Westside Montessori School

Recommends

Chutney

Joined 2 years ago

Excellent Montessori School. This is a great Montessori school. The Method to the schools is time-yested and work. Just make sure that Montessori is right for you and your family before enrolling. It is a unique system and definitely worked for me daughter. She was very lucky to attend WMS.

I did do my research and in response to the previous review, teachers don't generally speak about the children's progress in front of them for obvious reasons. They keep discussions to the Parent Teacher meetings or I can email or arrange a meeting. Montessori Schools are different to regular schools. If you are interested in one, go to the Open House, observe a class and try to understand the way they run things.

Doesn't Recommend

N G

Joined 3 years ago

Not that great. There is something fishy with this school. In 8 months, all of the teacher aids were replaced twice. Why? This school can't hold on to their employees?

This school and the entire staff brown-nose a lot. They'll say that the school fosters children's growth and development, and that your child is a perfect angel. Why, then, was my child taken "out for reading" by teachers 5 times in the past 6 months she was reading? My child was not encouraged to read more. Why did my child bring objects for in-class assessments and then told (incorrectly) that the assessment was given already? Does the school play favorites? Or, are some children neglected?

The parental involvement is based on what the school says is correct: donate money to support our financial private business endeavors of expanding the school, and volunteer your time to make our grounds and equipment attractive. Parental involvement is reinforcing concepts, fostering development. I taught my child to read--not the school. I taught my child how to subtract, count, spell, and write. Not the school. Although I repeatedly told the teacher what I had taught my child,was just given hum-drum work.

Discipline at this school is primarily humiliation-based. The tactics used by the teachers are meant to turn the students against the parents. I've seen others' children disciplined by kneeling at the teacher's feet, with their head in between the teacher's knees. I don't think that is an appropriate position to discipline a child (especially of opposite gender). I've heard the teachers complain about the rowdy boys, but then only say to parents, "He did good today."

There is very little feedback as to what students are learning. From a parent's perspective reinforcing concepts is extremely difficult because you never get to hear what they are learning: the same handouts/projects are brought home in a big pile time and time again. The work doesn't deviate according to seasons, holidays, or even topic. When you ask teachers what the children learned, the teachers only say, "He/she did good today."

Teachers make assignments (masked as "recommendations") for school snacks, but when parents deviate from the "recommendations," the teacher (under direction of the principal) does not give food to the children. Fishy, fishy.

I also noticed that my child's teachers would deliberately ignore me during the pick-up time: for 2 months, only an aid would bring my child to the car, and any teacher-parent discussion during drop-off time was questioned and discouraged. After noticing many procedural and administrative problems and being deliberately ignored by teachers and brown-nosed by the principal, we were asked to leave.