The Goddard School

Reviews 3

KR

Kristen Cole

This school/daycare center is amazing! The owners own both it and one in Colorado Springs. We went to a different center in Thornton when are oldest was a baby and then switched to in home for awhile. We then found ourselves moving to the Springs without connections to in home daycares so we decided to stick to centers. I always call centers that Im thinking about entering on Thursday afternoons late in the day to see how they answer the phone. I figure if they are friendly late in the day after 4 working days that is a good sign. I called the Colorado Springs school and they were very friendly and always professional. We only lived in Colorado Springs for 9 months before moving to this area. When moving, they asked if we wanted a recommendation for a center. I said sure even though I had already called around to see which Goddard or other center that we would take our son to. They recommended this school. There were different owners at the time. Our oldest starting attending this daycare and within 2 months the owners switched to Liz and Daren. We were thrilled. They love the kids so much and take wonderful care of the school, teachers, classes, and students! They are always professional and will take the time to listen to you if you ever have a concern or a suggestion on something that might make the school better. Our son went through Pre-K here and then graduated and went on to Elementary school before we had our 2nd son. As soon as we were pregnant, I knew exactly the center that I want to take my next child too. Our 2nd will be 2 here soon and he loves his school. The teachers/staff/administration are friendly, attentive, and communicate well with parents. Children will have stages they go through where they might bite, scratch someone, or throw a tantrum. The school handles all these with grace and communicates to the parents to keep them in the loop. They keep the children involved confidential so that parents dont argue with each other over the incident. Also, if a child trips when learning to walk and has a boo boo, they tend to it and send home an incident report. They redirect the children when appropriate as well. As children go through learning leaps, there might be a few more reports (1 report 2 weeks in a row) but nothing that has ever been alarming to us with either of our children. The teachers create a curriculum based on the development needs of the classroom. The children are not forced to participate but it helps them to have options and helps them know how to interact with other kids. The younger kids are taught how to help pick up and also sharing. The staff/teachers/administration watch class ratio. As people arrive in the mornings there will be floaters in classrooms to help ensure that the ratio stays within the State rules. In the evenings, they will move consolidate classrooms as kids head home to ensure they are still meeting the ratio and allowing teachers to leave at a decent time. I have arrived in the middle of the day out of the norm multiple times and have never seen the class ratio off or anything that I would be concerned with as a parent. The only hassles that we find are making sure that we keep our paperwork update with immunizations (the school kindly reminds us each time that it is about to be outdated to update it please) and also it is a nut free school. We are lucky that our children do not have nut allergies and I understand the concern for parents that do have kids with nut allergies so we abide by the rules. It just makes thinking of lunch ideas hard sometimes. The school does offer suggestions. With our oldest, he would eat his peanut butter sandwiches for dinner and take whatever we cooked for dinner as leftovers for lunch the next day. All my comments above relate to the daycare from 2012 - 2016 (with only 16 month lapse without a kid there).

ET

Ethar Alrabie

Note: this review was edited after the school owner contacted me to discuss the review. Its unfortunate that it took a public review for this action rather than addressing concerns early on. Our daughter attended this school for a little over 1.5 years. The overall experience was good. The curriculum is rich; the teachers were kind and attentive to our daughters needs. After almost 6 months, our childs behavior started changing. We started receiving incident reports regarding our child being attacked by another (bit, scratched etc.). Although we were reassured that this was a normal behavior as the children in this age are learning to set boundaries and learn the concepts of sharing and using words and gentle touch, the number of reports was alarming. We were receiving an average of a report every other week. Some incidents were very mild; others were serious ranging from a bite on the arm that bruised for a week or a scratch very close to the eye. As parents, we felt concerned that the school wasnt doing enough to prevent this behavior from occurring as frequently as it did. Despite numerous requests to the management to intervene, not much was done to at least reduce this frequency. After few months, we started receiving incidents about our daughter attacking other children when they tried to take a toy from her or invading her own space. This was also concerning, noticing how she started to change. We also started noticing this at home. She was threatened by anyone who was trying to get close to her even for a hug. The incidents at the school continued until she was unenrolled. As concerned parents, and to ensure our daughter was truly in a safe environment and the behavior weve been experiencing wasnt because of negligence or lack of supervision, we filed a case with the State of Colorado. The State followed up with the school and after weeks, the case came back unfounded. Another issue we experienced was the class ratio. The standard ratio was 1 to 6, but it was very normal to see one teacher attending to 10 children sometimes more in the morning. Our regular drop off time was between 8:30-9. On numerous occasions, when I saw the class being such a mess and out of control, I had to stay with my child until the other teacher gets in; which meant being late to work and important meetings. I addressed my concern to the management multiple times. What we noticed then, was that every time the director or one of her staff members sees me walking through the door, shed go running to my kids classroom to balance the ratio and watch the classroom until the teacher arrives. This was also addressed by the licensing office and this issue was later resolved later. I thought about transferring my child to another daycare, but this school had advantages being minutes away from work. We liked the school and the environment. We also didnt want our child to switch between schools and have to readjust to the school system, the teachers and the children. I chose the path of not giving up and trying to work this out with the management together as a team. We wish the school all the best and we thank everyone who cared for our little one and taught her something good.

A

Anonymous User

What a wonderful place. As others have mentioned, Goddard becomes a second family and second home for most everyone. My daughter started there when she turned 2, and finished as a graduate of their first Kindergarten class. Along the way, she was loved and cared for by all her teachers. Special kudos to Ron and Sharon, the owners - who were there almost every day. They are very hands on, and are like gramma and grampa to the kids. Theresa and Linda, the directors, are also there all the time. They are both very approachable,and I knew if I had any concerns, I could talk to them and they would be addressed immediately. The teachers are fantastic - especially Jake, Susan, Dan and Rita. Jake is the cool science teacher we all wish we had - he was always doing hands on experiments with the kids, and nurturing their love of science. As others have mentioned, they are great with the cleaniness- my daughter was only sick a few times in the 4 years she was there. I cried when it was time to leave, as I felt like we were leaving family. Our daughter has moved on, and is doing great in her new school, where she is reading significantly above grade level. I recommend Goddard to anyone looking for warm, nurturing place for your child.

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