Ridgewood Montessori School

The teachers at Ridgewood Montessori are SO wonderful and our two toddlers have had such a warm, safe, and fun experience there! The curriculum and activities are so impressive. We searched far and wide, looking at many schools, and Ridgewood has exceeded every expectation!

Don’t go there, save your money. I’ts an overpriced daycare. $16,000 a year equals false promises. They offer a discount rate when you pay in advanced, but when this facility closed due to the Covid Pandemic, they only gave a partial refund of 25%. They did not offer any credit for the following year. Also, once this happened they refused to return my calls and e-mails for my full refund. They had a gala to raise money for the security of the building. A year later they never implemented any part of the plan. The lost can go on and on. Negative Responsiveness, Reliability, Quality, Professionalism, Value

Beware of the Seedlings room. My child attended during the 2018-2019 school year. On the first day I found out that the teacher from the previous year left and a new teacher started. Even though I was told during my tour that there is a Montessori trained teacher in every room that was not the case. The new teacher was not Montessori certified. Overall I don’t think she should be teaching at all let alone this age group. She always seemed annoyed by the children and she lacked common understanding on how to deal with them. When I visited the class to do an art project she appeared lazy and did not help her group put the art project together properly or help teach them how to do it. My child hated his time at this school and developed a few bad habits to gain attention. Every single morning he would throw tantrums and not want to go. I thought he would get used to it, but he was so bored and frustrated. It was painful to get him inside. I ended up taking him out of this school full time and he went part time because they will not refund your money after December. Even on the last week of school I observed another child crying to her mom because she didn’t want to go in. There is no curriculum so there is nothing to measure what or if your child is learning. I would always ask what they were doing in class, what songs were they teaching them, etc. and I would get a general answer like we do circle time and work with the “materials”. Probing for more information turned out to be useless. This is more of a baby sitting facility than a school. The facility is also not as clean as it appears. Their were 2 rounds of coxsocki that wiped out the whole class, stomach virus that went around, and on the last week Thrush. None of which they alerted the parents about. I am so happy with my decision to take my child out of this place. My child is thriving at his new school. If considering Ridgewood Montessori School, my advice is to wait for Pre-k 4. I’m sure the leadership puts more attention into those classes because the children are verbal and will be able to articulate what goes on all day. Lastly, don’t expect to receive nice art projects that give you insight into what your child is learning in Seedlings. Week after week I would get a folder of water colors splattered on paper and there is 1 easel for 16 kids which means they most likely have to wait all day to get a chance to paint. This is not a fun educational place for this age group.

This school is wonderful. The administration really "gets it" and does everything in their power to provide a loving, nurturing, challenging environment for the students. They are constantly improving the school - both the physical space and the curriculum - bringing in the latest in educational advancements. They recently created a science lab, a makers/technology room and coursework, and brought an engineer in from the Tappan Zee Bridge project. The teachers are happy and dedicated to the success of each and every student. They focus on the the child's total development, giving them what they need to be successful each day. One day it might be a practical life lesson and another day it might mean giving them a hug. :)