C5 Children’s School

I am reposting this as many people have found it useful.
I double posted it originally as we attended BOTH locations of C5 and it was the same pile of badness, however, the review was requested by «someone» (oh. I wonder who that gould be) to be removed as a duplicate.
I have invoices to prove that we attended both locations.
Also, Unilocal shouldn’t have taken down BOTH reviews just the last one if it felt it was duplicate. But you know… «helping hand» and all to bad businesses, right?
Below post had 25+ helpful ticks and I received private messages of support:
Below review was posted in Spring 2014:
After many messages asking me for more information here are some points I want to bring forward:
* I thought it was normal for my child to cry at drop-​off. It is *not*. My kid hasn’t cried once in 5 months at her new preschool. On the contrary, it is hard to get her not to go to schoo during break or the weekend.
* C5 never supported my effort to get manners onboard (other than the one primary we had briefly). When we started and my kid was 1 year she could eat with a fork. For a year she would come home, eat with her hands, put her feet on the table while we ate, ignored any basic manners like «thank you». This was important to me and I asked the teachers repeatedly to try to help out. I was ignored.
* During many surprise visits I had, I noticed that what was mentioned on the menu for the day (the healthy snacks, the amazing meals) were glorified in their description and they were given cookies made out of wholewheat with a side of cookie dough or so laden with sugar you could smell it or pasta with bits in. The kids would follow the woman serving the cookies in huge plastic bags (as bad as it sounds) like zombies. Teachers didn’t pay attention that other kids snatched food from some kids plates or at one occasion I saw a kid try a cookie, and just spit it out in disgust without a reaction from any of the 3 teachers watching. When I asked if my kid was eating its veg and fruit instead of just milk and bread I was met with a shrug and comment «We can’t really pay attention to each child during meal times»!!!
* I was assured many times that the school supports gender neutral attitudes, only to find that the dolls were served as a common plaything in the mornings to the girls with the encouragement «Let’s play Mommy!». I got a report saying that my kid liked to dress up and play «Fancy girl, Shopping Girl». In the mean time the boys in the team were always photographed with trains and cars. My kid would come home and play mother to every single toy she had (even tried to put a banana to sleep in its peel) and lost interest in drawing, puzzles etc. All that has returned since we left C5.
* I was ambivalent about sharing this but I think it is important: My kid came back on the last month at C5 and told me «Alone» and «Sad». This was an ongoing articulation on her part for about 2 weeks after that (and before we left). It correlated with my surprise visits and almost always finding her in the back of the yard playing on her own.
At some point I started going in before their 3.30 snack to pick her up and get her home, because it was always cookie or some bread thing that filled my kid up, then she wouldn’t eat dinner at 6 – 7 and being hungry at 2am she would wake up hungry yelling she needed food. it was a nightmare.
A lot of parents shared they had found the 12−2am hungry waking up times surprising.
At my kid’s current preschool they mostly serve fruit or much lighter snacks.
At this point, 5 months after we left C5 my kid is very happy, speaks a second language (immersion) and has become her normal, spunky and outspoken self again as opposed the constantly sad, introvert, cranky kid I had last year.
As said before, if you are lucky and you end up with the right class or primary, you are going to be super happy with the school. But if you end up with someone who just doesn’t care enough for your child, then you are in for a really rough ride.
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As Julia wrote
We though it was OK until we went elsewhere and our kid absolutely blossomed and developed leaps and bounds purely because the teacher didn’t just focus to the kids who yelled for the most attention.
There are so many things I could write about here from the time my kid’s primary carer in the toddler room thought she was outside for 15 minutes when in fact she was in the same room, in the «quiet» area all on her own (at age 16 months). This person still worked there when we left in Jan14.
There are a few, far and between teachers that go over and beyond and truly love the kids or truly love the subject of teaching. But the quality control is so poor from admin that if you end up with a bad primary teacher, your kid will be squandered.
The women that do support work (kitchen, front desk etc) deserve a shout out because they were awesome but sadly, they don’t make up for what a daycare should be about.
It was just anguish and stress every day.

My kid went to this daycare for just couple of months till we got kicked out of the program because we asked a commitment from the administration to prevent more bad incidents to happen to our kid. Basically, within two months my kid fell causing her a bruise on her forehead and they didn’t even mentioned nor reveal the circumstances of this accident to me. The second incident, my 14 months old kid was left alone in the courtyard because she was crying. So happened that I was walking by their backyard when I heard a desperate crying. When I pick in through the fence, my baby was by herself, no toys around her, just left there crying. As a result of this incident they didn’t even apologies, even more so they canceled our contract retroactively.
Even they have good learning program, it comes with abusive rules and negligence in care without the parents to have any kind of recourse about that (except to he heard by the same people they retaliate against you if you raise any problem). BTW you have to give 60 days notice to cancel the contract but they can kick you out anytime without notice or any justification. Just like that. READ THE CONTRACT WELL!!!
Basically look for a different daycare for your child. Don’t be happy that you found available spots because they are like this for a reason.

Our son has been at C5 for a year and a half now and transitioned through two classrooms. All of his teachers have been amazing and the activities they have for the children are creative, fun, and educational. I don’t quite understand what some people’s gripes are with the administration, we don’t share those sentiments at all. We find it to be a great organization top to bottom and appreciate what they do for our son… who also loves it there.

My son has been at C5 since he was a year old. I cannot imagine a better experience at a daycare. It seems like C5 is a true partner in our efforts to raise a respectful, kind and curious boy. As first time parents, it’s nice to have the support we have with C5. Our son has truly become an independent thinker, with a strong desire to learn; and I believe that credit is due to the people and community at C5.

I didn’t realize how unhappy we (all) were with C5 until we left. My son went there for about a year, from about age 1.5 to about age 2.5. When he started, we were assigned to a wonderful teacher who loved him, took an interest in his interests, and always had warm things to say about him. A short while later, she was abruptly terminated mid-​day. We were told it was always a «temporary» position, but if that’s true, why were we not told that when he started? The teachers he had from then on were lovely people, but looking back, they really had serious deficits in caring for our son. He began to withdraw and go read by himself, which they chalked up to him not being very social, but we now know (from his behavior at his new place) was a defense mechanism. They almost never had good things to say about him, almost never put him in their daily stories, and simply did not get how to help him grow. We didn’t realize it at the time, but he was falling pretty far behind on verbal development. He had plenty of words, but no real effective communication, because he wasn’t getting it at school. In his new, bilingual care, his English language has exploded, so it was not entirely him (he needed help growing — they didn’t do it).
He started crying as he got to school every day toward the end. We thought it was just because he missed us. It turns out he was miserable.
I feel like the folks at C5 had no idea what they were doing. They told us the teachers all have masters in early childhood education. Most did not appear to have college degrees. They did not know how to engage a shy, but exuberant child. They claimed to engage children’s interests, but then spent 4 months on a shadow project that clearly bored several of the children.
Also, the food. We don’t know whether it was good or bad, but we strongly suspect our son barely ate while he was there. We have no way of knowing because the teachers could never tell us. They explained that they had too many kids to watch to notice if our son was eating well. At his new place, with the same ratio, we always get a full report of how he ate. Beyond that, his new teacher has worked really hard to expand his tastes, something that clearly was lacking at C5.
So, in sum, if your kid is naturally very social, maybe C5 is great. They won’t break your kid. It may even be fun. The teachers are nice. But, if you’re not lucky, you may look back with great regret on your kid’s time there and wonder where s/​he would be developmentally if you had gone somewhere else.

My 4 year old son has been at C5 for 6 months, and I can’t say enough on how much I like his teachers, the staff, the curriculum and overall vibe. He went to another preschool that was crowded, poorly managed and a bit stifling for his personality and character. He was not happy there. (PKDW)
Here, at C5, he has the ability to express his creativity — plus he is learning some great skills and knowledge. All the «friends» (students) treat each other with much more respect — and generally seem to care for each other much more than his other school.
And the curriculum is not just fingerpainting or singing songs — he comes home and tells me about San Francisco geography — or volcanoes of the Northwest. He knows more about the solar system than me. He is generally thrilled to go to school — and I couldn’t be happier. (The only thing — If I could, I would knock off a quarter star due to their loooong XMas/​New Year break. Two weeks out school is tough!)
Shout out to teachers Erin, Summer and Claire!

Our experiences at C5 are strikingly similar to those described by Circe and Sam in their reviews. I only wish I would have read those reviews before we chose our first daycare. Anyhow, we’ve been gone from C5 for awhile now and it is only looking back that I can fully appreciate how stressful our experience was due to the bullying behavior of the administration. It is such a relief to be at a daycare now where the administration really cares about families and does not view parents exclusively as sources of revenue.
Our daughter started at C5 as an infant and was there for more than one year. In the beginning we grew confident in her teacher and could see that our daughter loved her and that her teacher loved her back. We noticed a few things that were concerning and would communicate them to the teacher and felt like she tried to do her best to address them, e.g., I noticed the food trays being washed and dried in the sink by the change table. But with a loving provider, we were initially inclined to overlook some of the issues which concerned us.
However, the problems began when we voiced concerns about certain policies and procedures implemented by the administration. We were always polite in voicing our concerns, but it seemed like they expected people to just follow their rules, even though some of them were heavy-​handed. One example (and there were many) were the very strict policies regarding the food and drink your child could or could not bring in to the center. What was frustrating was not just that the policies were so strict (and in some cases irrational), but that the administration did not show an ounce of empathy for our legitimate concerns over how their policies adversely impacted our child. And after we voiced these concerns, the administration began harassing and retaliating against us in many ways.
Prospective parents should be aware that the Executive Director and Director of Learning are married (he is the proposed Director of the new C5 charter school). We met with them several times and they never disclosed their relationship to us. Given the fact that they often played good cop/​bad cop, knowing that they were in fact married would have been relevant to the discussion. We would have understood much earlier that they were not dealing with us in good faith had we understood the true nature of their relationship.
Other parents we know who stayed at C5 have complained about the administration (and the high tuition), but for most, the convenience of a daycare downstairs from their office carried the day. A number of our friends were also upset that the administration fired their children’s beloved teachers to protect C5 from liability from honest mistakes made by the teachers. And others actually told us how the administration flat-​out lied to them at one time or another. Though many of our friends who stayed love the teachers, all have expressed frustration with the administration.
I would give our daughter’s former teacher 5 stars, the music together program 5 stars and the activities and pictures they take 4 stars, but the administration gets zero stars for its treatment of parents and staff. And unfortunately the administration’s bullying overshadowed the rest and created a very negative experience for us. Our children are now in a daycare center where the administration is warm, caring, and transparent, and it makes a huge difference.

We have two children at C5. One has been since age 19 months and is now 39 months. He is at the preschool at 450 Golden Gate. He has had a great experience there in their toddler room and younger preschool room. He had fabulous teachers that kept him stimulated and taught him manners and how to vocalize when he is upset rather than just cry or hit. They let him participate in group activities at the level he is comfortable. They were also extremely understanding of sometime very messy accidents while potty training. He was recently promoted to their older preschool room, which surprised me… he’s only a bit over three, but this is the «oldest» room they have with 32 kids and 4 teachers. He would theoretically be in this room until he goes to kindergarten — 2 more years. I am amazed by the level of activity in this room — the kids seem happy but it’s a bit overwhelming. They have soooo many different little activity centers in this room — sand box, light table, building area, music area, books, etc etc… it’s fabulous but I think almost overstimulating to have so many little people in the same (rather large) room.
Our younger kid started at 3 months and is now 5 months. The teachers at the infant center are great. The infant center is now in the new SFPUC center. It used to be in an older place that was frankly a little yucky, but now they’ve moved to the new facility it’s great. They seem to have a higher ratio of children to teachers than some places — 4 to 1 whereas others have 3 to 1, but my infant is doing just great there. There is good communication between the teachers and parents. I have no complaints about the facilities or the teachers for infants and toddlers.
I’d give the school 5 stars for their rich program, excellent facilities, and great teachers, except for the price (especially when you consider their holiday schedule) and the admin. I really wish I could give them 4.5 stars. They lose half a start because there has been consistently limited and stilted communication from the admin staff. Transitions from one classroom to another seem to be sprung on us at the last minute. It’s difficult to CALL the infant center — half the time they don’t answer the phone. (My child’s care giver and I use texting to communicate, so I don’t have a hard time reaching the teacher, just the admin staff.) The admin staff is much less important than the teachers, though — and the teachers are great. But, the price is a bit high especially when you get over age 3. They have one tuition rate for under age 2, one for over age 2… Many preschools have a lower rate for age 3 and up, but C5 does not. Up until age 3 they are pretty equivalent to other schools in the area, or even cheaper considering that they provide great organic meals. They also close for 2 weeks over Christmas/​New Years and one week over July 4. Because of this, we decided to switch to a school that has lower tuition and less closure dates. Not because of the quality of care, but due to our finances with two kids in full time daycare.

As a parent, I can understand how others might get upset by C5 staff. We all want the best for our kids. And when our kids don’t get what we think is best for them — we will kill/​maim anyone who gets in our way.
That being said, my daughter has had a wonderful time there!
We’ve been there for 12 months now. Our daughter has learned a lot from the staff. Our teachers really love and care for her, and we are grateful to them for everything them done for her.
Without going into too many details, our daughter recently had to go to the hospital due to a health issue that arose while she was at daycare. The teachers & managers took her to the emergency room, sat with me till my wife got there, and checked up on us for the next several days.
If the teachers didn’t care, they wouldn’t have gone so far above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that our child (and us) were doing OK.
I’d happily recommend any of my friends and co-​workers send their kids there.

It’s been close to a year since my wife and I moved our kid from C5, and he is flourishing in another daycare center. We can’t believe that we had to send our kid to C5, and we are shocked and appalled more than ever looking back at our experience with the C5 staff.
I get a few messages on Unilocal from parents agreeing with my review who are going through similar experiences. So that makes me think that we are just one of many parents who had bad experiences with C5 infant/​toddler center.

This place requires the zen and meditative balance of Budha. Any benefit your child receives in the classroom will be weighed against the EXTREME frustration of dealing with the administration.
If you or your child in any way deviate from what the school expects (ideas, needs, access, scheduling, etc.) you will feel the target on your back. They will BULLY you and your child to submission.
I would rather tie my tubes than to send another child here.

I’d rate it six stars if possible. the teachers are awesome! the facility is great and very conducive to children’s learning and explorations. my son loves this school so much. i’d keep him here if they have primary grades.

C5 is a great school. Our two boys (3 years old &17 months) started there at two and a half and three months old, respectively. I wish the school cost less. But the teaching is phenomenal and our children are happy there. They have learned social graces and responsibility, developed communication skills and gained self confidence while exploring their interests and playing. It is disturbing to read the negative review from the family of a developmentally challenged child. Our family, however, highly recommends C5.

I cannot say enough good things about C5. Our year-​old son has attended the Infant/​Toddler Center since he was 4 months old and we could not be happier with the care he receives there.
What I really love is that this isn’t just some daycare that watches your kid to pass the time while you’re at work, it’s a real learning center that follows the Reggio Emilia approach. Even for the babies, there’s a loose curriculum that provides the infants various opportunities to learn through the development of all their senses. The teachers are engaged, caring, and knowledgeable individuals who develop real bonds with each of the children. As a working mom, I feel fortunate that our son gets such high quality child care. Most of all, our little man loves it there!

Warm, clean, safe, comfortable facilities. Indoor and outdoor play area, separated by ages. A calm atmosphere. We liked it so much that we ended up sending our younger child there as well. NOT advertised as a place to handle children with special needs. So sorry Kool B., I can’t imagine the challenges you face. I still think it was inappropriate to give them one star because they weren’t equipped to handle your child.

I am shocked — SHOCKED — that no one has ever written a review of this place. If your child has any learning or developmental disability, stay away from this place because you’ll get kicked out anyway. Beware of the «contract» too!