Highland Pre-School

We have been so impressed at the level of care and education our children have received from Highland Preschool and its teachers. We first fell in love with the preschool 7 years ago with our first born and never hesitated for a moment to enroll his sister for her two blissful years. Fast forward to today and our third looks forward to her days at school under the guidance of Tammi and her team. It’s a beautiful thing to have a positive experience and then be able to relive it year after year with each kiddo. We highly recommend the school and its staff- you don’t get to be one of the most sought after preschools for 40 years and counting without providing the utmost care.

Facility and program appeared great with awesome reviews. The only prerequisite for our 3yo is that she was toilet trained which surprisingly she did very quickly. Our child had only previously been at home with a very general schedule and no previous experiences with daycare or another preschool. Drop offs were difficult but via an app we were sent daily updates and pictures. After 4 days her transition was less and she even joined in morning circle time. I was told by another teacher by the end of the week that our daughter needed 1:1 care which could not be provided. Program director reached out and she couldn't communicate with the other children (she is the youngest of six and her speech can be unclear however, nothing was said when we did a tour, met with both teachers during open house where our daughter "talked" with all of them. We even listed communication as a wish for her on these little suncatchers we made during open house.) She was also being "unsafe." The only specific instances that were given was that she was not joining in for snack time and would run around the room. Nothing towards other children or staff. Just generally "unsafe." A refund was offered and recommendation for an eval by a child developmental specialist. I found it odd that it still didn't demonstrate necessarily unsafe behaviors considering my childs background and after going back and searching further in the Google results I saw this was the site of an unfortunate accident last year. Instead of reevaluating ratios or being upfront with parents about a four day trial for your child, they go straight to your child may have developmental issues and they are too much for us to handle. It was determined over a phone screening that four days was not sufficient to make such a decision not to mention on the last day of the week she willingly started to adapt to their schedule. This place does seem phenomenal but we were completely blindsided and the refund came with a handwritten note apologizing for not meeting the "developmental needs" of our child. By any means if your child has been used to a structured environment away from parents this would be a good fit for you which is why they get two stars instead of one.

I looked at all the preschools in the area before choosing this one for my son. The teachers are amazing, the space is very cosy, and they have an amazing program. The hours aren't that convenient, but I am very glad that we were able to make it work because it was the perfect transition for my son from daycare to school.