Primary Plus Infant-Preschool

The summer before my 5 year old started Kindergarten, I moved both boys to Amber School & Daycare (which is the same company, Primary Plus). –Back at the Mountain View location, the owners made changes that many parents and my wife and I do not like. They changed the front office from being *fun* to being *sterile* and formal. They let go several of the office staff that were a big part of why we chose Primary Plus in the first place. The people MAKE the place. I don’t want my kids in a formal, sterile environment. I want my kids in a fun place to learn.
After 3 months at Amber, I actually bought a house in Fremont just to move my kids to Fremont public schools and get them out of Primary Plus. (Seriously!) –I’m happy with that decision. Taking off a star on the update for the changes. But many of the teachers and caregivers are still there, and they’re the best, so still four stars.

well, i wasn’t going to rate this place, but i see that someone just gave it 5 stars so i definitely have to rate it now and make it be known that this place is far from 5 stars. i worked at this place for about a year and it was OK in the beginning and close to hell towards the end. i worked there in 2007 and made $ 8/​hour, which shows you how much they truly value their teachers. the teachers put in an $ 8/​hour effort as well. since there are so many cons to this place, i will just list them:
–barely under the appropriate ratio, but the director (anne hedman) runs around telling all of the interested parents that it is most of the time under ratio
–teachers were often lacking the much needed knowledge of child development, often telling the children not to do things that they clearly did not understand and grabbing them by their arms… some even lacked common sense and fed a banana that had dropped on the floor to a child, or dropped a baby on the concrete ground after picking up a baby rocker to move it to another area (horrific, right?)
–teachers displayed a clear favoritism, and the kids clearly sensed it
–while i was there, a woman was hired who clearly was a little «out there», but she was given the benefit of the doubt… she was found smoking in front of the kids outside, and wasn’t fired immediately but was instead just spoken to because the center was so desperate for workers
–during my time there, i saw on several different occasions a bottle of bleach solution in a botton cabinet which was supposed to be locked, but was never actually locked, so it was within easy reach of the children, OSHA was notified
–there was a fire alarm and in the room i was working in, you could not easily hear the fire alarm, which would be a major issue if there was ever a fire
–i signed up for classes while i was there and told the director in plenty of time that the classes i signed up for would require me to leave about an hour early a couple of times a week, but she said that that would not be acceptable and if i ever left early, i would be written up… shows how much she cares about education… wouldn’t that be her whole focus?
–special needs children were allowed in the center and the parents were not told that their children had special needs and no therapies were recommended. don’t get me wrong, i don’t think special needs children should be banned from daycares, it just makes it incredibly difficult for teachers to focus on all of the children instead of just the one special needs, who basically requires a 1:1 ratio.
this review is focused on several events that occured in 2007, so hopefully by now they have a new director who genuinely cares about his/​her employees as well her little «customers». i am no longer a disgruntled ex-​employee, i just wish to inform people interested in sending their children here that this place is horrible. i have not made up any of the facts, it really was that bad.