Glen Oaks Montessori School

My daughter has now been attending Glen Oaks for 8 months and continues to enjoy it. She has a great relationship with her teachers and is making friends. I see her social and learning skills improving. Highly recommend.
NOTE: I’ve reviewed the negative reviews from a few years ago and honestly have not experienced any of their complaints. The teachers are consistent and know my daughter well (She only attends 3 mornings a week). The activities in the classroom are age appropriate and in excellent condition. The playground could probably use some improvements but the teachers /​staff make the best of it and the kids don’t seem to mind it. Perhaps the negative complaints from a few years ago was under different management but I have no reservations about 100% endorsing the school’s administration today.

We have been delighted with Glen Oaks Montessori. Our daughter has thrived there. She is only a few months into Pre-​K, but she already has the skills that my son was learning in kindergarten. She knows all her letters and their sounds. She has already started to read, sounding out c-​v-​c (consonant-​vowel-​consonant) words and learning «helper» (sight) words such as «and», «the», «like». She knows her numbers, at least up to 30, and can count quite well. Every day we get several art projects she completes. There is no dress-​up (which our daughter loves), but we actually appreciate that this is an academic pre-​K program, not just a «play» program (which our son was in and did not prepare him well for kindergarten). She has fun doing many of the other activities.
The aftercare program is also strong. They do many art and other projects, and they learn about different regions of the world. Our daughter fell in love with the stories of ancient Egypt. They also have a gardening program (extra cost) that my daughter loves. Every week our daughter brings home a lovely pot she planted herself with herbs or vegetables. She is better at gardening than me!
The teachers are very professional and warm. We did miss the teacher that left last year, but the new teacher (an experienced one from the sister school) is excellent. She introduced herself to us, and mostly importantly she really seemed to have bonded with our daughter and the other students.
The teacher ratios are good. There are 4 teachers and 36 kids (many part-​time).
We looked at many programs in the area, from San Bruno down to Belmont, before choosing Glen Oaks. I have no hesitation recommending Glen Oaks. Feel free to contact me through a private message (I think Unilocal supports that) if you want to know more. We know how important the pre-​school decision can be.
Rich

Glen Oaks Montessori has been providing both our boys great learning environment.
My oldest son went through the program and got a great foundation of reading and math ability. Not only their teachers provided great academic teachings, but also they provided great social environment for kids. Glen Oaks actually prepared him to be confident and successful for his grade school. He can be a reliable independent student but also a great team player. The most important thing is that Glen Oaks provides him a great life time learning habit — curiosity, diligent work and respect others. We truly appreciated the years my older one spent with Glen Oaks.
I still remember that when we first stepped in Glen Oaks, my older one was having his seperation anxiety, one of the teachers will just come to him and hug him to make him feel like home. She was doing that for a couple months till he finally made few new friends. Glen Oaks provides such a nurturing environment for kids. Kids are always calm and peaceful doing their work. You never find classroom in chaotic situation. Teachers always refer us by our first names when we come to drop off or pick up our kid and we feel comfortable discussing our kids’ school performance when we feel there is a need.
That was the reason why we did not hesitate to send our younger one back to Glen Oaks as we know our kids in Glen Oaks will be in good hand.
My younger boy is now back there. He had so much fun in school. We also signed him up for Garden Art class which is also an amazing kid art class you can ever find in the Bay area. He will bring decorated pot with flowers, pebble stones and baked pumpkin cookies after art class. We were so thrilled to learn what he had done for his art class.
Moreover, through Glen Oaks, we have made several good parent friends. Glen Oaks provides a close community which we truly love!

My daughter was enrolled at Glen Oaks last year. I liked the teachers — at least the ones that were not fired without notice in the middle of the school year, and my daughter seemed to like them too, but her main teacher still did not know our names by the end of the year. The adult — student rates were really bad, 2 teachers, 2 aides — 52 kids, most of them full time.
Their playground consists of 3 swings, a little pavement 2 or 3 tricycles, a few benches (so kids can sit in line for their turn on the swings) a bad smelling sandbox and a fence that they climb because there is nothing else to do. They bring about 40 kids to that playground at once.
No pretend play, no dolls, no dressup.
My daughter and I had fights more than once a week about her not wanting to go to school, it took me a while to go there and really understand her issues — and now that she is in a different school since July and has not complained about not wanting to go one time.
She knew the alphabet and many letters when she started at Glen Oaks, but during an entire school year she did not make any progress reading, or writing and really regressed in drawing and arts. Now she draws beautifully again, writes her name, and reads simple words.