The Goddard School in King Farm

[madymama]

Hi,

My child is starting preschool with the Goddard School in King Farm in a little while. I am wondering if other parents send their kids there and what their feedback would be?

We have hesitated a lot between there and a Montessori.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

you should check out some other strings in this forum dealing with preschools in rockville. goddard school has been discussed and it hasn't been all positive.

[madymama]

Thanks I found out some info in the previous threads... I am now officially worried....

[Anonymous]

I have a child who also attends preschool at Goddard. She's been happy, the teachers in her classroom are good, we haven't been affected by any of the drama that has happened in the front office.

That being said - I'm switching preschools for next year. Goddard prices are just too high compared to other preschools in the area and they aren't doing anything that special to justify the high tuition. If their tuition prices would have been more in line with other preschools, I probably wouldn't be switching.

[Anonymous]

hmmm... May I ask where you will send her? and thank you for your advice.

[Anonymous]

Below was my experience and what I personally witnessed at Goddard, King Farm...

* Teacher turnover is extremely high
* Administrative staff turnover is high and from what I understand the owner is very difficult to work with
* Classrooms are full and it is difficult for children to advance to the next class especially since the owner brings in new families first rather than moving children within
* Playgrounds are big and nice however, your child will come home filthy dirty because there is so much mudd and dirt
* On top of enormous tuition you pay there is an additional materials fee/registration fee each year that is extremely high
* There are tons of days when the school is closed for teacher in service days
* If your child has an allergy BEWARE they are very careless. My child has an allergy and I witnessed his teachers giving him a snack he was not suppose to have
* For those of you looking to join BEWARE I have heard that there will be a very substantial tuition hike in September

The money that is paid for tuition is outrageous. You DO NOT get your money's worth. Do not be fooled. I will say that there are some classroom that have wonderful teachers however it is hit or miss.

Bottom line the owner is only interested in how much money he bring in each month.

[Anonymous]

what is the tuition hike going to be?

[Anonymous]

The Goddard School in Rockville is simply not as indicated above. Teacher turnover is not better or worse than many area schools. There are nearly 50 staff members at the school- needless to say, some will leave each year. (Check the turnover in your own companies). The playground takes a beating from the children playing on grass all through the winter. The owner Ross replaces (typically) each year most of the sod on the preschool playground after the winter- perhaps the parent above left prior to the spring installation.

There are registration fees at every school so The Goddard School is no different than others. And with regards to tuition, the fees at the school are comparable to other high quality private preschools - the tuition will always be higher in these types of schools because they are not daycares rather private schools with degreed teachers and approved curriculum through the State Department of Education. Unless you enroll in a co-op where you are donating your time to offset tuition or a church based program, all schools including Montessori are for profit.

The Goddard School in Rockville has a warm, nurturing environment with high academic standards including Spanish and Chinese foreign language, music and an incredible pre-kindergarten arts program. My family has been very comfortable at the school and we are looking to enroll our next child there this fall.

[Anonymous]

I'm a parent of a child at Goddard Rockville and it really seems like someone from Goddard Gaithersburg is trying to sabotage Goddard Rockville in these forums. That really annoys me. Telling people to go search out old negative reviews is petty and lazy. The reality of the situation is, it's 2010 and reviews from 2007 are useless. Go see the school for yourself and don't base your judgements on what some anonymous source says- including me! Or go outside of DC Urban Moms and check out other reviews! (http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3715795404/goddard-school-rockville) It just really bugs me to see a good school be slandered on this site by people who don't even attend the school.

[Anonymous]

...or perhaps someone from Goddard in Rockville keeps bringing back old threads to post very fake sounding positive opinions.

The positive posts about Goddard King Farm, Children's Manor Montessori and the new Family Academy of Bethesda all sound incredibly fishy. GKF and CMM have enough bad reviews, bad inspection violations (in the case of CMM) and enough suspicious posts that I would never consider either of them. I have not seen negative reviews of FAB but it really seems like they have someone pretending to be a parent bringing up how they have availability and here's their website BTW on the school threads. It sounds like a poorly constructed marketing ad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...or perhaps someone from Goddard in Rockville keeps bringing back old threads to post very fake sounding positive opinions.

The positive posts about Goddard King Farm, Children's Manor Montessori and the new Family Academy of Bethesda all sound incredibly fishy. GKF and CMM have enough bad reviews, bad inspection violations (in the case of CMM) and enough suspicious posts that I would never consider either of them. I have not seen negative reviews of FAB but it really seems like they have someone pretending to be a parent bringing up how they have availability and here's their website BTW on the school threads. It sounds like a poorly constructed marketing ad.

Agreed. It would be smarter just to let the threads die.

[Anonymous]

My son has been attending Goddard for the last two years. I am so glad he will be starting kindergarten next year. Frankly I'm not very happy at this school. The owner is a businessman, not a teacher. His focus is making money He does not interact well with the students or parents. He actually called the police and had the police issue $300 tickets to parent who had parked at the handicapped parking to drop off their kids. He has a very antagonistic relationship with the parents. He seems to view us as the problem. I do like the teachers at his school. The classes are huge. I don't know if my son is learning anything special. I like the fact that the building is new and clean.

[Anonymous]

PP is this the Wind River Lane location?

[Anonymous]

My children did attend for a time. While we didn't like the owner, we were not unhappy with the school overall. However we eventually left for a different center which was less expensive, had smaller classes, was open more days, and had a majority of the staff that had been there for 10-20 years! and never looked back. So, this is not a slam but you might look farther..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children did attend for a time. While we didn't like the owner, we were not unhappy with the school overall. However we eventually left for a different center which was less expensive, had smaller classes, was open more days, and had a majority of the staff that had been there for 10-20 years! and never looked back. So, this is not a slam but you might look farther..

PP- may I ask where you went?