Kipling Street Academy

There is more than meets the eye! Noone here cares about the children, just making money! Teacher’s change in the blink of an eye! So there is never stability for the children! Teachers can be very harsh with children, most teachers not certified either, which, should be a requirement considering the amount of money they charge.

I toured the school last week and was so impressed. The classrooms are well organized and very well setup, the teachers are professional and energetic, and all the kids look happy learning and playing. This is definitely a kind of school I am looking for my son. Unfortunately the waiting list is until June 2017 while we need to send our son to school much sooner than that. Highly recommend Kipling Street Academy as I believe the children will learn alot while still have a lot of fun in this school.

My two children have attended Kipling since they were young and it has been the best decision we could have made. We have been at both the Montrose location and the new one in the Rice Military/​Heights area. My daughter is now in 1^st grade and her test scores are fantastic. She takes piano lessons, karate, dance, and absolutely loves her school. My son is 3 going on 4 and has advanced very quickly in his verbal communication. The teachers care so much for the students and it shows. The class plays are adorable and you can tell the teachers took a lot of there own personal time to make each one memorable and fun. My only complaint is that the school stops at 5^th grade!

Great, but pricey, daycare option in town. We had our son at this Kipling when he was an infant, and the Heights Kipling when he was a toddler (not sure why that location doesn’t appear onYelp). Both locations were fantastic.
The facilities are both relatively new and they keep things well maintained. They hire some great teachers who really care about your kids and their education. They publish and distribute a well defined curriculum each week. The teachers do a great job of walking you through each days progress when you go to pickup your kid.
It is a lot of money per month but we feel it was worth it. We have moved outside of town and really miss Kipling.
Just a few complaints I have:
1) Supply and extra fee costs. Seems like this kept popping up. It would be a whole lot easier to just roll those into the monthly tuition rate.
2) Holidays. Teachers are on a true teacher schedule (aside from summer). This means they are off a week for spring break and christmas (and you still pay for these weeks).

If I could give it zero stars I would. The owner and the management are all about the business side of things with little to no respect or care to the children at school. Even though the teachers are super sweet and helpful, think twice before enrolling! If there is «no room» for your child to move up a class even though he/​she is older or more advanced than the class he/​she is in, they wont move you! They dont care for the education but the «spot» or the «headcount». NCLB starts here! Beware parents!

This school is fantastic. The teachers are creative, passionate and teach children in a way that motivates them to learn more. My 4 year old is in Pre-​K and loves his teachers and classmates. Each week has a new theme and the teachers brilliantly weave math, science, geography, reading, writing and art lessons into it. My one year old recently moved from the infant class to the toddler class, where she is blossoming. (The school did an excellent job of transitioning her from one room to another by arranging «visits» to the new class over a week or two.) Even in the infant and toddler classes, there are age-​appropriate activities surrounding a weekly theme. The kids learn through music, play and sign-​language. I can’t say enough good things about the learning environment they create.
The Director and Staff are extremely pleasant, particularly considering how many people they greet and converse with each morning and afternoon. I think it’s unfair for people to slam the Director because of the nice car she drives or because she has asked people to leave the school. She has built an excellent facility for educating kids in the Houston area, which was desperately needed, and she ensures that the kids who are in the school are respectful and mindful of the needs of others. I don’t care if part of my tuition payment goes to her car… she has earned it.
Parking is a problem during peak times, but the lot is being expanded. Also, for some odd reason, the entrance to the newest building (on Shepherd) faces a busy street and the kids have to walk on a sidewalk close to the street to get into the building. I think that design decision may have been out of the school’s control, but it would sure be nice/​safer to see an entrance placed elsewhere. Once the kids are inside though, they are in good hands.

The Kipling School is a wonderful school. My son began attending Kipling Street Academy when he was 2. We moved him when he was 3 ½ and was old enough to attend the school his brothers were at. We quickly realized that Kipling was far ahead of the other private school we moved him to. He was bored and not learning anything new. We were lucky enough to get him back into The Kipling School. The teachers are incredible, the facility is beautiful and the curriculum is challenging, stimulating and fun. My son never wanted to go to school at the other school, but now can’t wait to go in each day. The administration is always available for questions. it is obvious that the administration and teachers know how to run an early childhood program.

As a previous teacher at Kipling Street Academy, I would like to say how wonderful, professional, and caring the establishment is. The building is kept very clean and the staff is very friendly. KSA makes a point to teach children to the highest of their abilities and expose them to new and wonderful things.
Previously being a Pre-​K teacher, students were taught much needed skills like, skip-​counting, months of the year, days of the week, counting to 100, geography, citizenship, and even were exposed to basic addition. Many of these skills are taught in Kindergarten in public schools so students attending Kipling Street Academy are building their knowledge in these many important areas earlier. The majority of students (in the year I taught) knew their letters and were beginning the early stages of writing. I was amazed at how far the students were academically at such an early age. If I had any children and lived in the area, I would definitely try to send them to Kipling Street Academy. All teachers are also certified and are provided/​required to attend training seminars (different topics related to education) to further promote their performances as educators.
As for the staff, in my experience they were always very kind and welcoming, offering support and advice if I ever needed any. Mrs. Pierce was very supportive and truly cared about her establishment (staff, children, and how KSA was ran). Many times I observed her giving appropriate feedback to parents as well as welcoming/​saying goodbye to students at the end of the day. She is very proud of KSA; it is a very impressive and excellent school (I would be too).
To address the possible thought of being a «previous teacher» regarding high turnovers of teachers, I unfortunately had to move out of Houston for personal reasons that I could not control. If I would have been able to stay in Houston, I would still be there right now as a teacher.
Kipling Street Academy is an impressive academic school for early childhood and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who asks. Hope this was helpful!

Our 17-​month-​old daughter attended The Kipling School as an infant and has since moved on to Kipling Street Academy for the toddler class.
We’ve loved both schools and both sets of teachers. The love and care the teachers and staff have shown our daughter (and us) is incredible and has helped us feel confident that she’s at the right place when we drop her off each day. More importantly, our daughter is excited to go to school each day and has been almost since the beginning, and I’m confident that’s due to Kipling’s warm, friendly environment and the teachers who love her as if she were their own.
For those who are wondering, this isn’t just a daycare. Even in the toddler class of 14−24-month-olds, there’s a set curriculum each week, with students learning about topics ranging from sports to the circus to the rainforest. Our daughter has blossomed as a result of the education she’s received there and her vocabulary is far, far greater than that of any other 17-​month old we know (except a few of her classmates), and I don’t hesitate to give her teachers a lot of the credit for this.
We highly recommend Kipling Street Academy and The Kipling School to everyone we meet, as it’s played such a huge role in our daughter’s development and the development of her classmates.

While I cannot fairly rate the school, as my son is yet to attend, I can speak about the waitlist and my success on that list. My son was placed on the list about a month ago and we were told that he was number 22 for his age range. From what we understood, people could register for the list at any time, so there were children on the list way younger than him and not technically eligible for his class, but that parents want to ensure that when their children were ready age-​wise they would have first dibbs. My son is also on the cusp of his age group and because he will be having a birthday soon, they co-​listed him for his age now and for the age-​group up just incase a space does not become available before his birthday. We were called three weeks later and told that a space was available for him.
I also want to speak to the staff at Kipling– while the Owner was not around while we were there, her staff– Courtney and Laurel in particular were extremely helpful (both in person and on the phone) and could answer any of my concerns. I went to pay for my son’s first month’s tuition and his lead teacher spent a long time, answering any other questions I might have. While there, we saw nothing but happy, enthusiastic children and teachers.
UPDATE!
I’ve increased my star rating for this school. My son has now been in attendance for nearly a year and we LOVE it! Better yet he loves it. He is learning, he is engaged– the lesson plans are amazing and while I try to follow along at home, I still find myself working with him at a more elementary level than they do at school. I can ask any one of his 3 teachers and get a comprehensive download of his day. They KNOW him and I truly believe they all love him. He has never been happier and is excited to go to school nearly every day.

Kipling Street Academy is a fantastic school! I’ve had both of my boys here for a few years and feel the education and warmth offered here is superior to other schools (we were in two schools with my oldest son prior– Primrose and Crème de la Crème).
The school is incredibly clean and the curriculum is very strong. My 4 year old son reads at a 3^rd grade level (as do other kids in his class). His classmates have all tested into AOS, St. John’s, Kinkaid, ROE, etc. Several of them, including us, are staying at Kipling Street Academy because of the great experience we’ve had.
The teachers are really caring– we have had a positive experience with all of them. They greet our boys with a big hug each morning and spend countless hours working to ensure they have a good education. They come to birthday parties outside of school when invited and overall have a genuine interest in our children.
I see the other reviews demonstrate a riff with the Director– seems it may be grown up adults not interested in playing fair. At any rate, the reviews are extremely contrary to what our experience has been here (and the experience of many other parents who have had their kids here for years who obviously aren’t on Unilocal).

I am completely astonished this establishment has stayed in business with how the owner/​director treats people. I was shocked the first time I called the school after noticing that my son seemed to be quite a bit older than the other children and his class and simply thought they might have placed him in the wrong classroom– she quickly got an attitude with me and stated that if I was happy where I had my son before that Kipling might not be for me. They feel it best to separate the younger children by sex rather than age– what who does that??? Kipling claims to be a well-​structured learning environment for children but I watched my son on the video often and saw nothing but him crawling around all day and the «teachers» sitting around. The environment here is very cold and unloving — my son is a very happy easy going baby and when I would pick him up here he always seemed so sad which was the biggest red flag that I needed to pull him out ASAP.