Camelot School

I will keep this short and sweet. Georgina closed this down and screwed over all the Children, Staff, and Parents. It was a wonderful FAMILY here that she dumped «for the benefit of children» (rumor is to get out faster for some bonus $$, who knows?). Karma will get this woman, she could have and should have done it different.

Lousy no good rotten thieving owner Georgina has decided to shut this business down with one weeks notice to staff and families. She cared not one whit for her amazing, loving and professional teachers who loved the kids and vice versa. No severance.
The families are stranded and suddenly looking to enroll in an already crowded community.
Her karma should pore on the misery!

Both of my children attended here. My daughter began when she was 2 years old and it was apparent that the teachers here cared about her well-​being, language development and overall education. She is now finishing in their T/​K program and I’m always amazed as to what she is doing in class and how much she has grown.
My son started in their infant/​toddler program and is now in their 2-​year program. Again, it’s evident that the teachers truly care for him. He had a few bumps in the road with some behaviors but the staff met with us to brainstorm solutions and were in constant communication with us. He has also flourished here with his development in all areas.
I’m sad to be pulling both of my kids from Camelot since we have moved. I would highly recommend this place to any parent.

We’ve put all 3 of our kids through Camelot from infant/​toddler through Pre-​K. When we first started our son there as a toddler, this was my first school experience and I was a tad overprotective and nervous about how my kid’s mind & body would be shaped outside of our supervision. I suppose this is natural.
The teachers and direction of the program earned my trust quickly. Camelot staff consistently performed to a high quality standard and helped us understand the benefits of their positive approaches so we could mirror the encouragement and reinforce good behavior at home.
Our kids have moved on, but have retained the friendships and memories from such an important part of their personal histories. I highly recommend Camelot’s program for your young ones — and for yourselves.

This review is of Camelot preschool, from room 1 (2 year olds) through transitional kindergarten. Although the school took a bit of getting used to at first, in the end we LOVED our experience overall. I would give 4.5 if I could because it is hard to earn a 5! :) My reasons for docking are below, but I want to focus on the good first since we were overall very happy. My son is a super active, sometimes bull-​headed, affectionate, goofy, and smart child. Their play-​based and emergent curriculum programs were a perfect fit! They have a small amount of «circle» time with reading and games, etc., but in reality they do lots of play that incorporates educational experiences around a theme into all parts of the day. The option to have the school provide lunch is a great perk if you can afford it! The play grounds (yes, plural) are AMAZING and just what a child needs to run jump climb and be creative. The teachers were all warm, kind, affectionate, and well-​loved by my son, especially in rooms 2 and 3 (for 3 and 4 year olds respectively). They taught my son to write his name, rhyme, and plenty more that I would have never expected. «Subjects» are taught in an integrated manner through play versus table work.
My daughter attended transitional kindergarten (room 5) for 3 months before starting Kindergarten when we moved to the Bay Area. She learned a ton, extra effort was made to integrate her into a classroom where everyone already knew each other, and she was super happy. The classrooms are large, organized, and most importantly flooded with natural light due to a wall of nearly floor-​to-​ceiling windows. It is really amazing! They do great projects, have lots of fun, and learn a LOT. We were never disappointed in the ratios. THey separate the class up throughout the day so that the large class size (sometimes ~30 kids!) doesn’t overwhelm them. They have plenty of room to move throughout the multiple classrooms, multiple playgrounds, long corridors, etc. Kids don’t feel caged up or restrained at all. My daughter, who likes plenty of quiet, focused ‘academic’ time was completely happy as was my son who is energetic and a total people person. Great school!
And of course, no matter how good the teachers are, nothing will work if the other families are a bust. Fortunately, the families seemed all to be very nice and similar to ours: involved and dedicated to their children, of diverse backgrounds, happy to let a kid be a kid while still setting appropriate limits, and not interested in «keeping up with the Jones’s» (i.e. no constant mother-​guilt imposed on this working mom who sometimes struggles to keep up and be Martha Stewart or a Pinterest queen despite my every good intention).
Now for the LITTLE bit of downside: It’s pricey! This is why we eventually left. A change in family situation meant we needed full-​time care and we just couldn’t swing it here. We switched to another school where we are paying less for full-​time preschool than we did for 3 days a week at Camelot. The new school is also closer (the hill to get to Camelot can really add time to your commute, but its worth it!), and a direct feeder to the grade school he will go to next year. Learning at the new school is not as well integrated through the day and the facilities are not as nice, but it has a good reputation with the community and it is what we can afford.
Also docked a bit for only allowing fully potty trained children into the 3 year old room. My son was focused on other things and after having a cross country move away from the only home and friends he had known, he regressed in his potty training. Due to this, he ended up in a room with much younger kids and couldn’t move up until he potty trained. He was in a room with diapered kids and therefore had no motivation or inspiration to potty train. After strongly advocating for him and talking with the director multiple times, I eventually got them to let him spend most of his time with kids his age. Within a week he potty trained. Voila! However, his ‘rank’ for moving up to the next room had dropped since he was one of the last ones into the 3’s room. Therefore, at 4.5 he was still in the 3’s room and he was much bigger and older than the other kids in the room. I was definitely disappointed that he didn’t get to spend more time in the 4-​year old room bc his eventual transition there coincided with us having to pull him. After only 2 weeks in that room, he had learned an amazing amount of letters/​numbers, yoga (!!), and other skills. Would have loved to have had him in there the whole time he was 4 because he was ready for it! The up side is that we absolutely LOVE the two wonderful, fun, patient teachers in the 3 year old room! Long review, but a childcare facility/​preschool definitely warrants this. We checked out 6 daycares when we moved here and this was hands down the favorite and we are glad and thankful for the time there!

My son has only been here for two months and so far so good. The teachers are very caring, patient and very hands on with activities — as is the Director. They are also very social and communicate pretty well. In the short time period my son has become fully potty trained which is a plus plus. He loves his new school, friends and teachers.

My son has been at Camelot for 2 years in the preschool program and I am so grateful for the care that he received from Ms. Karen. I had to take my son out of another preschool because of behavior issues and I was still relucatant to try again. However, after touring Camelot and meeting Ms. Karen I was confident that he would be well cared for. She is by far the best teacher I have ever met! I have 2 other boys (12, 17) so I can speak honestly on how much work she does at the preschool level. First, she posts a daily journal that lets me know exactly what happened during my son’s day so that I can actually talk about it with him versus «how was your day». Second, she creates the most amazing Portfolios that has all of my son’s art and writing and pictures that she has taken of him in various activities. She also writes a full page summary of my son’s strengths and progress. At the end of the year we take them home. There are at least 5 events that she organizes for the children to show the parent’s their work (art shows, games, science projects) There is so much learning going on. My son knows all about the solar system. He can name all the planets AND tell me something unique about each one. I could go on forever as to why I’ll miss this amazing program. And the best part is that Ms. Karen and I really did a great job in turning my son’s issues into more positive expressionss! Yay to you Ms. Karen!!!

My Niece went there and she was very happy everyday when I picked her up. They had a lot of activities both inside and outside. The classroom was decorated with all of the art work the kids made and the kids were very excited and proud to share their work. The teachers are very patient, kind and helpful with both the kids and the parents. The negative reviewer that lowered the rating was not for Camelot school and should not have been put on here.

My son attends the first grade here at Camelot school. He said that his teacher is the best in the whole world and he does not want to go to the other school. Also he want me to pick him up latest as possible.^^; He is excited to go to the school everyday.

This review is for the preschool at Camelot.
I found camelot school after interviewing TONS of local preschools. I love their setup, real classrooms, great playground equipment (and for a preschool, this is important!), well stocked classroom. The teachers are warm, caring and obviously love what they do.
They serve fresh, wholesome organic hot lunches (although we bring a bagged lunch to be thrifty).
This is a play based prechool and they model child-​led learning. They have meetings and learn about what interests the kids rather than having a pre-​set curriculum.
I only wish there was a little more emphasis on reading/​pre-​reading and a bit more «formal» instruction (hence the 4 vs 5 star rating).

All I can say is check the yahoo reviews. This school is fine for your infant and toddler. «DO NOT SEND YOUR K-​? HERE.» You should plan to look for other arraingments for that ahead of time.

We have sent our girl there for about a year now and we love it. I ve watched the kids/​teachers (undercover of course) and think the staff does a great job. They really pay attention to all the kids and help them develop the early social stills they need. My daughter has learned so much from them and I am truly grateful. Its an awesome feeling when your 2 year old just starts singing a song (perfectly and completely) that you’ve never heard. Great program!

This review is of the after school program on site at Camelot school in Castro Valley. I have been here several times and once for an interview, so I am familiar with their program from an outside perspective. I was offered a position with them and politely declined after learning more about their program. I am not sure why they work primarily out of a single wide trailer, but it seems to be the least of their worries.
While funding may be adequate, the people running the program must be saving a few of those dollars for themselves since their employees aren’t making much and it sure doesn’t go toward supplies. They seem to be very disorganized, often letting children run wild under minimal supervision. I have been to several other programs in the area and this one is just not as good despite it’s staffs credentials.
CHAD