Waterfront Montessori LLC Review

(refer to yelp for my full review) Where to begin? Beware of the great articles and all the PR they had done. It was years ago and just part of their ploy to get you in. When I toured the kids were learning and making watermelon juice which now looking back was strategically planned for when I went in there. There is no waitlist- there used to be because there were no other schools in the area but now there are so many choices. Don't let them trap you by letting you know there is 1 or 2 openings.

I will give you the PROS first- they have great after-school activities like karate and ballet for the kids which our daughter loved!

Cons:

-This school has no counselors. They rely on their staff to help their special needs children (which they do not do) and solve any issues internally going on.

-There is no school nurse- incident after incident report is made and the nurse they had obviously smartened up and got out of there as soon as she could.

-Montessori schools are suppose to have no more than 12 children per class. Waterfront Montessori has OVER 30 children in the classrooms with 2 teachers. How can 2 people teach 30 kids of different age levels- THEY CAN'T!

-The children are allowed a free for all for 2-3 hours of "snacks": This includes goldfish, raisins, and cheerios. Basically sugar ridden\gmo junk that they fill up on. You are not allowed to bring their own snacks unless you provide a doctor's note.

-Every rule in place is to make it easier on the staff and their administration. They claim it is for the best interest of the children but every single thing is to alleviate work for their staff. This includes snack time, shoes and clothing must be able to be taken off and on by the children. If they require assistance from staff it is banned.

-Our daughter is trained but at only 4 years old she cannot fully wipe herself. The staff would let her wipe herself and it was not sufficient. She would come home with dirty underwear constantly.

-She began wetting herself multiple times a week. We were told it was because she would get it on her pants when going to the bathroom but her pants would be SOAKED. If this was an issue why wasn't she given assistance in the bathroom? Towards the end we realized this was because something emotional was going on with her as she was trained fully for over a year and this began.

-On parents night a few parents brought up some concerns. The owner could not provide a correct and professional answer during parents night she got extremely agitated and stormed off out of the building! Her "puppet" (assistant), attempted to deflect any issues although we all spoke of this situation and how we could not believe the owner of a school would behave in such a manner for a month after! One day she is glaring ear to ear with her fake smile the next if your kid made a wrong move the day before she is flashing you a dirty look. She is a micromanager and if you notice throughout the days she is bouncing from room to room staring over the teacher's shoulders instead of doing anything productive.

-One thing you should know is the school is under 24/7 fully microphones and video taped. We loved this as we thought it was for the best of the children. However, this is merely so the owner can keep all of her employees under supervision so there is there no rebellion or chatter about the major issues that are going on at the school that need to be fixed immediately.

-The way some of the teachers speak to the children is completely out of line. The first day our daughter had a tantrum. Through the door we sat and we heard her tell our daughter "Keep it up. I will make sure you are the last one out of here." Now is that a way to speak to a child on their first day at a new school and set the tone....definitely not!

-If I could compare this school to anything I would have to say after watching the Leah Remini Scientology Special. I really loved and believe in the Montessori method but this school and it's ex-pta wanna be control freak ceo and administration are nothing but a cult like environment.

My son started summer camp in this wonderful school and I see a big difference and I'm Glad I pick Wfm.

My son is in his second year in this school and so far we have no complaints. He likes it and his teachers have been very nice and attentive to his education.

Over the past couple of years at Waterfront Montessori, our daughter has grown and excelled in all areas of her life. Her experience with the fabulous teachers and advisors throughout our school have opened her eyes to new cultures, languages, religions, geography, music, art, math, early reading, martial arts, etc. WFM has exceeded our expectations in every way possible. We feel privileged to be a part of the Waterfront Community and highly recommend it to all families who are looking to raise curious, engaged, resourceful and self motivated children.

I am an alumnus of Waterfront Montessori, and I would like to recommend this school to you by means of the graduation speech I gave at the annual gala in 2017. It is, slightly edited, as follows:

Hello. I m [an alumnus of Waterfront] and I d like to use my allotted ninety seconds to tell you what a great school Waterfront Montessori is and how grateful I am to have been a student here.
I d like to thank [the principal] for founding WFM, and the whole administration for their continued dedication to all the school s programs and students; for giving individual attention to all students - knowing every kid by name, knowing their needs and thinking creatively how to enable students to follow their passions and develop them further, and for clearly not resting on your laurels, but treating the school as work in progress - with a lot of work and a lot of progress.

After my Montessori preschool, I went to a traditional school apparently knowing a lot more math than a typical first grader. I would already know the material we were being taught, so I would quickly complete all the problems and try to continue to the next section or page once I was done. This would be met with instructions such as [...] don t go ahead of the class. So instead of continuing on to other problems once I was done, I would entertain myself in other ways - such as finding crayons on the floor, shaping them into spheres, and exchanging them for other students mechanical crayon parts, which was also penalized. I wasn t even allowed to explain things to other students - again met with comments such as we are not allowed to help others because the teacher needs to know where everyone s at. I still find that ridiculous to this day. At Waterfront, all that changed. If I knew the material, the teachers moved me to a higher level. If I somehow managed to complete all my work for the week, I would be able to work on a personal project. (In my case, this would be a presentation about the chemical elements, which Waterfront helped me find an appreciation for, alongside the broader sciences). And I was definitely allowed to help, and learn from, other students. At my previous school, when asked what my favorite subject was, I apparently could not decide between lunch and recess. If you asked me now, I would not be able to decide between Math and Science.
[bit about my specific teachers which Google thinks is too long]
"I d like to thank all my teachers for teaching well and making me want to learn; for being passionate about their subjects; for being kind and funny; for being creative, flexible, and looking for ways to get to each and every kid.
"Finally, I d like to thank my classmates I hope that my next school will live up to the expectations of what a great school s students are that I formed here: all the students are bright, but, more importantly, they like learning. This means they will often continue learning outside of the classroom and will share their knowledge with their school friends. I know how valuable this is because here during lunch we talk about science concepts we learned, a cool birthday gift is a book, we typically make jokes involving current events or science, and the latest gossip is, Did you hear about the MESSENGER space probe?
"I will really miss Waterfront, because it s a truly great school, and I m grateful for all the things I learned here and all the great times I had. For those of you who are lucky enough to still have a few years left at Waterfront, enjoy them, for they can be a couple of wonderful years. Thank you.

This school only asks the student to do the same project over and over again. And no structured study. Many students I know complains that they feel bored every day at school.

While I don't have children attending , I know some of the teachers and their commitments to this school. They take great pride and commitment to their school and students. They go beyond their responsibilities and are always concerned for the wellbeing and development of the children in their care. I know first hand what these teachers, caregivers devote to these children.