The Goddard School

As the mother of two children enrolled at The Goddard School, I am extremely pleased with the school’s environment and services. The leadership, staff, and teachers are highly professional, attentive, and consistently kind to my children. Their care, behavior, and dedication toward the students are truly commendable. The curriculum is excellent, providing effective and engaging learning experiences, and the quality of nutrition is very good. Overall, I am thoroughly satisfied with all the resources, support, and educational opportunities the school provides to the students.

Your program promotes a wide range of activities aimed at supporting children's development; however, I have not seen any of these reflected in my daughter’s experience. Every time I visited—at different times at morning —I consistently observed the same scene: children engaged in unstructured free play on the rug. On one occasion, my husband found our daughter simply watching a video on a laptop during pickup. Moreover, my daughter has never brought home any meaningful work or learning materials—only a colored sheet. There has been no evidence of planned activities to support her cognitive, emotional, or motor development, or of any curriculum-based learning as advertised. During her three weeks of attendance, I saw no structured learning environments or materials aligned with developmental goals. The daily reports you provided only show my daughter sitting on the rug with toys—activities that can easily be done at home. This does not justify the cost nor the expectations set by your program. Additionally, it is evident that your facility lacks both the staff and environment needed to foster fine motor skills, cognitive growth, or any significant educational development. There also appears to be a lack of preparation and sensitivity toward welcoming new students—particularly those beginning their first school experience. Your staff demonstrated no strategy for inclusion of children who speak a language other than English. While bilingualism is not a requirement, if a child who speaks Spanish is accepted, your team should be capable of supporting their transition. Unfortunately, that was not the case. There seems to be no effort to understand or engage with the families either. I am an involved parent with both the time and interest to support my daughter's educational process, yet I never saw any genuine effort from your team to connect with or understand her needs. The overall attitude appeared to be one of simply offering basic care, assuming most families leave their children out of necessity and expect no more than supervision. I requested a meeting to better understand my daughter’s progress and to express my concerns that I was seeing nothing more than a care space with no structure, stimulation, or educational development. Your response was to tell me that my daughter was not participating because she didn’t understand English. This explanation was not only dismissive but irrelevant. My clear and specific concern was the lack of preparation, planning, and delivery of structured, pedagogically sound activities—something your center claims to provide. Unfortunately, that promise was not fulfilled. I could go into further detail, as there were several other concerning issues. For example, on multiple occasions, I witnessed or received reports that the teacher raised her voice at the children inappropriately. We were also charged additional fees without justification and had to raise complaints in order to have them corrected. When I asked my daughter about the activities she did during the day, she rarely mentioned anything that matched what was reported in the daily sheets. This leads me to believe that much of what is being offered is simply not true. The program does not include qualified instructors or teachers for yoga, music, or other extracurricular enrichment activities as promoted in your advertisements

We had tried another daycare for our newborn son and were not happy with them. There was a world of difference when we joined The Goddard School, in the best way. The staff is very friendly and helpful, the facilities are great and all the teachers are wonderful. Our son loves his teacher Miss Hafida, she is so positive, patient and kind with him and she has them create the best arts and crafts projects to give as gifts. We have great peace of mind each day we drop our son off that he gets the best care and daycare experience he can.

2025 Update: still very happy with Goddard school. As my child has grown, I’ve noted Ms Huda, Ms Stacy, and Ms Amy have also been excellent. The team has worked with me when my little has had issues at home and are communicative if they see anything concerning in class. The school has lots of events (class parties, trunk or treat, cookie exchange) that can also get parents involved should you choose. My child still loves going to school. I am so thankful we found this school! My 2 yr old needed to learn how to socialize with children her age and I needed to be able to work from home in peace. Ms Lashawn and Ms Nikita are amazing--both have helped me feel confident my child is in great hands. Ms Lashawn has been a great help with what to work on at home, specifically several great potty training tips. My daughter was drawn to Ms Nikita from day one, and is always particularly excited to see her, which helped the transition from home to school. Additionally, all the staff here seem to know EVERY child by name. The whole team works well together to provide the balanced environment I needed for my child.

Everyone that works at the Goddard School of Lake Ridge is so kind, approachable, and relatable. My daughter constantly surprises me by how much she's learning thanks to Mses. Amy, Michelle, Maria, and Jasmine keeping her interested and motivated in the classroom. My infant son is happy to go to daycare here and smiles at all of the lovely caretakers in Ms. Hafida's room every morning. I'm so happy I made the space in my budget to bring my kids here; I have no regrets and I wouldn't change a thing.