First United Methodist Learning Center Preschool

We recently had to transfer our daughter from this VPK program. There was no communication with parents. The church fired the most amazing director and then months later two wonderful teachers resigned and although nothing was provided to the parents we can only assume it was due to the negative work environment. I felt as though my child was not safe here. At the beginning of the year the church let a homeless woman remain on campus and the only reason they stopped her was because they were called out on it during a parent meeting. Police were called to the school previously as well and the parents were not informed. I highly recommend looking elsewhere for child care and schooling.

My daughter is in their 3 y/o preschool class with Ms. Heather and she loves it! She’s excited to go and is so happy after she leaves. Recommended to anyone looking for a solid preschool in the historic winter garden area.

I'm sharing my experience with this place so that other parents will hopefully not have a similar experience. Choosing a preschool for your child is already such a difficult experience when you're doing it for the first time. I chose this school based on a low student to teacher ratio clean facilities and the beautiful playground that I thought my daughter would enjoy. On meeting the staff I thought they were marginally friendly and warm and decided to move forward with enrolling my child here. However I had a first a good first day experience. At drop off they were very responsive and although I had to leave my child crying within 5 minutes they sent me pictures of her painting and seeming to be doing okay. At the time of pick up they gave me a report of how she did a verbal reports that was brief but sufficient. The second day was an entirely different experience. I left my child crying again and she was rushed off to the classroom no warmth was shown. I didn't receive a single picture all day or a single report of how she was doing. When I came to pick her up I asked how she was doing and got a one-word response which was well. However my child was distressed and crying. I was not able to get any information from her because she is newly 3 years old with a bit of a verbal delay and not able to answer questions of that sort. To this moment I have no idea what transpired during my child's day because there was absolutely no communication. I emailed the teacher to try to get some more information espressing my concerns about Phoenix's emotional state at pickup and the lack of information. Instead I got an email back from the director assuring me that their staff is very caring and responsive. It honestly came off slightly defensive. But the worst part is that they told me based on me having questions and concerns that my child was not a good fit for their school. I would be warnedy of any establishment that discourages you from expressing questions or concerns about your child. Does not respond to your questions in a specific manner and promptly tells you they're not a good fit for your child just based on you asking questions. I would also be wary of any establishment that does not give you a daily report of how your child did that day especially in the first week or the second day. I understand after a few weeks you may not get a report unless something out of the ordinary happened but on a second day I expect a little bit more. There are some other concerns as well with behaviors my child was exhibiting that caused me to believe that she was repeatedly being told to sit down and the staff was placing their hands on her in the manner to make her sit. Because I'm not able to openly communicate with the staff I'm not able to get any further information as to what this looks like so I have nothing to go by but what I am seeing. I am not accusing them of being anyway physically aggressive towards my child I am a trusting person and I don't believe that they would intentionally hurt any child. But the lack of care and warmth from them as well as lack of communication responsiveness and being dismissed from the school promptly when asking any questions are all very concerning to me. Proceed a with caution

My child has been at this school for 2 years. We thought she was being taught all these things like they said they did in the classes she was in each year , but when it came time to interview for her kindergarten at a new school she did not know a single thing, things that the Learning Center was supposedly teaching her. I would warn parents to make sure that your kids are actually learning what they say they're being taught. I reached out and they said she had been struggling & but were gonna let her eventually "figure it out." If they knew she was struggling I don't know why they never mentioned it. She never "figured it out " because 2 school years later she was still struggling & never "figured it out", I wish we knew in advance we would have gotten her help or something. The lack of communication is upsetting. If I wanted her to just play all day and learn nothing I would have kept her at home for free.

We had our daughter in school at TLC from the time she was one in their MMO program until she graduated from VPK and had only wonderful experiences with all of the teachers. Our younger daughter will be attending here as soon as she is old enough.