Community First School

My older child has attended summer camp at CFS for the last few years and loves it. CFS directors and teachers both make special efforts to accommodate older children to support their leadership skills and keep them engaged throughout the day. The number of children to teacher ratios are great. Not sure what the previous post meant by the attrition as we have had the same teacher for the last few years. CFS’s healthy food and fresh made meals have also been a treat for my picky eater!

If you’re looking for an after school program for your school aged child, this is the place to be! My daughter goes to Cumberland, CF picks her up after school and they have a great program. She’s mad some wonderful friends and it always encouraged and supported by the staff. This was a much better choice for her and our family than the after school program located on the school campus. The adult to child ratio is better and the kids are always friendly.

I took a tour of this place today and WOW… It brought back so many memories. Memories of a time when school was a fun, safe and exciting place for a kid to be. These days schools and daycares are hit and miss. Well, luickily for the people in Sunnyvale, this place is a hit. The sound of kids playing and the smell of garlic bread in the kitchen made me want to stay. Unfortunatly, I had to go back to work. Back to the real world. I would have traded places with any one of those lucky kids.

This is a top rate place to take your children. My 7 year old went to their summer program and is now in the after school program as well.
The summer program is awesome! They take great field trips and when not on a field trip do age appropriate activities that the kids love! My daughters loved mad scientist day!
Their after school program is a god send for working parents. They assist with homework in an environment that allows the children to complete the tasks at hand. As an added bonus, they also have language enrichment. The children can learn Spanish or Mandarin. They teach them using fun activities such as bingo in spanish and this week she is making a book of pictures of words in Spanish that they are going to laminate for practice!
The teachers are fantastic! They keep the environment safe, but still are loving towards the kids. I am so happy to have found Community First. I only wish I had found them sooner.

The teacher attrition rate is insane. I believe there is only one teacher who has been here for more that 4 years, everyone else is new.
The teachers are always complaining about how the place is run, and how often they have to come in to do extra work. Unhappy teachers make for an unhappy class environment. .
The Summer Camp kids seem to have a lot of fun, however, the male teacher never smiles or greets the parents. There is no feedback for the parents picking the kids up about how the kids did that day.
I often times noticed that there were some kids who ask for more milk and or food, and the teachers tell them there is no more, especially with fruit. :(
The lunch served is good
The grounds and facility is good
The prices are fair for the area considering they provide two snacks and lunch
Only if the owners could figure out a way to keep the good teachers on for longer, it would make the school a lot better.

The previous reviewer’s one-​star review of this place is a joke. They very clearly have an ulterior motive. Perhaps a competitor? Anyway, I would give this place 4 stars, but I’m upping it to 5 because I’m so annoyed with people who review for their own benefit and I’d like to do my part to offset their review.
In all honesty, this pre-​school is as good as it gets in this area. Our daughter attended for around a year and a half (1 year old to almost 3). We decided to pull her to make the switch to Montessori, and we’re kind of sorry that we did. We were expecting a Montessori experience that was on-​par with the schools we attended at her age, and have been fairly disappointed.
I really like a few things about Community First School. First, the front office staff are pretty genuine (I can tell because my daughter loved them, and she can’t stand insincerity). Second, the rates are fair, especially for this area (and snacks/​meals included). Finally, the curriculum is not lacking. My daughter learned as much (maybe more) from her Community First teachers’ curriculum as she has from her Montessori teachers’ curriculum.
I could list the few things that I don’t like about Community First School, but I don’t really see the point. Let’s just say that the list of things I don’t like about this school is much shorter than the list of things I don’t like about previous daycares/​preschools that my daughter has attended.

My daughter has been at this school for about 6 months. So far I have been very pleased with our experience here. When I was looking for a preschool I decided on this one because I was impressed with the size and layout of the classrooms and with the large outdoor space they had for the kids to play. The prices are very reasonable and the hours (7 – 6) are perfect for my schedule as a working mom. I also like the fact that they provide lunch and two snacks. I loved that within a week or two all the staff, even teachers from other rooms, seemed to know my child by name and would greet us as we passed them going to/​from her classroom. The only reason why I didn’t put 5 stars was I wish I knew more about my child’s day especially about things like nap, eating, general behavior etc. if I ask they are more than willing to talk to me, but often the teacher with her at the end of the day is not her main teacher during the day and doesn’t know much. Overall very happy and will continue with this school.

I just wanted to repeat again how good my experience has been with CFS. My son loves it and we are so glad we found it.

Money was not an issue when we were looking for a place to send our daughter. We looked everywhere in the Mountain View, Los Altos and Sunnyvale area. We choose Community First School and we’re very pleased with it. Upon first look, it’s not the newest facility or up to date (technology wise) but when it comes down to it, the most important thing are the teachers. My daughter is in the Twos room and you will not find more loving and caring teachers. When we go to pick her up, the teachers (Miss Alice or Miss Mel) will always take the time to tell me how my daughter was that day — «was she cranky, did she have a good day, did she listen well etc». She’s given BIG hugs when she leaves and the teachers love her and she loves them. But … it doesn’t stop there. My daughter knows most of the staff by name which surprised me. When we leave she waves good bye and says «Bye, Miss Jean, Bye Miss Mimi» … the whole school just has a family feeling to it, it’s warm and inviting. The owners care about the children — yes they are a business but I get a really good feeling when I go to pick her up and she though she’s happy to come home with us, she makes sure she says good-​bye to everyone.
When it came down to it, my husband and I were choosing between CFS and Wonder Years for totally different reasons. We’re glad we chose CFS, while not perfect, because it provides a loving, playful and educational environment for our daughter.
I’m not the only one who feels this way. I’ve recommended this place to two of my friends and they both send their kids to CFS as well.

We started our daughter in the infant room through the waddler room and were SO happy with Community First. The only reason we left was because we moved and the commute would have been ~45 minutes if we’d kept her there (but don’t think we didn’t seriously contemplate it!) Community First has unmatched infant/​teacher ratios, is such a wonderful facility tucked away from busy streets, but beyond that felt like a family more than a business. The people/​teachers are so loving and caring and we were heartbroken to have left! Every chance I get I try and recommend this place. I see there’s a negative post which I’m really shocked about as we had the exact opposite experience. We miss that place!
An example to show how much they care. they even sent a beautiful home made holiday card made by the kids and teachers to my daughter even after we’d been gone from the school for a month. How incredibly thoughtful!