YPW Spanish Immersion School

Parents — Before signing up with YPW, I urge you to read the release carefully (2^nd page) — it reads: (that you) hereby release and agree not to hold liable Young Peoples Workshop (YPW) from any and all actions, causes of actions, claims, demands, costs or damages as a result of property or personal injuries sustained by myself, my child/​children, or my property arising from or resulting from any act of omission or otherwise, of Young Peoples Workshops…
Dear YPW,
I tried to point this unacceptable language out to one of your owners (Monica) as essentially saying that I may leave my child with you, pay your fees, and you assume no responsibility for any injury to my child either by ‘omission or otherwise’ while in your care.
The answer I received: Take it or leave it for this summer’s workshop.
YPW, I am extremely disappointed in you at this moment, particularly since I believe that your program has a great deal of promise. I don’t believe any parent in good conscience can knowingly sign your release and it is questionable whether it is enforceable under the laws of the State of Texas.
Should you choose to eliminate this release language or scale it back significantly, and, properly assume the responsibility for our dear children while under your care, please feel free to reach back out to me and I would be willing to re-​evaluate your facility including my present review.
Sincerely,

YPW after school care and day camps deserve every one of the five stars I’m allocating.
The staff are well educated, kind and loving. Children are nurtured, encouraged and thrive here. I loved our previous after school care provider and was nervous about a move, however a house move meant a change was necessary. YPW for us has been a wonderful experience, as a working mother I want to know my child is in good hands. It’s lovely to see that just like our previous provider this team goes over and above. We found this school by accident as another local establishment that I knew by name were full, but honestly I wouldn’t swap YPW for the world. YPW is a great place for my child.
Maestra Jorli leads an exceptional team at Westlake, Maestra Yenni is superb as the After school lead. The founder Monica Moreno knows the children by name. It’s an exceptional place, with an exceptional team.
We found YPW ‘by accident’, but we’re keeping you on purpose! This is a good place with good people, I would not hesitate for a moment to recommend the Westlake campus to a friend.

This place is as good as it gets! I was very hesitant about our son Jackson going to daycare after being with a nanny for the first year of his life. I could not have been more wrong. The staff is incredibly kind and very loving and affectionate with the children. The children are having so much fun they don’t even realize they’re learning at the same time. The school is incredibly clean and the staff really focuses on what’s best for the kids. I know when I leave my son there every day, he’s in great hands. He comes home speaking new words in Spanish, singing and babbling about his fun day at school. The teachers really care about each child and it doesn’t have that sterile environment so many other daycares we visited seemed to have. If you have any reservations about daycares, definitely go check this place out. It certainly made a believer out of me.

We were exploring options for putting our son in summer camp in 2014. They advised us to fill out all the paperwork and provide our credit card information so they would have all the info in case we wanted to attend. After looking at all the options, the week we could have had them there presented a conflict.
We were charged $ 595 on our credit card. We disputed it, but the bank pointed out that the paperwork we signed said it was non-​refundable. So it was our fault for listening to what they said and not what was on the paper.
Word to the wise — don’t mess around with these people. There are NO refunds. Either sign up or don’t, and don’t expect any measure of compromise or understand.
It is black and white — NO REFUNDS.

My kids (twins — age 7) attended YPW for summer camp this year. My daughter did the Spanish immersion camp and my son rotated through the science camps. Across the board, the experience was very positive. My son picked up a fair amount of Spanish just being there even though he was not technically in the Spanish classes. The kids in the science class got to dissect frogs and fetal pigs and do experiments that I really felt were far more interesting and advanced than I expected. Not once in the entire summer did they complain about going there or being bored. The Spanish camp offered weekly field trips that were educational, fun and engaging. The teachers were amazing and fun and offered valuable feedback as to how the kids were doing in the classes. The small size of the facility offered a very intimate experience and I felt like both kids received individual attention and time from each of the teachers. We will miss YPW when school starts next week!

When it comes to kids’ education, I am known as a ‘cat mom’ (not as strict as a tiger mom yet) among our friends and I’ve recommended YPW’s programs to friends and co-​workers all the time. My son went to YPW’s after school immersion program for a year. YPW makes every effort to create a great education environment for the kids, and my son has fun when he’s learning– how to keep the students engaged tells the quality of the program and the capability of the teachers– YPW nails it. The summer of 2014 is my son’s first time in YPW summer camp and he LOVES it. He likes the Spanish immersion camp and he LOVES the science camp. I, as a parent, really appreciate YPW provides so many different themed camps geared toward Spanish immersion, art and science which allows us to choose something matches his interests. Thank you, YPW.

My son has been going to YPW since he was 9 months old and we could not be happier! I cannot say enough great things about the teachers. They are truly wonderful people, and have a remarkable ability to engage the little ones in a fun and orderly fashion! Knowing that he’s laughing and learning at YPW really puts my mind at ease while I’m at work.

We started our then two year old daughter in the YPW preschool last September and have now experienced a half year in the early preschool room and half a year in the preschool room. I have been pleased with her teachers in both rooms (Sahily and Claudia), as well as the administration (Jorli and Monica), who have always responded to any questions or concerns I have had quickly. There are classroom parties, school-​wide celebrations, and concerts. My daughter plays outside everyday she is at school, often brings home art work, and often will break out singing a song in Spanish that she learned at school. She is always having fun when I come to pick her up. If you are looking for a great school that also happens to be Spanish immersion, this is it.

My son has gone to summer camps here and is now in their afterschool program. At first I had him in the afterschool program that his public elementary school offered, but he was having behavioral issues. As soon as I switched him to YPW those issues ceased. The Spanish immersion is very important to me, and the teachers here do a great job of getting the children to communicate in Spanish. All of the teachers are great and while the school is strict about safety policies, they seem to be accommodating of students’ needs.
If I could change one thing about the school, I wish they followed a Reggio Emilia or Montessori pedagogy. Instead, it seems like a traditional, formative preschool pedagogy. But since the Spanish immersion is what was most important to me, I am still very happy with the school.

It was really tough for us to find the perfect daycare for our toddler! Our criteria were: convenient, high quality, affordable, bilingual, and available. It’s also hard to find reviews you can trust because they are all over the map! For such a big decision though, I can tell you that we really did our homework and chose YPW. We checked the State Daycare inspection reports, licensing, etc. and everything was great there. Given how detailed the inspections are, this gave us comfort. YPW was also the only bilingual daycare that didn’t have a multi-​year wait list and was central and therefore convenient (enough) for us. The place is very clean and the staff are very cheerful and responsive and will work with you if they can. They have good communication for both English and Spanish speaking families to help you know what’s happening with your kiddo. They even have been flexible in allowing our daughter to take 2 naps instead of 1 like most places. Bottom line for us is that we have peace of mind leaving our daughter with YPW and feel she is getting really high quality care and even learning Spanish! Our daughter loves her teachers and we can tell they love her — so it’s easier to leave her in the morning. I highly recommend YPW.

I registered my son for preschool back in the spring and paid the $ 960 registration fee. Unfortunately, I had a job transfer out of state, so I notified YPW’s Monica Moreno and requested that she return some or all of my registration fee. My son was not due to start YPW for four months when I gave YPW notice of my unexpected change of plans, but they still refused to refund any of my money. After weeks of sending emails and stopping by the school in an attempt to talk to Monica, she finally called to reiterate that they weren’t able to refund any of my registration fee. She said that they had to «put together a packet» for my son and that they had hired teachers already and that the money couldn’t be returned. Given that they will surely fill my son’s spot now that he’s not coming and that his «packet» probably cost about $ 5 I do not understand why they are taking so much money. They provided me with no services and I have never heard of a school requiring a non-​refundable deposit of almost $ 1000 to hold a spot for a three-​year old. I can’t speak to the school’s teaching or environment, but I know that they took a large sum of money from me and that I would absolutely not recommend them for that reason alone.

After moving to Austin, we really were looking for a great Spanish Immersion School. YPW is overpriced, small, staff is under payed, most of the staff is under motivated, high turnover of the teachers. The main problem is the owner Monica. The kids don’t learn anything. Do no bring your children to this school. We’ve since put our daughter in Magellan international School she is learning so much Spanish. The teachers and the director are wonderful.

My daughter has been at YPW’s Spanish immersion preschool for just under a year now. We moved her here after extensive research on Spanish immersion programs in Austin. We were very unhappy with the quality of the education at the «big box» preschool she was at before.
I have to say, it was one of the best decisions we have made. The size of the school creates an intimate and caring environment. While Spanish is a focus, it does not take priority over the curriculum, which is excellent. She regularly does science, art and sports workshops in addition to practicing her writing, numbers and of course her Spanish!
They host a couple of well planned events each year for all the families to have a chance to meet. It is nice to know some of the other parents. Overall we have been very pleased with the school and the teachers. We would strongly recommend it for anyone looking for a quality, creative education for their child with a focus on dual language learning.

Young Peoples Workshops, better (and easier) known as YPW, is essentially a conglomeration of many things. Part toy store, part workshop headquarters, the business’s primary purpose is to promote youth learning through, «engagement, motivation, having fun, and active involvement in solving problems through play.»
From what I could see, YPW achieves this in their store. The small space is jam-​packed with interactive toys, classic toys, toys to encourage critical thinking, and plain old must-​haves like stuffed animals and trinkets made from cheap, breakable plastic. I particularly enjoy their collection of science and building kits. Like Kid Genius, they focus on encouraging the SPECIFIC passions that kids have. The store is priced moderately. The staff is friendly and aims to please.
YPW also offers a sizeable list of classes and workshops. I have never utilized this aspect of the business, but their website is impressive. They offer workshops (for all kid ages) in art, cooking, language, music, science and robotics. Nice! Their sessions are also designed by the demographic they serve — pre-​K, afterschool, homeschool, etc. Catering to our needs here in Austin, they offer full-​immersion Spanish classes.
As an added bonus, they do birthday parties! Whew.
YPW is AOK.