Pacific Rim International School

(This review was originally posted in 2013. Updated)
I have attended Pacific Rim from Pre K to 5^th grade and I understand from a student’s perspective on coming to this school.
You can read other reviews that this school is amazing but really, it’s not. The academics are horrible, I didn’t learn the required grade material and wasted my time there. There are only two teachers in one classroom which didn’t help me at all — I would just sit at my seat and waste my time waiting for them. Most of my classmates were below my grade level which was confusing because the teachers focused on one grade level each day to teach and left others to do their own work. I understand that this school offers a Montessori curriculum but how would students learn if they are not challenged each day?
Most of the teachers and staff were abusive and ignorant. I still remember in elementary school that I was being yelled at for helping someone out. My classmate dropped a material on the floor and I went to help but then I was yanked by my arm and was told to go back to my table. I guess they wanted her to learn on her own, but it is excessive to pull by a little kid’s arm and yell at them to not do the right thing. I also remember crying from a staff pulling my arm because I did something wrong (oh sorry, I was six years old and no one is perfect) and telling her other colleagues to ignore me. I made a mistake but it didn’t make sense how they avoided me the whole day.
They teach nothing about American history, current events, or the «real world» — which I believe is essential for every school to have. I was once questioned by a teacher in my new middle school about a historical fact which I was «supposed to learn in elementary school» but of course, I had no idea and I was embarrassed. Additionally, after leaving this school, it was difficult for me to adjust to my grade standards. I had to catch up with a private tutor for months and it stressed me out.
I am not sure if they have changed since I left, which was five years ago but I doubt it. Overall, I just had a bad experience. You really don’t know until you have experienced it yourself. I hope all of you, especially parents, take this into consideration before taking your children there.

My review is based on my observation on the pre-​school tour. The moment I stepped into the school, I immediately felt that this is my dream school. Everything about the school exceeds my expectation — the orderliness of the classroom, the quality of teacher, the cleanliness of the campus, the bilingual and Montessori program, the organic food prepped by their onsite chef are all flawless. My one on one conversation with the program director is enlightening and very educational. Now, all these wonderful things come with a high price, which also exceeds my expectation. The tuition nearly doubles other preschools in the neighborhood. This is not a preschool for the average but for people with extremely strong financials. This makes me wonder whether it is worthwhile for me to tie up so much cash in this one program? Also, I wonder if my child will get the diverse social interaction at this school. If most (if not all) have pretty well off parents, will this limit his social experience? At the end of he day, unfortunately, I had to walk away from this school.

I was interested in learning about PRINTS because of the Montessori and Mandarin program as well as its location. My review is based off my observations while touring the Children’s House during their morning free activity and a short peek into the Infant program.
Before visiting with PRINTS I had also looked into a few other Montessori programs (with at least one hour dedicated to Mandarin) around the area. What I had observed was that there is a difference in AMI vs. AMS and other «Montessori ideals». I found that there were really only 2 schools that followed a pure AMI methodology, PRINTS is included in that two.
Just by observing the children you know that they are individually leaning at their own pace and respecting other children’s work at the same time. I saw some children in an organized circle with a teacher, while other children worked individually and together. It was eerily quiet but it worked. No one was crying and «tattling».
The «teachers» did not interfere with the child as they worked. Initially I was put off, it looked like the teachers were stoic beings. However, I realized they wanted to let the children take control of their actions and therefor they sat in the wayside out of the children’s way.
There is a native Mandarin speaker, a native Japanese speaker and an English speaker. Each teacher speak her own native tongue. Though the Mandarin teacher was not available that day I was able to watch the Japanese teacher interact… didn’t seem anything out of the ordinary. But the children learn how to communicate with each of their teachers.
After my observation of 15 minutes was over, I had a 1:1 with the director while still in plain view to the children (the children did not seem disturbed). She started talking about the Montessori philosophy and then asked me questions to try to figure out what I wanted to get out of Montessori. She was nice and accommodating. I didn’t find her stand-​off-​ish at all.
Since I was also interested in the infant school she took me over and I was even more impressed with the infant program. The infants were totally engaged with their teacher who was speaking to them in Mandarin. In the infant program the children are fully immersed in a second language since the window for learning language is extremely high during this time.
The outdoor area is pretty sparse but they have fruit trees and some gardening plots. (Other schools I had visited had really cool vegetable gardens.) As for outdoor play, the area is dedicated to structured sports. That was interesting since I figured you’d want children to just be «free» for the time they are outside.
All in all I was impressed with school; the materials, the language programs, meals, cleanliness. The tuition is for a 10-​month session and as others have noted you will have to spend a pretty penny. If it was more affordable, I would have put my child in the infant program right away.
If you are looking for an AMI certified program with a second language and you can afford the tuition, you should invest in the program. What I have learned about any Montessori program you should invest 3 years in a Children House (3 – 5) program which includes the year of kindergarten. Children will learn at their own pace, so if you only have your child in for a year, they actually don’t reap the benefits that a parent may expect.

If I could give this school less than 1 star, I would. Academically, they did not provide my children with an education equivalent to what the school district would for free. Why pay for an inferior education? If you sign up here, you are just signing up for a boatload of heartache and lots of outside tutoring. Further, the administration is outright mean to the parents. They are threatening and completely shutdown when there are issues. It is their ongoing policy that they are always right. Parents are not partners but rather to irritants be ignored and minimally tolerated. They will blatantly lie about issues with parents to keep them in line. After changing to a public school, I finally realized how abusive PRINTS was to their parents and to the children. Don’t pay for the abuse.
My son who had always received excellent academic reviews during parent teacher conference received decidedly underwhelming reading scores when he was tested for his new school. After 6 months, he has caught up but I was amazed how PRINTS had missed telling me he was a full grade behind! My son had always disliked going to PRINTS and complained every morning, but he had been going here since he was 22 months old so I just assumed this was just the way he was. With his new school, he gets upset when he is not 30 minutes EARLY for school. My threat to him when he is bad is «I am taking you back to PRINTS.» He is more confident and chatters happily about his day at school.
They blatantly discriminated against my Autistic daughter who Christinia personally interviewed and admitted knowing full well of her disability. When they decided to not renew her contract, they told me at the parent teacher conference it was because she was not keeping up with the program. If she was learning normally, she wouldn’t be Autistic! They would not allow her aides into the classroom. They would not allow us to provide her a lunch that meets her oral sensory needs. They just ignored her and didn’t even try to educate her. When we left, they would not return our deposit of thousands of dollars. I made requests via email but they ignored all my emails.
Even if money is not an issue for you, don’t send your children here. They are precious. Do not submit them (or yourself) to this horrible experience. Home school if you have to but don’t send your children here.

Do not know why my initial review got deleted!
We wanted to take a moment to express our sincerest gratitude for the assistance PRINTS has provided our son during his time there. My son has attended PRINTS since he was 1 ½ year old. I have watched him blossom into a young boy who is full of curiosity, character and a passion for discovering the world around him. While my husband and I would like to think we had a part to play in this, we both know that this transformation was primarily the result of the Montessori education he received at PRINTS. It warms my heart when my son comes home everyday excited about the activities he has done and the passion he exhibits in sharing those things with us and his younger sister.
We are simply amazed at the amount of things he learns everyday compared to his peers at other schools.
My husband and myself put a premium on our children’s’ education. Given what we have seen, we feel confident that PRINTS has given him the first step in what will be a successful path in a lifelong educational journey. We have high hopes for our son and we know that the building blocks and fundamentals that will characterize the rest of his scholastic and personal life were acquired at PRINTS.

My review for Pacific Rim International School (aka PRINTS) is long overdue! I am so sad to see some 1 – 2 star ratings have popped up since we’ve started. We are coming up on our 4^th year at PRINTS and it has truly been a wondrous journey. We have seen our older daughter (soon to be 6) flourish while at this school and we could not be more impressed with the teachers and staff. Our younger daughter just started (age 2) and the experience continues to be great.
Now…I will admit, I was hesitant at first. Not with this school in particular, but with the Montessori style. Although my husband has a Montessori background, I always thought coming from a public school system did well enough for me. It took me a while to feel comfortable with this philosophy and PRINTS has provided plenty of outlets for parents like me, to learn more about it. They offer community information nights so parents can learn together and share experiences. They allow you to observe classes regularly and sit with the children at lunch. You are able to see firsthand, how well-​behaved the children are and how nurturing the environment is. The teachers are there as guides to ensure the students learn what is important and expose them to more and more, in a way that makes it interesting for the student based on their temperament, individuality and natural curiosity.
The flow of the classroom environment is quite fluid… you can see students at a table working on individual activities, or a small group on the floor working together. As a whole, it is a bustle of activity, but amazingly it is far from chaotic. The fact that individuals can still focus on what they are doing, while others around them chatter, is a testament to the level of concentration that is developed in the Montessori philosophy. They are given the freedom to choose their activities, rather than have one assigned to them, so they are truly invested and engaged in what they are doing. Members within a group learn how to contribute to each other happily because they are not forced to be there and the outlet for learning naturally grows.
The materials used in each of the classrooms are impeccable and I have learned first hand how my child’s mind will produce a solid foundation of knowledge from the use of each one, from the very basic to the utterly complex. I remember learning that if a child continues to grab an activity that is easy for them to do, then the environment has failed them because it no longer fosters their curiosity and evolving development. Each activity/​toy/​assignment (whatever you want to call it) provides multiple opportunities for learning and you need very good guides (teachers) to help foster that learning. PRINTS has always had excellent teachers, and while it is true, there have been new teachers since we’ve been there, they have certainly been held to a great standard because they have always been impressive to work with. The staff has always been accommodating and I really appreciate the use of email, newsletters, pictures etc. to further communicate with the families. As I’m sure with any school, there are processes in place that need to be followed, but they were put there for a reason. I’d much prefer a carefully planned and thorough program to one that is too lax.
And with all that, this school is multi-​lingual too!!! YES! The multicultural/​language aspect of PRINTS is such a bonus to the unique Montessori environment offered here! My 5 year old daughter, enrolled in the Japanese program, is already able to speak, read and write in it very well. She can also understand and speak Mandarin, the other language taught here, because of the intermingled classroom. My husband and I did not contribute to this in any way, shape, or form because we do not speak either language. In our ever-​expanding global world today, we figured our children could only benefit from learning other languages, even if it’s one we do not practice at home. We found that learning another language, simultaneous to her learning to read and write in English, came very naturally in this environment. I also believe because it was done early on, her mind was able to absorb everything. This may not be the case for every child, but it was something she found interest in, or had an aptitude for early on, and they were able to help her develop it.
That coupled with the nurturing and organized environment of PRINTS, made the process for learning seem effortless for our child. And that is what it’s really all about, ensuring our kids can get as much learning as they can from their school. We have already gotten so much from our experience with PRINTS, that we are very excited to see what the future brings for our kids here. We plan to stay on as long as we can, and while yes, it can be very costly… we believe it is worth every bit of time/​money/​effort you put into it.
If you would like to know more about our experience with PRINTS, feel free to send me a Unilocal message. =)

I am reviewing this school from the perspective of a visiting aunt, who has seen her niece and nephew develop and grow with this school over the past 10 years (since they were both about 18 months old):
During this time I have seen:
— Children who are developing their fine motor and life skills from a very early age — so much so that both kids from the age of 2 could be entrusted to actually help with our family’s extensive Thanksgiving dinner preparation, doing tasks like slicing mushrooms, hulling peas, preparing dough and now graduating to being fully responsible for the cranberry sauce, homemade rolls and table setting.
— Children who are (90% of the time) gracious and kind to one another, and well-​mannered in their interactions with adults — at the numerous play dates, community events and birthday parties I’ve supervised or attended with my niece and nephew and their friends from the school, I’ve seen kids patiently wait their turns, work out disputes and issues on their own, and have an inclusive attitude.
— Children who are creative, independent thinkers — they come up with their own games, new spins on classic board games and can be trusted to entertain themselves for hours.
— Children who are developing solid work skills — I have watched as the kids work in the classroom, uninterrupted, in small groups on their projects. I needed this in my day.
— Children who are comfortable in a multicultural and multilingual environment — the kids speak in Mandarin to one set of Grandparents, to some of the teachers in the school as if it as natural as English is to me.
— A supportive parent community and pleasant school atmosphere — I have attended many festivals at the school, including the Autumn Moon Festival where everyone participates and the parents take a very active role. And even though I am an aunt and not a parent, everyone knows me and welcomes my participation.
— Enriching extracurricular activities such as Kung Fu, art classes, music classes and Chinese dance. These have helped give my niece and nephew a more well-​rounded education.
I applaud this school and all it teaches and strives to instill in these kids. I encourage parents to check it out and see what all they have to offer to your kids.

PRINTS does their tours in the evenings, and inconveniently, it is only offered once a month. I made arrangements to attended one evening. While rushing to get to PRINTS from work, I noticed that I did not bring the address with me, so I quickly called them and asked for the address and some brief directions (like cross streets). The girl who answered the phone had absolutely no idea what their address was or how to get there. [So how did she get to work that day, one would wonder.]
She put me on hold and decided to asked someone else for the school address, which she relayed to me. Because she did not know how to get there, she decided to GoogleMap it and then give me directions over the phone. This was a nice gesture, but her directions were completely wrong, including not able to differentiate which direction was north and south. [Isn’t that written on the map?]
When I got there, I was obviously late because of Miss Can’t-Read-a-Map. I quickly joined the group discussions and met the director/​owner. She was sitting in a reclined chair, with kind of a stuffed-​up air about her, as if PRINTS is the best school out there. When asked why some of their preschool graduates did not do well in kindergarten, she responded, «Montessori kids learn at the own pace. They may appear behind at first, but by high school, they soar past their peers.» [What a bunch of crock; I am not waiting until high school to let my kids catch up to their peers.]
I met some of the teachers, who all looked very fobbish. It is apparent that English was not their first language; they may be okay in teaching Chinese, but I would not want my kids to learn English from them. I agree with the Unilocaler who stated that the teachers are Draconian. PRINTS may brag that their students are learning advanced math, but it seems like they only do so with a punitive approach. [Those crazy old-​school Chinese teachers!]
When I was given the tuition rates, I was appalled. Not only was it one of the highest in the region, the director/​owner also clearly stated that enrollment means commitment until 12^th grade. If one withdraws the child before then, there will be severe financial consequences. [No, thank you.]
Needless to say, we will not be enrolling our kids in PRINTS, but I wanted to share my awful tour experience with everybody. To be fair, there were some parents on the tour who seemed to buy into their style, but this school is just not for my family.
I would not be surprised if Miss Can’t-Read-a-Map attended PRINTS as she is yet to catch up to her peers in basic geography…

We are really happy with this school. We have two children in the Mandarin-​English Program in Children’s House at Pacific Rim International School (PRINTS).
To start if you have never been to an AMI (American Montessori International) recognized or certified Montessori or have had children in an AMI Montessori School then you are not comparing apples to apples, but rather apples to oranges. Since Montessori is not a copy righted name it can be used in any school name, thereby deceiving parents who do not know the difference. Harvard and San Francisco State University are both are colleges, but one has a higher standard of education. AMI is the IV league of Montessori Education.
1) Cost of a Classroom — To explain the classroom materials in 1 Montessori Classroom is over $ 100,000. In comparison, my cousin recently opened a 3 room preschool. She did not even spend more than $ 15,000 to set up 3 classrooms. The San Mateo campus is over 10 years old. To think that they have kept the material so well maintained for all these years is a testament to their standards and integrity.
2) Level of Education — According to the state public school standards and requirements for a child, the Montessori classroom material covers to a traditional 2^nd grade. One example is when my son was 5. He started to name off the countries in a geography book for 4^th graders to a 2^nd grader at our house. This is just after my son had been in Children’s House for 1 year at PRINTS.
3) Language — After 2 months at PRINTS my daughter came home speaking Mandarin. Truth be said many parents do not know this, but Montessori education was originally designed for the neglected children in Italy. This included children with learning disabilities, orphans, or physically disabled.
4) Life Skills — I want to speak on this because I am a counselor for our church youth group. All go to public school. Many of which I constantly encourage them to strive for the best and to set the «bar high». Unfortunately, they have been ingrained into the public school educational concept of «just getting by since you will pass and move up a grade any way.» The 3^rd year in the Children’s House is the key year where the child has the opportunity to be the leader in the class by giving lessons to younger children and taking ownership and responsibility for the neatness, cleanliness, and damaged materials. These leadership skills are indirectly taught to the children as a natural progression in the classroom. My child was being taught not just how to be a leader, but a manager and trainer as well. All skills that they can take an use in the work force when they grow up.
5) Teachers — All the teachers in the Children’s house have completed their AMI training. There are 2 in our class. So even if one teacher is sick the other teacher is there to help guide. Yes, there is staff turn around, but this is no different from traditional education. PRINTS has staff that has been there long enough that they rotate substitutes that understand Montessori so that there is never a break in the children’s learning. Therefore it does not matter that teachers change constantly, since the next one can easily come in and continue from the previous teacher.
6) Afterschool Programs — So if you were to go out and have your kids take ballet, Chinese Dance, kung fu, art, music, or any of the extra programs that are provided at PRINTS, you actually end up paying more or about the same. The difference is that you do not have to sacrifice a Saturday for these classes or take time leave work early to go and pick your kids up to drive them to Kung Fu class or art class. At the Spring Gala we watch our son performed a waltz for the first time. All this is part of PRINTS’s education. You are actually saving money by sending your child here then going anywhere else and adding the extra cost for all the other classes. My children come home doing yoga, dance and many other things that are consider extra-​curricular and not included in traditional education.
7) Tuition — Actually PRINTS is the cheapest of the 3 AMI Montessori Schools in the Bay Area. Recently, I saw on facebook for a new Mandarin-​bilingual school in the Richmond District of San Francisco. They are $ 5000 more than PRINTS, not including after school. Plus there is no large scale fundraising like public, catholic, and private schools. As well, the staff is very understanding to the financial demands of education. I have never had a problem and they have been so understanding to our financial needs.
8) Small Class — PRINTS prides themselves in maintaining appropriate class sizes in good balance without the compromise of quality and integrity. There are always 2 AMI teachers in our class and 3 AMI teachers in the other children’s house. This doesn’t include the 4 teachers in the elementary classes.
Please see my full review by sending a message

Went to an open house a few years back and was totally turned off. The owner espoused like she was the end all be all of all things Montessori. She needs an attitude adjustment in how she presents herself to prospective families. Not impressed.

Education is sub par, not worth the money
My wife and I were attracted to pacific rim because they had a Montessori curriculum and they also had Mandarin emersion. Our child attended PRINTS for three years, one year of Infant Community and two years of preschool (Children’s House).
We discontinued pacific rim because we didn’t feel we were getting value for money. At PRINTS, the tuition prices go up every year and at the same time they reduce school hours by introducing more holidays and teacher education days. Another factor was that the quality of education is lower than what you would expect. This has to do with the high level of teacher turnover and that Pacific Rim hires a lot of teachers with little experience and then trains them on the job.
When our son attended public Kindergarden, we discovered he was behind most kids in reading skills which shocked us. That itself, is the major factor that our second child will be attending a different pre-​school.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Mandarin emersion doesn’t add a whole lot of value. Our child picked up far more understanding at home in everyday Mandarin conversations with relatives then at the school.
The administration is obsessed with building a «from birth to high school» Montessori educational program. The strategy seems pretty flawed to me in that Burlingame /​San Mateo has strong public school systems so why would parents in these areas want to pay for a competing service. It almost seems that the preschool program is charged extra to help fund the elementary school and high school programs (which have much lower levels of enrollment than the preschool).
The school reduced school hours every year that my son attended (and raised the price of enrollment at the same time). To me it seemed that one reason for this was that it enabled more up sell opportunities for the school for after school programs, extracurricular activities, late afternoon babysitting, etc). If your kid goes to this school, expect lots of push from the school on having your kids participate in these activities.
PRINTS is not very competitive with the prices of nearby existing schools. There are now plenty of other Montessori schools in the area and even some other Mandarin emersion Montessori schools and they are all much cheaper now than PRINTS.

I post this with the caveat that it has been 2 years since my daughter attended PRINS for 2 years.
That said, I believe that the school has further declined since our experience. However, I’ll just stick to what my direct experience was.
The staff, while typically well meaning, was sadly prepared for the realities of day to day schooling. It was meant to be multicultural, but I believe that it merged the worst of 2 worlds. They claimed to espouse Montessori tenants, however, adhered to them arbitrarily and strangely. Students had very little real freedom and no real physical outlet, UNLESS you sprung extra for the Kung Fu or Chinese dance lessons, which were conducted Draconian old school Chinese style.
You were beholden to sign up for the meals, which sounded fantastic, but which my daughter detested to the point of going hungry. When I broached this subject with the headmistress, she said that allowances would not be made unless there was a food allergy. Hey, if my kid won’t eat the food and says that it makes her stomach hurt, then I should be allowed to supply my own lunch, right? Wrong.
They were inflexible administratively and the communication style was fragmented and confusing. They were strangely Draconian and old school Chinese («Why do you wear your hair in such an ugly way?», one well meaning Chinese teacher asked my daughter) while claiming to refute that model. Weird.
The education was similarly arbitrary, inconsistent and very confusing. I believe it was better for the younger kids, my daughter went through 3^rd and 4^th grade there. THe homework was over the top, and very, very complicated and confusing. English was taught by a non native English speaker, who was sweet, but whose English was inadequate.
The math tried very hard to be «hard’, without needing to be.
Classroom culture? The headmistress was very concerned with «dressing properly» and would arbitrarily issue no jeans or no hands in pockets rules while classroom bullies called kids «fat» or «stupid» or ran around dropping the F bomb (I kid you not)
All in all, we had a very poor experience. My daughter breathed a sigh of relief when we switched schools and is very happy now.

My daughter starts her 1^st grade at PRINTS and if I knew the school earlier, I would put her in PRINTS when she was 18 months old. This school offers complete programs for your child; but the most important lesson I think is creativity and the ability to learn independently. Kids work in a groups, which they prefer most of the time anyways and are able to learn how to deal with problems & resolve conflicts themselves. Academics are fine and some kids are able to learn more advance then their grade level. The Chinese and Japanese programs are wonderful. My daughter is in the Chinese program and she is able to read, write and conduct basic conversation in Mandarin after 2 years. During the Chinese New Year, the students put together a wonderful celebration performance and do most of the planning themselves. The school is a really close community and everyone in the school are constantly trying to do their best for the kids. There is no pressure in school participation for the parents unlike other schools, but most of the parents are more than willing to do their part.
After school programs are available in school, program such as, art, Chinese dance, kung fu, and science club (just to name a few). The best part for our point of view as parents is that these programs are offered in the school itself. There is no busing my child around town every day. Children are able to do their homework with teacher’s supervision while waiting for their after school program to begin.
I understand no school is perfect and this school is certainly no exception; but for what they have to offer, I couldn’t find a better game in town.

I have two children going to this school. One in Infant Community (IC) who is going into Children’s house in the fall and one going into 2^nd grade. The Montessori environment provides strict structures but allows the children to have choices within those structures. When I put my boy in at 1.5 yrs old, he was in heaven. It was a whole new world to him, one that I could have never provided at home. He is turning 3 in August. In the last 1.5 years, he learned to dress himself, put on his own shoes, make his bed, put it away, is potty trained, use a child’s knife, set the dishes, serve himself, washes his dishes, cleans up after himself and the list goes on. He even came home with a sewing project he did out of a real needle and thread! My girl who is older, came home at the end of first grade with the work from the year in a binder. In it she has a compilation of her work from English, Math and Japanese. In addition, I received a photo of her working with a slide and microscope by herself. She is 6 years old. Much of the children’s time is self directed which encourages them to do their own research and become self sufficient. My daughter harasses her Japanese teacher regularly for Japanese instruction by not allowing Atsuko Sensei to finish her lunch. When I peak into the classroom, she is either working on her own, with a friend or taking her lesson. The students are guided as well as taught. It is an environment that encourages my daughter to learn rather than drilling the information into her for a test. For parents who are worried about testing, my daughter scored very well on the Stanford Achievement Test which doesn’t really mean much to me. It just tells me that she is learning more than what the standard curriculum requires and she is not limited by what is taught to her, she can learn at her own pace and excel in subjects that interest her and I will be notified by the school if there are subjects that needs to be supported at home (so far there haven’t been any). I visited the school one day and the Principle told me that my daughter mediated a conflict that day. I’ve been a parent at this school for 5 years and found that the children who come over to play are much more mindful of adults and instruction. As for the English teacher who is louder than the Asian teachers, she is Italian and more dynamic. I’ve seen her speak to the children loudly and the children hug and love her. New children might be surprised but that is the beauty of this teacher. She IS different than the rest and it allows for the opportunity for our children to learn to love the diversity in each other. Look deeper and hear the intent of the person speaking. The school is very particular about the teachers they hire and when possible, hire only Association of Montessori International (AMI) certified teachers vs. American Montessori Society (AMS) teachers. AMI requirements are more stringent and adhere more closely to the cultural and multi-​lingual environment of Pacific Rim. This school is unusual because of it is not traditional and that is its beauty because it allows our children to explore the world around them rather than have their noses in books memorizing drills.

*Revised July 2007* We ended our one year relationship with the school for 2 reasons: 1) tuition went up 11% for 2007-​08 year, and they require parents pay for a tuition insurance plan equating to about 2.7% of tuition. The insurance is mandatory and was not well-​communicated. 2) poor communication style — they prefer parents to write in little red books regarding child’s development or any questions, and fail to respond to emails or calls in a timely fashion, giving the impression that they don’t really care about what parents think, as they are so passionate about Montessori and their own program.
the administration lacks efficiency and developing a partnership with parents. this year, management had a personnel issue with a teacher and inappropriately, in my view, aired their dirty laundry on email with the parents.
teachers are not always fully credentialed and undergoing additional certification processes and are promised help with their visa/​residency in the US, hence their bond to the school!
With respect to diversity, I would make the case that it is heavily Asian and weight that as one consideration (Japanese, Chinese, Filipino etc) with single digit percentage population that is Caucasian).
Should you consider placing your child through to the elementary and higher grades, the obvious concern is class sizes, in fact the issue being too small rather than too large, which I feel could impact a child’s social development.
As in anything, caveat emptor: Read the contracts fully, inspect and ask a lot of questions.
check out international school of the peninsula in palo alto as an alternative

If you’re looking to send your toddler to this school, think again. I recently signed my 19 month old son to this Montessori school and decided to cancel out. Initially, this was recommended by a friend of the family whose daughter went there for the past year. I was mostly impressed with the bilingual teachings (Mandarin/​English and Japanese/​English) and life skills. I first called them to make an appt. for a visit. The first available appt. was 3 months later. Fine, thinking it was worth the wait. When the day finally came, I met with the principal, Christine. She was very professional and honestly, a good business woman. She knew what the Chinese values are and convinced us that the Montessori method of teaching is the future. At first, I was not to familiar with Montessori’s method but she explain it very well and thought this is great.
To make a long story short, they are not said out to be. The ratio is 1:6 in their Infant Community class. There were 15 kids in the room with 3 teachers. I was sitting in the class for about 1.5 weeks to let my son get comfortable and believe me, personally observing the class makes a huge difference than what they tell you.
1. Before school started, they expected all this money up front. Almost like rent… first and last month’s tuition ($ 1460/​month for full time), $ 975 for registration fee, and $ 1000 «guarantee» that you will not pull your child out in the middle of the school year. This was ALL due before their previous school year ended… June. My son didn’t start until Sept. Or you can pay for the full year up front ($ 14,600). Yeah, right!
2. Lack of Communication — Unfortunately, this may be partly my fault. After the first visit, I was so impressed with the Montessori and bilingual education that I didn’t ask about the normal stuff. Lunch menu, potty training, school curriculum, etc. Turns out, after I wrote an email asking the school for the list of questions, Patricia Gwin, was very helpful in answering all my questions. However, when I turned in the payment to their administration staff, Rita, she just referred me to their website for the information. I did go to the website and it was not very informative. Even after reading their generic handbook. It didn’t tell me to what the curriculum was or their everyday schedule was. Or how potty training is done in the classroom.
3. Then more surprises when first day of school got closer. We basically got told that we have to bring certain items, extra clothing, nap time stuff, etc. It was informative but the surprise was each parent had to sign up for a laundry duty rotation. Wha? Each parent rotate every 3 weeks to wash the linens the class used and must return them the following day at school. If I’m paying $ 1400+/month, I would expect the school to take care of that. Also they «encourage» parents to volunteer their services to the school. For example, one parent actually does all the translation of various documents (letters to parents) from English to Chinese. Shouldn’t the school staff do this???
4. First day of school… As most toddlers who are new to a school, it is normal for them to cry for a few days, weeks, even months. It was definitely chaos the first day of school. Even the regular students cry on the first day with the new students. Unfortunately, as the first week of school is very busy, there weren’t enough staff on hand to assist the children. For the new students, one parent is allowed to sit in the classroom but we were instructed not to engage them so they can get used to the teachers. Agreed. So we observed.
— Again, there were 3 teachers total for 15 students. That’s less than the 1:6 ratio. However, one teacher is in the front assisting the about 4 kids to change to their inside shoes. Another teacher is changing about 3 kids’ pants to training pants and making them go potty. So now there is only 1 teacher on the floor. That one teacher ends up comforting 2 crying kids. So what about the 6 other kids??? One is just playing with the sink and throwing water on the floor (which was my son), another was throwing toys across the room, another was fighting with someone else, and so on. I admit it was chaos, but they should have had another staff member to assist. I ended up helping out and so did the other parent. When we were told not to, we said, «look!».
Overall, don’t bother with them. They’re expensive and not worth it. Also, had I not sit in during their «phasing in» period, I didn’t know they would serve the same lunch for 3 days in a row. For the amount we had to pay, soooo not worth it! So glad we left there.