organic and locally sourced, but seriously, $6 for a 2 year old's lunch that consists of a few steamed vegetables and a tiny slice of pizza? It was a drawback for me.

I really was impressed with this school for the two years my daughter attended. Her teachers worked…read morewith her, especially when her behavior got squirrelly during the worst days of my divorce from her abusive father. I LOVED this school. I raved about it to anyone who would listen. However, what happened at the end of her second year has led me to give them this negative review. My ex was on the hook for school fees per court order so he went in to the headmistress Helen Campbell and the business manager Nancy Haskins and told them I'd forged his signature. They had just offered her a 66% scholarship so she could finish her kindergarten cycle and prevent even more upheaval in her life. Rather than talking to me about it, they broke the contract and categorically removed her financial aid and dropped her enrollment. I could have straightened the whole thing out, even provided them with a copy of the forensic document examiner's report that I got after the fact showing my ex had manipulated them, but they weren't interested. To add insult to injury, they knew they were in trouble for breaking the contract so they made up a bunch of stuff about me in a letter to Community Care Licensing and distorted events that had actually happened to make me out to be a problem parent and that was why they broke the contract only weeks after they'd signed it. They provided a copy of this letter to my ex, who used it in custody court and then proceeded to make life even more miserable for me and my children. I was never informed by the school exactly why they'd dropped me. I just got a short, hostile phone call from Nancy Haskins that said it was all my fault and I could have prevented it if I'd wanted to. I didn't hear the "real" reason until my ex filed their letter in court as an exhibit in a pleading. During the first year that I was struggling to survive after leaving my husband, and dealing with his reindeer games, my daughter's teacher was very sympathetic, telling me that if she "had to choose a side, it would be mine." She compared my ex to Hans Reiser, whose children with Nina Reiser had also attended GLM. I can't help wondering if they treated Nina Reiser like they did me, and pulled their support from her when she needed it most. Sad to say, this teacher also ended up writing a distorted letter about me and that betrayal hurt the worst of all. I'm pretty sure I glimpsed her at Summitt Hospital last week; when she saw me, she turned around and walked the other way as fast as she could go. So at least she has the grace to be ashamed of herself. An apology would be nicer, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm most angry with this school and their unprofessional treatment of my child because they completely dropped us from alumni lists so we don't get invited to things like the Back to School Carnival, and all the parents of my daughter's friends started avoiding us and wouldn't set up play dates with her. I think it's despicable that my poor kid, who needed stability in her life, lost not only a stable educational situation, but all of her beloved friends in one fell swoop. This is after taking thousands and thousands of dollars of her savings for her education the previous two years. I guess once the money ran out, their concern for her welfare ran out too. They made all this noise about wanting only what is best for my child, and then stabbed her in the back in a most despicable manner. Nancy and Helen, if you're reading, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I hope that all parents reading this review think long and hard about getting involved with this school. The underhanded, malicious behavior of the administration of the school is something that should be avoided. In a word, sleazy. There are schools just as good for less money.

We toured A LOT of schools before settling on Little Elephant. First, we saw plenty of larger…read moreschools and its smaller more intimate size was appealing to us. The space shows very well with two bright well laid out classrooms, nice outdoor space and lots of pets! Most importantly, we found the teaching staff to be warm and generally very experienced with reasonable tenure at the school. Our three children all had a positive experience and have fond memories of their time there. We spent almost a decade there (including through COVID) and appreciated the staff and parent community.

We love LEMs! Our 3 year old has been thriving there since she started the week of her second…read morebirthday. The teachers are fantastic and loving and fun and the environment really fosters happiness, curiosity and learning. The community is wonderful as well and we've become close friends with a few parents and good friends with the rest. We also love the diversity they foster and our bilingual daughter (we speak Spanish in our home) has flourished as she gets to speak Spanish with several of the teachers (who happen to also be native speakers) but has picked up English quickly from the learning and atmosphere here. We plan to send our second child here as we've had such a wonderful experience all around!

As someone who both worked forHeartsleap and sent my daughter I can honestly say they run a good…read moreprogram! Knowledgeable, experienced and kind teachers. So much thought goes into making their classrooms a warm inviting place. Sad we moved away and my daughter didn't spend more time there.

It has very friendly and lovable environment. They hire the best teachers who are so caring about…read morechildren. The hearts leap schools are managed by the directors who are very expert in their work. They use the best methods to teach the children and they care about them too much. So if you are looking for a perfect place for your child, hearts leap is the best!

Our son attended Chatham for two years, from 2 to 4 years old, until we moved…read more Chatham and more importantly Maureen, Michael and the teachers had a huge impact in his positive development. They always have the kids best interests at heart, are honest and straightforward with the parents (because sometimes all parents are a little much, ourselves included!). There was community at Chatham, which we miss greatly. Events, education and most importantly play. Certainly superior to the other 2 daycares our son attended.

Extremely great school, I tried many nannies off the well known/expensive sites like care.com and…read morethen thoroughly checked all the local daycares, but where I truly felt I could leave my 15 month old rest assured and know she was being cared for a learn more than she would if she was at home was Chatham. I could talk about the staff but I think enough people have expressed how amazing Maureen, Michael and all the staff are, my daughters teacher is Christy, she is so so kind. Even though we've only been there for a few months now I feel already part of a great community/family.

I am an alum of NLS from a single parent home in East Oakland. From there I went to Marin Academy…read morefor high school, received a bachelor's degree in economics from UC Berkeley, last year I received my MBA from Stanford University, and I currently work at Google. I would not have achieved any of those things without NLS. I split my elementary school years between public school and private school, so I'll speak to what makes NLS special. From my perspective, many schools (public and private) can provide a strong academic foundation. NLS was just as good as my strong public school in that regard. What I gained from NLS is belief in myself that anything is possible. It came from the dreams fulfilled that line the walls, the stories told at morning circle, and from teachers and administrators truly caring about what I wanted to be when I grew up. And in a practical sense, the school provided access, access to the most elite prep high schools in the U.S. Before NLS, I had not even heard of the majority of them. NLS represents a turning point in my life in terms of building confidence, ambition, and knowledge of opportunities that were previously unknown to me.

It's so sad that I have to give this school such a low rating, but it is very well deserved when it…read morecomes to how they nurture 5 year old children. I am writing this review not to bash this school, but to make prospective parents and current parents aware of the principle and the kindergarten teacher Ms. Jennifer and Mr. Peter; the director of student affairs. These three people at this school support yelling and snatching from children. Now this school promotes anti -bullying and respect, however do not display this toward the children. I will give a brief on my particular experience. Ms. Jennifer is one of the kindergarten teachers at this school. She is an emotional wreck and has expressed that she gets very frustrated with the children when they aren't orderly and she admitted to snatching from my child and others. Her reasoning for this was because and I quote "It's the end of the day and I'm dealing with 15 5 year old's and your child has told me multiple times that snatching isn't nice". On this particular day, my child walked out of the classroom at the end of the day crying hysterically. Ms. Jennifer didn't tell me the whole story when I asked why my child was crying, she just told me that she told my child "no" and that made her cry. But the real story of why my child was crying at the end of the day, was because this lady yelled at her and snatched something out of her hand in front of the entire class. When I asked Ms. Jennifer about the incident again she said, " No I didn't yell at her, I just spoke to her in a really mean way and in a really loud voice, honestly I just got really frustrated and yes I did snatch from her". Now when is it ever appropriate as a kindergarten teacher to behave this way? That was rhetorical..... Not ever. I appreciate the honesty, but it's never OK to yell and scream at a 5 year old or snatch. I tried to have an additional meeting with this lady, to try and see if we could move past the situation. She walked out of the meeting like a 5 year old and her supervisor Peter is an enabler because he coddled her like a 5 year old. I guess she can dish it to a 5 year old, but can't take it from an adult. I reached out to the principle about the incident, she sent me some 5 paragraph reply which 3 of the paragraphs was a copy and paste. Non the less, she said she didn't think that the teacher acted inappropriate. She's a joke! Collecting money from the state, acting like she cares about our black babies, but really what their doing behind closed doors, is not what they're advertising. Just be aware!!! Their fraudulent and after 25 years, you would think this Michelle lady would be way more professional and know the difference between appropriate behavior and egregious behavior from her faculty. I definitely reached out to the organization that they are members of and filed a complaint and took my child out of this school. You get what you pay for. I'll take my $1,000.00 somewhere else. My child is so amazing and a blessing to me and so may other people that meet her. I will not let anybody dim her light or steal her sunshine.