The Maria Montessori School Of The Golden Gate Co.

Our daughter attends MMGG and we feel that she is getting excellent care and thoughtful teaching from the entire staff. She loves all her teachers. It has been wonderful to see her academic and social growth. We have found that independence, thoughtfulness, and problem solving are being modeled for our daughter and she is in turn modeling those behaviors at home.

Great Preschool. Great location. Great Teachers A coronavirus free school. True Montessori Classroom. There is a lot of love and care given here at MMGG. Tara is an excellent teacher Tara has a great staff, I want to tell anyone reading a review that there is two sides to every story. Montessori is a specialized learning . This school has been around for a long time and has been awarded The best of the best In Montessori every year . Featured In the Best of the Best in the Bay Area Parent: Remember if someone writes a negative review . It may have not been the right fit for there child . So how does one get back at a hard working teacher , write a false- hateful negative review. So ask your questions. But as far as accredited this is one of the oldest and miss prominent Montessori Schools here in San Francisco. Tara is a great teacher!

Our son has been attenting the MMGG for almost a year now and we are happy with his progress. When he started, he had not been exposed to English much and we were worried he would struggle to adapt. On the contrary, after an expected transition period with some tears at drop off, our son is happy, learns a lot, has made many friends that he tells us about, and loves his teachers. We started there in the thick of the pandemic, and I'm grateful that the school has been very careful about it. I'm also grateful to Ms Tara for always listening to my concerns, suggesting solutions, and answering my questions timely. Overall, we've been happy with the experience and plan on bringing our younger here in a year or so

The Montessori philosophy has been instrumental in the development of my children. Ms Tara has been amazing with all the children in her care. She has such a big heart and loves what she does.

Our son attended Montessori of the Golden Gate a few years ago, and absolutely loved it. As parents, we thought Ms. Tara did an excellent job with the students and worked hard to foster curiosity and growth. I was especially appreciative of how much she worked with our family when it came time to apply to Kinder, and she helped with the various recommendations, observations and applications that we needed to fill out. I believe our son entered Kinder ready and excited to learn and very much at an appropriate educational level relative to his peers. To this day, when we walk past the school on the way to the West Portal playground, my son always looks out for Ms. Tara and will wave and say hi if she is there.

We were very excited to start our oldest at MMS of the GG. I’d researched, and thought it had good reviews, and the location was convenient for us. I am choosing to use my real name for this review, because in hindsight, I realize that the majority of the reviews are not, and in fact they seem fake. There were some red flags from the beginning, including the pressure with which the head teacher and Director, Tara, was putting on us for our child to start school, when our child was only 26 months. It felt like Tara was wanting the tuition fees at a time when she was unable to fill the spot with an older child. The co-teachers that are there right now, Tiffany and Allie, are very kind, but a bit soft spoken. I’m not sure how long they have worked there. They interact with the kids, but Tara is definitely the person in charge of her entire room. Though the class is roughly 24 children, I only on one occasion saw both Tiffany and Allie there at the same time. The other children at the school are nice, and seem polite. I saw some harsh treatment of other children when at drop-off and pick-up. The harsh language that Tara used, the rough tone of voice, and raised voice level occurred on approximately 10 occasions, when I was obviously in the room and witnessing the behavior of Tara. One morning, I witnessed another child in the class throwing up in the bathroom. The child then walked to the front of the classroom to drop off his sweatshirt that had vomit on it, and Tara yelled at them saying “why did you do this? You know how to talk! Why didn’t you tell me you were sick?” Our child, after starting at this school, began speaking in more harsh commands at home, for example, spontaneously yelling “No running in the classroom!” Our child was becoming increasingly nervous at drop-off, and sad at pick-up. If I asked Tara a private question about how the day had gone, she would turn and yell across the classroom to ask one of the teaching assistants. I felt it rude that she overrode the sensitive discretion with which I was trying to treat my child. Tara remarked to me on a few occasions that we should have a glass of wine together, which I thought unprofessional. Because we live nearby, there were times we’d walk past the school. On two occasions I saw Tara upstairs from the school (not in the school, but outside the school and on another level of the house), accepting a delivery, during school hours. There are rumors going around right now amongst the parents that Tara had “kicked out a bunch of kids for behavior issues.” It seems if there are personality conflicts, Tara finds excuses to remove children, or families, that she doesn’t like. As stated above, the location is good, and the other children seem nice. But the head teacher is not a good fit with our family. I fear that my child broke a bit inside while attending this school. We are sad to change our course, but relieved to make the change now before further trauma.

Ms. Tara completely changed our lives and the lives of our twin boys for the better. She helped our boys through potty training, and has exponentially accelerated their growth in the short time they have been at MGMM. Tara truly cares about her kids, and I don’t know how she does it, but our boys listen to her more than us! Ms. Tara and Ms. Tiffany must be doing something right, because our kids wake up in the morning and say: “Where are going? Ms. Tara? Ms. Tiffany? Go to school? We are going to school? Yay!! Friends? Go to school!” Tara spends a lot of time preparing creative activities for her kids, and we have seen an amazing development in our boys’ vocabulary, attention span and problem solving skills. Also, I like the fact that Tara doesn’t talk to her kids like babies… she respects them and they respect her…. We are lucky we got in when we did so get yourself on the wait list!

I had the opportunity to attend MMGG when it was pre-k to 8th grade. I had an excellent experience attending this school. The amount of dedication Ms. Tara has for students is wonderful! Tara is one of the most thoughtful and dedicated teachers I know and really cares about her students. MMGG is a great opportunity for children to learn independently, develop skills at their own pace and a chance to experience a small class size. Overall great quality. Positive Quality, Professionalism, Value