Kiddie Academy of Reston

12320 Pinecrest Rd #150, Reston, VA 20191, USA

Address:	12320 Pinecrest Rd #150, Reston, VA 20191, USA
Phone:	+1 703-860-0800
Site:	kiddieacademy.com
Rating:	4.4

Location

Photos 11

Reviews 4

Ayesha Ali

I am the owner of the Kiddie Academy of Reston and this is a response to Ms. Chetna Nagars review. My goal is not to dispute or argue with the points in her review. Our general policy is to address all negative reviews and constantly improve our school based on all customer feedback. CREATING A WELCOMING EXPERIENCE - Thanks to Ms. Nagar for pointing out that she did not receive a warm welcome. We always strive to create an environment that is courteous and respectful. I continue to monitor our staff and provide guidance based on detailed feedback from our clients. This is an on-going effort. 2 YR OLD ADJUSTING TO PRE SCHOOL - Each incoming childs needs are different. Most children take 2-3 weeks to adjust to a new preschool. During this adjustment period we keep the parent informed and involved as we make various adjustments to get the child as comfortable as possible. This process is particularly difficult for 2 year olds who have not been exposed to any child care center previously. * If a child cries for more than 30 minutes after the parent has left we inform the parent. * We recommend that the parent bring in toys and photos of family members to make the child feel at home. * The lead teacher usually works with the parent to customize the activities for the child based on the childs interests. In this particular case, we made every effort to accommodate the child over a 7 and a half week period: (1) Since the child was crying for extended periods of time, we added additional staff to ensure that the child received 1-1 attention during the adjustment period. For 4 weeks, we kept 3 teachers in the class for the 8 children in the class. One of these teachers was dedicated to helping the new child adjust. (2) As mentioned by Ms. Chetna Nagar, we also tried to change the environment for the child by moving her into another classroom to see if we may be able to get better results with a different teacher. (3) During this time, we adhered to the policy of requesting that the parent come in to help us calm the child down if she continued to cry for an extended period of time. It is not healthy for a child to cry for 1-2 hours straight despite attempts to calm her down and get her involved in various activities. This is further complicated if the child is refusing to eat. (4) After the 7 and a half week period we made the recommendation that continuing in this manner may be too strenuous for the child as well as the other 7 children in the classroom. I agree that we saw improvement as the weeks progressed. But the progress was intermittent. RECOMMENDATION: Throughout this process we made sure that we continued to focus on what is best for the child. After a discussion with the lead teacher and our staff we recommended that Ms. Nagar first get the child adjusted to a care giver providing support in her home in a 1-1 setting. This would give the child the opportunity to bond with a person, other than Mom, in a familiar setting. We also offered to work with this care giver to get the child acclimated to our classroom in the near future. In conclusion, I think that we have worked diligently to try and resolve this issue. Furthermore, this is not the sole responsibility of the Director. It is a team effort. That is why I have worked with 4 different teachers, in addition to our Director, to try and work through this situation. Thank you for your feedback.

Lynne Powell

My daughter was one of the first students at Kiddie Academy once it opened this spring. She was 3 and a half when she started, and just turned 4, and I have to say I could not be happier. My 7 year old son also attends, during the school year for their before school program, and during the summer for their camp/daycare program. Since the school is still new, and since there were not a lot of older kids there, I was a little worried about how my 7 year old would handle being there. The teachers and director have been awesome in their way of including him, and put his skills to great use during the time when there are mixed-age kids all together. (For example, he really loves to read, so he reads out loud to some of the younger kids in the mornings, and he feels like he is being helpful while also getting to do something he loves to do) My daughter had been in an excellent 1/2 day school prior to coming to KA, but I really needed her to be in a full day program so that I could work. I am thrilled with the new knowledge she comes home with every day! Considering where she is with her phonemic awareness, I have no doubt that she will be reading before entering Kindergarten in another year. The teachers so far have been absolutely wonderful and very communicative. My daughter had a bit of a hard time transitioning to full-time daycare (for example, napping with other kids in the room and missing her teacher from her previous school), but the teachers did great at transitioning her and now she doesnt want to come home in the evenings! As for the facilities, it is a spectacular new school. There are playground areas for ages through elementary school, an indoor play area for rainy days, age-appropriate classrooms for infants through elementary school, a library, and more. The before and after school room for older kids has places for them to do school work if they need to, age-appropraite toys, and a smart board. The rooms for the younger kids are brightly decorated and have a great selection of toys for free time, computers for computer time, books, manipulatives, and of course, the usual preschool spaces for circle time and learning.

Jane Smith

Very RUDE Director (Tammy) and staff. Very short tempered and mean teachers. Our son has been going to Kiddie Academy of Reston for a 3 months now. The owner had been very nice and welcoming during our first visit. However, the director Tammy is extremely rude and unpleasant. Instead of addressing our issues with the teachers, she has been outright nasty with us!!! Some of the concerns we had - the classroom teachers are very short tempered and do not have patience to handle young kids. Young children will try your patience, as we all know. The teacher and assistant just have one or two "favorite" kids in the classroom who they attend to and the others are just there, trying to get by the day. The teachers are incompetent, cannot handle the number of children they are assigned. I saw the teacher pushing away a couple of kids who were being difficult - if teachers do this what will the kids learn?? We witnessed a couple of kids get into fights and the teachers did nothing while watching them. They also dont have stable teachers, too much turnover in just the few months we have been here. And talking to the management is useless - they pay no attention once they have the $$ and are outright mean to you (and possibly to your kid in your absence) I am taking our son out of this place ASAP.

Srivalli Konduri

Owners are very accommodative to parent needs and open to any suggestions. If any issue raised, they are prompt in resolving the issue. I appreciate Ms Kalani, lead teacher in 4 year old for helping my child in transitioning from previous day care, where he had gone through couple incidents and developed a sense of dislike toward day cares. She helped by understanding my sons needs. All other teachers are kind hearted, that is a plus in this institution. Director, Ms Renee communicates well, if kids have experienced with any health issues or accident issues. I would also like to mention about Ms Luz, head teacher in 2 year olds/Mangoes room, I am seeing improvement in my daughters ability to recognize colors, shapes. I have observed that she is able to say her rhymes clearly, start to end. Clean environment and a webcamera, where I can see my kids growing, that is priceless.