Guidepost Montessori at Birmingham

This review is LONG overdue. We have been at Guidepost for about 9 months now and we absolutely have loved every minute of it! My son comes home full of joy, telling me about his day, his friends, and his teachers. I discover things he has learned, his confidence has increased, and he’s consistently amazed me with his language skills! We came from a pretty rough situation in terms of his education but Guidepost has continued to excel in being his home away from home - which is so important when it comes to picking a program for your child! A big thank you to Mrs. Patti, Mrs. Rose, Mr. Nate, Mr. Carter, and all the other teachers that have showed endless kindness and patience for my wild one. We will forever hold you in our hearts!

Our daughter began attending Guidepost 6 months ago and I can honestly say that she has blossomed there. She has hit all of her "milestones" well before expected and is exceptionally smart for her age. As much as I would like to say this is because of my husband and I, that would be a lie. I know it is mainly because of her teachers at Guidepost and the time they have poured into her. I KNOW they love our daughter, just like they love each child in that building. At almost 15 months old she is walking up stairs, eating lunch at a kids table, signing what she needs, saying her colors, signaling for a diaper change, washing her hands, napping on a cot and showing every sign for potty training. While those things are all huge for her age, they barely scratch the surface of what she does day-to-day. She is truly thriving at Guidepost and we are so proud of her. We know she is in safe hands and getting the education she deserves, in a diverse environment. We get daily photos, weekly emails and constant communication if something were happening- like bad weather. While this feels like a nonnegotiable, you don't always get this everywhere and we do not take it for granted. I have waited 6 months to say this... I truly could not recommend them more. I brag about her daycare any chance I get. *Just to note- I rarely, if ever, write reviews... but our daughter is with her teachers more than she is with us some days so I hope this is helpful for others on the dreaded daycare search.

This place is a joke. I wouldn't recommend taking your children here.

My step son went here up until he started kindergarten and let me start off by saying that from the first day we walked in we felt like family, this continued through out our entire stay with Guidepost. Everyone is so respectful, he loved all his teachers, and he’s on a whole other level vs his fellow students when it comes to writing, reading, and even math. I can’t say enough amazing things about Ms Rose and Mr Nate, they communicated exceptionally well with our family the entire time we spent there. If I could rate higher than a 5 I would. Without hesitation, I enroll any of my future children in this school. Just take a tour and see for yourself.

First of all there are some amazing 5+ people here. This is in no way a reflection of some of the wonderful people here. I dare not name the ones I would like to mention, as by leaving some out it may seem they aren't in this category. It honestly bothers me but I feel obligated to leave this review despite the fact that I really do think so highly of some of the individuals here. I'm saddened I can't leave a better review for some of the teachers that I've gotten to know here. 2 in particular...you just won't find better people than some of the staff here. But this is a review for Guidepost Montessori...the organization. I won't get into the specifics of my personal reason for unenrolling my child and leaving this review, but I will just state some undeniable facts...including that despite desperately not wanting to move my child from a familiar place, I simply had no choice. 1. This is a business first...child development center 2nd (or 3rd). They will shuffle your child around like product on display at a retail store as they see fit, disregarding the age appropriate program they should be on. I feel that the teachers and guides do the absolute best that they can, no matter what situations they get put in by decision makers. Personally I just feel they (as a business) prioritize new recruits over current enrollees...this is at the very least a very legitimate observation as several things occurred to bring me to this conclusion. 2. All of the positive reviews between this one and the next 1 star review were bought and paid for with the promise of a Stanley Cup Gift Basket, or are actual staff. Don't believe me...tour this place and learn some teacher names. Also, see if all of the reviews between this and the next 1 star are not from the same week/time period 7/8 months prior to this one. I dare not say some are not genuine, I believe some are, but they were solicited. Where are the reviews 4 months prior....10 months prior? Oh there must not have been a review drive going on then...Stanley cups aren't cheap I suppose. 3. Regional directors are who say what actually goes on and they don't reply. You may get an automatically generated email from time to time, that may even ask for your feedback, but they don't even reply to that. Local administration (whom I feel sorry for) is left to deal with things they aren't even the final say for. I heard "let me check" or "I'm going to have to see" way too much. This doesn't evoke confidence in local administration. 4. If you bring up a concern that you have then please know that there is an extremely legitimate chance that you may get feces sent home in your backpack on the exact day you bring up said concern. This has nothing to do with any health codes or regulations...it was either laziness or done in spite. This never happened in almost a year, but coincidentally happened the exact day I expressed my concerns about my child's situation in person. It's cool though...they will say I'm sorry and move on. So I'll stop there since I can't seem to not mention details of our situation...if you decide to enroll here I hope your situation is better! Just stating some facts. Before someone from the regional office or ownership has a chance to reply to this review and say something professional and reasonable like "we did this" or "we did that" or "please reach out so we can correct" let me beat them to the punch...you had months to reply to my messages and did nothing.

All the positive reviews are from bribing parents to leave a positive review to win a gift basket that included a Stanley Cup that everyone wanted. All positive reviews are from that time period to win a Stanley cup. The teacher to students ratio is insane. Way too many students and not enough teachers. The students are always running around in chaos upon picking them up in the evenings with no teacher in sight. They are constantly losing the kids lunch boxes, clothes, swim towels, etc... They are always sending kids home in the wrong clothes, shoes, etc. even though I sent bag fulls of clothes and extra shoes every day. You can never talk to anyone in charge because they are never available. The teachers act clueless when you ask them questions about anything. They moved our almost 3yr son into a class with much younger kids/babies without our permission which caused him to regress in many areas. We expressed many times that we did not want our son moved without our permission and didn’t want him in a class with babies wearing diapers when he was in the potty training process and needed to be around kids his own age. The kids were not even speaking/talking in this class. After multiple emails, and face to face conversations we decided to un-enroll him. That’s when they decided to move him, because they would be losing a number/money. We loved Ms. Rose, but fortunately our un-enrollment started prior to moving into her class. We are now at a new daycare/preschool and we absolutely love it. The teachers at the new place are very attentive, communicate, send daily updates, use our kids clothes, and never lose anything. They are very big into teaching at the new place which we love. Guidepost Montessori in my opinion is not an actual Montessori teaching school like the one in Indian Springs. You are only paying for the name. I could go on, but I’ll stop here. Just don’t do it!!!!!! Run!!!!

We absolutely love Guidepost! Our 2 year old looks forward to going to school everyday. It is such an amazing environment! She has learned so much and we see the difference it is making. Her favorites are Ms. Susie and Mr. Nate! If I could give 10 stars I would!

Awesome place! We have been bringing our little man (2.5 years old) for the last 4 months. It's been the biggest blessing to have such a loving group of people to watch our child while we work. It puts our mind at ease knowing how happy our little one has been at school and loves talking about his friends and teachers and head of school. He gets the biggest smile every morning when we ask if he's ready for school. Can't say enough positive things about this place.