I toured this place, had a very positive first impression, had my child go back for a $ 25 nonrefundable assessment for possible intake for about 45min, received the acceptance email and decided to pass on this school. A couple unacceptable factors stuck out to me: 1. The children needed to walk outside of the gated school area to get from the classroom to the larger playground, but given that they were walking right along the busy street of Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd, there was only one teacher at the very front of the line of kids, one at the very end… the one at the end went back with some kids to get something, the teacher at the front already turned a corner, leaving at least half of a line of 20 preschoolers unsupervised out in the open sidewalk right next to a large 40mph road, except I was there to watch and help watch them… but what would happened if I wasn’t touring that day? Big safety concern. 2. Teachers in the classroom seemed uncaring and unenthused about their jobs. I can’t speak for the all teachers because we only were assessed in one room. They looked like they hated their jobs and couldn’t even smile once for an observing potential family. A teacher was sick and they let her come to school and had her wear a mask but she had it hanging off her ears until I came into the room and upon seeing a parent, quickly put it back on. I don’t even know why a teacher would be at school if she was sick. But this was just the class we toured. I did notice that the class next door had a very enthused, happy, caring Chinese teacher that was very involved with her students. Too bad that class was full… I wonder if we would have had a better impression of the school otherwise. Also, from the few weeks between when we toured and when we were assessed, three teachers have changed. That is a HUGE turnaround IMO. 3. I saw a little boy separated from the rest of the class on the playground when they were doing some organized group activity. He was just playing in a sandbox far off to the side by himself. No one cared to ask if he wanted to join the others. I’m not even sure the teachers realized he was off on his own… or they just didn’t care. I also saw the Chinese teacher standing idly right in front of a few kids as they called a girl a nasty name and she did nothing. A friend, whose son goes here, told me that teachers sometimes just believe tattlers without actually seeing/knowing the truth of an incident and your child may be blamed for something he/she didn’t do.(I first heard of the school from her, but every time I ask if she liked it, she sort of shrugs and asked me to tour/see for myself but also made it a point to recommend that I tour others… I think they only stayed there because her son has made close friends there and he is also graduating soon.) 5. Bathrooms were clean when we first toured but on assessment day, when the teachers took the kids on a bathroom break, some kid accidentally made an obvious mess on the toilet, which is understandable because they’re just kids and accidents happen. But instead of cleaning it up between kids, they just had the next girl in line sit right on the filthy toilet. Incredibly unsanitary. 6. Ok, enough cons. Obviously, I’m not comfortable sending my kids here so the cons stuck out more to me but I did notice some pros too: they’re organized and things are neat, the facilities are nice, lessons/circle time seem very educational and constructive, kids speak Chinese really well here, about half of the kids seem happy to be there(so maybe your kid might be too), I like how they have native speakers for both the English and Chinese sessions, and even though they are not accredited Montessori they do seem to follow the methods fairly closely. Lady at the front desk seemed on top of things and makes a great first impression on the school but it pretty much stops there with the exception of a few good teachers that I saw. 7. Even if you do choose to go here, don’t get the lunch option. It looks like cheap Chinese food from the deli section of Ranch 99, when they make food from groceries that are going bad soon. I can’t even bear to eat that stuff myself, let alone feed it to my kids.
Earth W.
Place rating: 1 Saratoga, CA
Update: Our son was badly injured on the playground, and we removed him from the school.
