Caring staff, organized school, never a doubt in my mind about the Montessori education being taught here.

I caution anyone who is considering sending their kids to this school as a former student. I went here from Pre-K through First grade. I was very shocked when I first learned about what Montessori education was supposed to look like, because it was nothing like what I experienced at this school. This was a while ago, but the administration is the same First, majority of the teachers would scream at you for the smallest things. Once, I was coloring and a kid put down a stencil after he finished using it, so I picked it up to use it. Immediately, Mrs. Barshay screamed at me, without explaining what I did wrong (I still don't know what the issue was, the other kid looked confused too) and sent me to the principal's office. One of the few kids who was exempt from this treatment was another teacher's child and someone whose parents donated a ton of money to the school (made clear to us, since they put a sign with their name on the playground.) Things like this would happen on a daily basis to multiple kids and the administration received complaints. They would simply allow it, cultivating an incredibly toxic environment in which young children are forced to walk on eggshells and feel ashamed It's very possible that they have better teachers than Mrs. Barshay and Mrs. Hamm now, both of whom would act like they were dealing with adult criminals and not children, but just know what this administration is willing to enable. read more

Profound disappointment - this school is far behind the original Montessori education ethics and education standards. Some teachers are lacking basic communication etiquette and skills to educate advanced children. read more

Please reconsider sending your child to this school, especially if you are sending them there for a "Montessori" education. Our two kids, ages 5 and 7, attended last year, and the entire year was hell, and I am not exaggerating. I cannot speak much regarding the preschool. Our 7 year old daughter aged out of the Montessori preschool where she went and in order to have one drop off we transferred our son along with her to go to Manor. We transferred our son back to the original preschool within one month. This was due to what we noted as negligent behavior by the teachers, particularly the morning care teacher who sat looking at her phone all morning. Our son cried every morning at drop off and barely touched his lunch, which never happened previously Our daughter attended 1st grade, and that I can definitely speak to. First, this is not/not a true Montessori experience although the school super prides itself on being an AMA school. There are TONS of worksheets, and even one of the teachers agreed that some of the assignments were not at all Montessori. When I mentioned this to a couple other teacher friends I have, they said Manor was not regarded well as a Montessori school. Second, the administration and teachers have very little interest in communicating with the parents, either about the day to day inside the school or any policy changes. In our case this had to do with Covid policies, which of course I understand changed, but the parents were NEVER informed and I had to hear about everything from my 1st grade daughter and only then confirm with the school. This included having the kids watch TV during lunch to have a quiet lunch or having them watch a book on tape. Why not read the kids a book if you're paying for a Montessori experience. The kids also had dance parties, but I would find out they would also watch music videos, which was never cleared with the parents. I have no idea what they watched. The communication from the teachers and the administration to the parents is once per month and rarely says anything worthwhile. The numbers of pictures the teachers shared went from 40 in September to 5 by April and then none. When I repeatedly tried to get involved the administration told me to back off. There is ZERO parent community in this school. There are no community activities and really no interest in having activities where parents can come together and get involved with the school and teachers. No picnics, PTA type events, etc. There are also zero before/after school or enrichment activities like there may be at other schools. No soccer, STEM, yoga etc offered ever. This school is also not safe and this honestly worried me every day I dropped off my daughter. The doors/windows were kept open and there was no fence or camera system. When the shooting in Uvalde, Texas happened they made a show of keeping the doors closed but when I dropped off my daughter in the middle of the day once the windows and doors were open. When I expressed my constant concern to the administration they literally said "well nothing has ever happened so don't worry." There are plenty of much better private schools in the area for the money you will be giving to Manor. Please do not send your child here. It will be detrimental to their education. read more

I'm in a lot of schools and the Manor is one of my best. The staff and teachers are great. Nice atmosphere. The school doesn't have to have me in but they do because they care about the wellbeing of the children. And that says a lot about a school. read more

Our son joined Manor Montessori in Potomac after turning two years old and our experience that year was of a warm and nurturing educational environment. His teachers were nice and caring, clearly enjoyed teaching and my son excelled and was very happy in this totally new environment for him. The next year when he was three and a half, however, was a nightmare, and if it hadn't been for a relocation to another state, we would have taken him out of the school mid-year. First, it started with me being informed before the year started that my son was no longer placed with the teacher we had selected (he had been on the wait list for this class and we had been informed by the school's front office over the phone that he had gotten a spot in the class), because another mother had later requested - without our knowledge - that her son be on the same class with our son and they could not accommodate another spot in the class we had chosen (and which he had been placed in). I immediately requested a meeting with the school owner and, after voicing my concern about how another student's mother could have more influence over our son's class placement than his own parents, she covered up by saying that the front office had made a mistake and the class had always been full. My son ended up in Ms. Hamm's class, and while she may have been a good teacher in the previous 30+ years at that school, she was close to retirement and seemed to have lost the patience, will or ability to work with 3-year olds (and did not hesitate to tell parents time and time again that she was just "hanging on" until she retired). We had done our homework and visited all three 3-5 year old classes, and I had been shocked at Ms. Hamm's behavior during the two separate times I observed her class, which is the reason we tried to avoid our son being placed in her class at all costs. Ms. Hamm had seemed overly authoritative, cold, lazy and unnecessarily harsh with her young students for a Montessori environment, and even though I had been told by his previous teacher that my son was one of the strong ones that could handle her "toughness," he was not happy in her class. It became clear to us how inadequate a teacher she was during the first week of school's "welcome session" for parents when, rather than welcoming the parents and talking about the curriculum for the year as had been done in the previous year when we attended this session, she went through a list of 21 (no joke) rules and grievances against parents (after one week) and students (three to five year olds) that needed to be corrected. The parents kept looking at each other as if to confirm that she was being serious, but no one dared to speak up so as to not have her take it out on their child. From then on, more often than not when I dropped my son in her class, I saw her raising her voice at a child for something that did not merit that kind of response. Several times my son was on the receiving end of her yells - right after walking into class - and she knew she had overreacted because she acted embarrassed after realizing I was still with him. This made me extremely anxious as to how her behavior was throughout the day when parents weren't around, and it caused me a lot of concern and anguish while being pregnant with our second child. Ms. Hamm's style was cold, rigid, authoritative and she ruled by fear, and while it may have been more acceptable to the five year olds in the class, it was too harsh for the three and four-year olds who had previously been in more nurturing classrooms and who are at a critical time in their development. And while the assistant teachers in the class were good and tried to compensate for Ms. Hamm's style, it was clear they had little autonomy and the school owner seemed to be unwilling to recognize her bad behavior despite us voicing our concerns. We understand several parents requested a class change the following year. To this day, the school sends me periodic requests by email to write positive reviews on Yelp, so naturally the reviews are one-sided. If you are thinking of this school, please observe a class first. Though Ms. Hamm may have since retired, it was clear the school had management issues and the owner was willing to have a bad teacher on her staff. read more

Great school! Caring, talented, smart staff! Even during COVID they were amazing. I highly recommend this school