River School

I was really excited that my 2 boys finally got a space at the River School. After leaving another school that had high teacher turnover I was really surprised that the same thing was happening at the River School in more than one class. I have one son in the Zebras and love love love the teachers. And my other son is in the Giraffe’s. I feel that the Giraffe’s class could be more stimulating. That is not my biggest issue. My biggest issue is how the administrators, i.e. directors all the way to the top, handle problems. They tell you one thing but do another. They do not follow their parent handbook but instead create rules on the fly. They say they are happy to help but if your child doesn’t fit into a certain mold they force you to leave. They are not attentive to keeping the parents in the loop and they are horrible with returning email. The River School definitely does not have the same reputation as it did a few years ago or even last year when Ms. Kelly was the director.

Our baby was in the infant room (Tiny Tigers) last year at the Exchange Place location (the one listed as 251 Warren St) and is now at the Warren Street location (²⁵⁴⁄₂₅₆ Warren St., which is directly across Warren from the Exchange Place location and is the newer space). She was moved because generally, the classes at the Exchange Place location are for older kids, and the classes at the Warren St. location are for younger kids (the Tiny Tigers class is the exception at the Exchange Place location). I was surprised to see no reviews for either location (and only a handful of reviews for the Newport location, which I haven’t visited). My husband and I really loved the Tiny Tigers class teachers and the directors, as well as all the staff. She started at 3.5 months and we were new to the daycare game, and everyone tells us how lucky we were to be able to get in right away off the waiting list for our desired starting month (we lucked out I think because the Warren St location was just opening at the same time we wanted to start our baby, which made more slots available for new kids). Although there was more turnover than I expected — only 3 of the 6 teachers who we started with were there at the end of the year, and the school director also changed — all the teachers were very easy to talk to, helpful, attentive, and really got to know and care about our baby. Ms Shannel, the head teacher, was absolutely fantastic and I miss having her as head teacher — she was very warm, approachable, had a sunny attitude, and really set a great tone for the assistant teachers in the room. Ms Erica, who joined a few weeks after the start of the year, still baby sits for our daughter occasionally and is terrific — if we wanted a nanny for our daughter I would certainly go to her first. I thought it remarkable that all the teachers in the school seemed to know our daughter — if we happened to see them outside school (like at the zoo, on the boardwalk) they would immediately recognize her (sometimes by the sound of her cry alone) and turn and say hi and she would light up with a happy smile for them. The director we started with, Ms Kelly, was amazing — so organized, experienced, dedicated to frequent diaper changings and running a tight ship (I thought). Ms Erika, her successor when Ms Kelly left in June, transitioned in seamlessly and it felt like nothing changed except the smiling face behind the desk in the evenings. River School is really great with transitions — every time someone new came on as a teacher in our daughter’s class, the new teacher would slowly start spending more time in the room over the course of one or two weeks. When it was time to wrap up the year (in August) in the Tiny Tigers room, there were 3 – 4 weeks of transitioning to the new room (across the street) where the babies would spend an hour or two in the new room, a few times a week. I thought it worked beautifully and our daughter had very little trouble with starting as a Penguin in her new building. I will say that so far, it seems like maybe the Warren St. location is still on its way to becoming as smooth and organized as the older Exchange Place location (notification emails come a little later, the picture directory of teachers came out a month into the school year when we had it in the first week or two at the Exchange Place location, the parents’ meeting they had told us about in advance was pushed back because it seems like the sign up/​notification for the meeting was inadvertently dropped) — BUT, those things are minor in my view because the care and attention of the teachers is still at the same high levels. It’s clear that our daughter likes her teachers (some of whom used to work at the Exchange Place location) and they are very energetic and enthusiastic when they interact with the kids. The current head teacher, Ms Renee, has a different style from Ms Shannel, but she is clearly very experienced and organized (and has been in the job for I believe over 7 years, which seems like an eternity in this line of work!) and I was very impressed (and hopeful) at her potty training track record (10 out of 13 in the prior year were potty trained by year’s end!). We are very happy with River School — both Exchange Place and Warren St. — and feel nothing but gratitude for all the teachers and staff who make it possible for our daughter to grow and learn and be with other kids in a healthy, positive environment.