Bon Air Presbyterian Church

I have never attended church services here. I attend the AA meeting here in the gymnasium on Friday nights at 7pm. I highly recommend it if someone is looking for a good open speaker meeting on Friday nights. They have 2 short speakers at the beginning, then take a break and have the main speaker at the end. The best AA speaker meeting in the Richmond area, in my humble opinion.

My family had a horrible experience with a teacher here. She physically restrained our granddaughter & then the school denied it, after we saw it. Since this incident, other mothers have shared their child was also mistreated by this teacher. She’s still there, to my knowledge. There is also no curriculum and the children are not taught basics. They claim to offer the Reggio Emelia approach, but that equates to the children roaming wildly in the woods by the property on a daily basis. They rarely had projects that were educational. Very poorly managed.

BAPP is an amazing school. It is a place where kids get to be kids in all the best ways. My eldest went there and my youngest is in her last year. It truly is/was a safe space for my children and myself. I am going to miss it once my youngest is done. They do a great job of setting the children up for independence. My sister, who was a kindergarten aide, said that when my eldest was 4 she was already well ahead of many kids she saw coming into kindergarten every year. She was able to handle herself, use thing like scissors and other implements, and basically be very responsible for herself. She did amazing in kindergarten and I have BAPP to thank for that.

The Preschool BAPP at Bon Air Presbyterian Church is a horrible school. There is no curriculum or preparation for kindergarten. I personally caught one teacher physically reprimanding my daughter when I came to pick her up early for not feeling well. This particular teacher has a history of grabbing and physically restraining children, as another boy had something similar happen which I was told later by the boys mother. The school director completely dismissed my concerns and account of the incident. The school downplayed the incident to CPS when I reported it. When I wrote the pastor and the board to detail the horrid events my family encountered at this school, the pastor never responded. I know several families who pulled their children out of the school for various reason in the bluebirds class alone. Please avoid this preschool at all costs.

I've only visited the Helen White playground, a very large and imaginatively rendered area with lots of different structures to keep children happy and engaged. Besides climbing structures and swings, there are tunnels, bridges, balance beams, and water play. Most of the equipment seems to be constructed by volunteers and are creatively made. One should respect the times when it is in use by the church, but other times it is open to small guests.