Gale Ranch YMCA Preschool

My daughter has been attending YMCA Gale Ranch since May 2011. Before I enrolled my daughter at the Gale Ranch, I did visit in a few other places, but nothing really attracted me as Gale Ranch YMCA. Beautiful bright big windows, big yard to play, clean and specious big class rooms. But this isn’t the best attraction they have, The best thing is the teachers and the directors. Over 2 years, I referred over 10 parents to Gale Ranch, and most of them were enrolled right away, and others got on wait list due to high demand they got wait list.
Something disturbs me bad enough that I wanted to write review on Unilocal.Since May 2011, they had changed directors hands 3 times, but it didn’t effect the school in any different way. It only got better. Ms Diana is the best to work with the kids, and my daughter loves her so much. Only the reason Ms Diana left was that she had an opportunity to have her own preschool. If that opportunity didn’t happen, she would still be at Gale Ranch.
Since Ms Liz took over as a director on May 2013, she had done an amazing job of getting new furnitures, new toys, new books, and more teachers. Not only that she has an awesome heart for kids as well! How do I know? I am one of the parent, who is constantly stayed in my daughter’s classroom, volunteered in holiday events, and know most of the kids by their first names. Pretty awesome getting involved as a volunteer and interact with the kids in any given time. I believe I am the best resource to ask about Gale Ranch YMCA outside of Unilocal and google reviews. As a parent, of course, I had my concerns here & there, but Ms Liz & Ms Diana had handled everything in professional matter. My daughter knows all the alphabets, count in English & Spanish, sing, act, teach, play, share, care and many more things she learned from Gale Ranch. I would give them 5 star all the way.
Referring to lice and scabies outbreaks, hey, director & teachers have no control over these type of staff till is takes more place. If you can recall it, it happens everywhere, most importantly, it happened with all the directors while they were there. And it starts with parents responsibility to keep their household be aware of these types of things, not the school! My daughter never got any lice or scabies, it was handled quick and effective way, which I am thankful for.
P.S: I would encourage the parents to stay in classroom randomly (with no appointments) to see what your child is learning and doing (that’s what I did).
I am happy where my daughter is and I am thankful for everything they have done for the kids!

I have to rate this preschool 5 stars, My son has been here for a month now he loves all his teachers and friends. My son use to have separation anxiety at his old daycare/​preschool facility in San Ramon and cry every time I dropped him off… But he has not cried 1 tear here. I love it… the teachers are like family they are very open to discussion on your child’s learning development plan etc. The teachers are very consistent which I really appreciate. Every time, I visit the center or come for pick up and drop off the kids are being on their best behavior — using good manners while dealing with each other the facility is very structured you won’t just see kids playing all day in the hot sun and the rates are very reasonable compared to other centers in the vicinity as well. OH they even teach the children Spanish which is a plus in my opinion. …Liz the director is so much more than the director she is very involved with the child’s education. I’m very pleased to have found an affordable preschool that my son looks forward to going to everyday :)
thanks a bunch Gale Ranch Preschool staff !!!

This is a terrible school. The premises are pretty nice! It’s all new and they have a wonderful playground. That’s where the pros end. Their old director Diana was really good. She was so gentle and kind to the staff and children and very professional. Once Diana left many of the teachers left and that speaks for itself. The new director I found to be unprofessional and even had difficulty explaining the curriculum. I’ve also seen her be snippy with the children; she was pretty much yelling at them to pick up toys. They also group all the kids from each age group in one big room so its always chaotic. My son who usually does great in classroom settings was stressed out and would nervously chew his shirts — something he would never do at home. Never did I ever see a teacher attempt to stop him even after talking to them about it! You have to hunt to find the teachers if you want to talk to them about concerns. Usually they’re busy chit chatting amongst each other while the children go haywire. They also had a few lice and scabies outbreaks. For the price I expected something much much better.

I don’t know how I can thank Ms Diana for bringing the school back on track. My son has been attending this for past 2.5 years. I enrolled him in this school because I was impressed by Ms. Mallika who was the director in early 2010. I have seen difficult times and was about to switch my son to a different school. But, Ms Diana came in as director and everything is changed now. It’s a very good school now. My son loves to go there every morning and he will surely miss it when he goes to kindergarten this fall. I am very pleased and I highly recommend this school.

Great school! I am HIGHLY satisfied with the staff and the environment my children are in. I would also like to say that the new director Diana has made some significant improvements with this school! Keep it up…5 stars for Gale Ranch!

I recently signed my child up for Gale Ranch Preschool and I have been really happy with their services. The center has a lot to offer the kids. Each room has specific learning centers with educational activities. They also have free enrichment programs that most other preschool charge an extra fee for. They even have curriculum in the evening instead of just free play time. Overall the preschool is a great program fo our child.

My family and I moved to San Ramon about a year ago. We enrolled our son in Gale Ranch since it was the closest school around for us and seemed to be overall a good school. I wouldn’t rate my sons school normally but with recent changes to their staff I have seen a change for the good. The school feels much more welcoming to parents. I look foreword to our upcoming child attending this school. Hope they continue with positive changes.

I had to return to update this. We left the school in the fall of 2010 because the methods used just weren’t fitting in with our values anymore. Our daughter was getting to be an active 3.5−4 year old and couldn’t do the 3 hour daily nap, but options like reading or quietly doing something else weren’t consistently available.
She began to act out and I was told things like «We just have to deal with her now; you have to deal with her the rest of your life.» Uh yeah– that’s what I signed up for as a parent. I was also told, «When kids misbehave, we say, «I’ll tell your mother!’ And the kids beg ‘No no! I’ll be good, don’t tell my mother!’ But your child wasn’t afraid.» As if I was a BAD mother because my child didn’t fear me!
That’s when I knew we had to leave. I’m so glad we’re now at the Montessori, which was actually a tiny bit cheaper and SO much more organized.

since the school Management team has changed, it getting worst day by day. very unprofessional Yong Director. and you can see why parents take there kids out that school nearly more than half of last year population.

Not a good school. Lice problem, unprofessional teacher… — Concerned parent.