Maple Tree Montessori

My child attended Maple Tree for a year and it was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made! Michelle plays favourites and will only provide instruction in reading and language to kids she prefers. My child never worked with her once despite us telling her how much they wanted to learn to read and write. Michelle told us not to work with our child at home because it would “derail and hurt their teaching and set our child back”. When we tried to advocate for our child Michelle got furious with us and said we “communicated too much and over advocated” which was hardly the case given we sent just 5 emails during the year to request feedback and share things our child had told us. There is no yard or playground attached to the school so they walk the children 3 blocks to a public park that has no washroom facilities. This means they don’t bring water for the children and the children are expected to hold their bathroom needs for over an hour or just pee their pants. Our poor child was forced to stay in wet clothes for the entire outdoor time in the winter when they couldn’t hold their need to pee. They were just 3 years old. That is unacceptable! With 34 kids the classrooms are too full and there is not enough support for the students. Children are not allowed to do any activities they haven’t been shown and taught to use so they are stuck doing the same few things over and over and over again and new things are taught maybe every 3 months. Our child complained daily about being bored and wanting to try new things but was never allowed because no teacher would show them how. When we asked about this we were told that they were not ready for them no matter how basic the activity was. My child was stuck doing what amounted to chores all day (dusting, watering plants, polishing with water, and scooping beans) and learnt nothing of educational value! They were not a “favourite” so they were basically ignored the whole year. Our child was scared by Michelle and a couple other teachers like Katie and Andrea (who no longer works there) because they witnessed them yelling at children who misbehaved. I was surprised when my child told me “Ms Michelle is scary and she yells so loud” but I then witnessed it when I arrived early to pickup my child and was sitting outside on the steps. I heard Michelle screaming at the top of her lungs at a child who had been running in the class. She was brutal and continued even when the child was crying, telling them to go sit in a corner and be quiet until their parents came to get them. She doubled down yelling at the child to be quiet when they continued to cry. I was shocked! My child is so terrified of being in trouble and if anyone uses even a firm tone with them they burst into tears and are afraid they will be yelled at. I witnessed Ms Katie telling kids to “go away” when they came up to her to ask for help or show her something they were proud of because she was chatting with another teacher at the park. It was so troubling. Overall I can’t stress enough that this is Not a good place to send your child. I don’t understand how they have been in business for 20+ years but have just 2 reviews on yelp, 1 which is for after hours yoga 15 years ago and No reviews on google. It is very suspicious. I’ve been told Michelle will threaten anyone who writes poor reviews with lawsuits so no one does. There is also zero communication with parents about their child’s progress. Parents are given nothing but a short parent teacher hour where it is a free for all to try and talk with the teachers. Parents have to push their way to talk with the teachers and get maybe 1-2 minutes with the teachers where nothing of real value is shared. The conversations are heard by all other parents standing around waiting to talk to that teacher so it isn’t confidential or anything. It’s so poorly handled. There are no progress reports or work sent home. Nothing to know what your child is working on or how to continue the learning at home because that is a big no no according to Michelle. When we requested a meeting with Michelle to discuss our child and issues we were having we got no chance to actually do that, she spent the entire time complained to us about how unfair the government affordable care act was and that she didn’t make enough money and this and that about how challenging it was for her but then went on luxury trips fo Paris and Hawaii - so clearly she wasn’t doing too badly financially. There are extremely long vacations as well so be prepared to find additional care for 2 weeks at Christmas, a week at March break and again in the summer for 2 weeks. She also has a list of items every parent must bring to give to the school at the start including tissues, and school supplies and parents have to bring a fruit or vegetable daily for the children’s snacks. I hope parents will take this review seriously and consider other options. Teachers who have worked there have nothing but negative things to say as well. I would highly recommend looking at schools like Armbrae, Halifax Grammar, and St Mary’s instead. They are far better in every way