Fountainhead Montessori School (Orinda Campus)

My son loves FMS. He really benefits from a Montessori environment where he his free to explore so many engaging materials at his own pace. I am really glad he has this opportunity.

This is a wonderful school! I had both of my children go there from 2yrs old up until the 4th grade. Awesome teachers and staff, and the children learned so much! Fountainhead made a huge impact on there lives. I recommend this school to anyone who would like to have their child  have a solid foundation in their education.

Fountainhead was the WORST decision I made for my kid, and luckily this became clear pretty quickly so I was able to move him after his first two months. I urge parents to do their research, ask other parents in social networks and parent groups when considering enrolling their kid there, because I ignored a lot of negative feedback (from friends and other people's reviews) and I ended up regretting it deeply.

There's so much that is wrong with this place, starting with the incompetent, cold blooded and arrogant management, trickling down to the entire school culture, and resulting in a cold and indifferent environment that I could write a short novel about.

Generally, the environment in the school is completely chaotic and disorganized. From our very first day, we started seeing multiple red flags which gradually worsened and escalated in a terrible situation.

My first impression on day one was that they really weren't all that welcoming and warm and pretty much everyone ignored us. I stood there with a child in my arms trying to get some clues from the staff to find out who is who (nobody introduced themselves), where to go, how to sign him in and out, etc. They also didn't have a cubby ready for him which disappointed me a little, because every other school prepares for their first day and makes you feel welcome or expected at the very least. So I stood there at the playground trying to leave a terrified, screaming 3 year old, and his new teacher stood by totally uninterested in helping. After about 10 mins I looked at her in despair asking her if she will help. Sure, I'll help him, she said, so I walked out. A few mins later I watched my kid from the car screaming for another 20 mins totally by himself in the corner again.

On his second day, I sent him with a school lunch but I had forgotten to give him a spoon. He came home with his lunch totally untouched and told me "you didn't send me a spoon, mommy, so I couldn't eat it". So nobody cared to help him obviously and I was quite shocked. I asked his teacher and instead of expressing any concern for the kid, she just said "NO, we don't have spoons here." And on top of that he could never take a nap there, because he still struggles to nap without a pacifier and they won't let him have it even for nap time. So even though he was really tired and cranky, he wasn't given a chance to nap. He did NOT adjust well to not napping by the way.

At this point (one week in) I was really NOT impressed and immediately went to search for open spots at nearby schools and put him on several wait lists. But then I decided to not overthink it and give it a chance to see how things go. Sadly, things turned bitter pretty soon.

Fountainhead offers no comfort, support, and love for the little ones. It is not a safe and happy place. They don't comfort the kids when they cry, they don't show them compassion. (With the exception of a small number of teachers (as far as I know one) if you're lucky to be in their class...we were not).

Kids of all ages get dropped off in the morning at the school yard before 9 am with very little supervision, and nobody to comfort the little ones when they cry.

My little guy who was a totally happy kid at his old school did NOT respond well to this kind of environment. The negative impact it had on him was really alarming. The way they handled the situation was utterly inadequate and incompetent. The director's response: "Obviously Fountainhead can't be everything to every child" (Shandy Cole) was what drew the last straw for me. I had found 5 new options for him 3 days later and was absolutely determined to have him out of there within a week.  The situation escalated quickly and they put me in a very stressful position making a bad situation worse. We ended on a very bad note.

Update: We've been very happy since we left and it was clearly the neglect and toxic environment at the root of the problem. Beware - they kick out kids if parents complain,  I found out 2 kids were kicked out a few weeks before we left. Wow.

I was so excited to find this Montessori school nearby for an almost- affordable rate (one of the lowest tuition rates I found in Berkeley), especially since I grew up in a Montessori classroom... which is why I think my expectations were set so high.
I visited twice. Ashley was so nice and surprised me by offering a mini tour of the campus (I dropped by unexpectedly to pick up information). But while I was waiting for her to prepare the tour, I heard another teacher yelling at a child (aged 2-3 since I was in the younger classroom). She yelled at him three times to "never go into the bathroom without an adult! It's dangerous! I'm going to tell your mommy if you do this again!" Repeated three times. I was shocked because 1) if the bathroom is accessible to young toddlers, that's an adult's fault for not securing it properly 2) her yelling and tone of voice 3) the threatening seemed unecessarily-- it's either serious enough to tell a parent or it's not.
I expected another teacher to intervene, but they allowed this TA to continue lecturing the child for a good five minutes. I saw this same TA speak rather harshly to other children while I was waiting and when I returned for my next tour. I continued my mini tour and was impressed with the few moments I saw of Sahali's classroom before we continued to the older primary classroom downstairs.
Since I'm used to a very calm montessori environment, I was astounded by the utter chaos. It was more of a nightmare daycare environment than a calm classroom. The layout was also horrible, more of a hallway than a classroom. I was also disappointed in the outdoor area. Despite this, I was hoping I had just visited on a bad day so i called administration to schedule a tour and observation for the following week because I really loved what I'd read on their website and thought my child could be happy here.
I'm not sure what was lost in communication... I returned for another tour, but basically received the same mini tour but with less information than when Ashley had given me the tour (Ashley was very informative and eager). Ais was very friendly but slightly less informative and Margaret didn't offer much, although she was very kind to my child. When we toured this time, the classrooms were totally empty. I expressed my disappointment-- I really wanted a good understanding of how the classrooms operated because I was seriously considering sending my child there. Ais responded beautifully and arranged an observation right then! I really appreciate that she went beyond my expectations in that way. Sahali was patient with the kids and amazing. But after settling in to observe, a few things started to bother me. There was supposed to be a teacher and two TAs, but the entire time I was there I didn't see the 2nd TA. Most of the materials didn't seem authentic and lacked sophistication for this age group. Most of the kids seemed to be using work sheets without materials (to learn sounds like "ow" and "ee"). Several children doing these worksheets expressed their boredom (and looked miserable), I was surprised the teacher didn't offer materials to aid them and make the work more interesting, but I also didn't see these materials available. Very Not-Montessori. Meanwhile, my child sat at the snack table for 20 minutes hunched over with her back to me. I was trying not to disturb the students, so when I noticed this odd behavior I tried to figure out what was going on from across the room. The teacher walked by and seemed unbothered. The assistant also walked by, talked to the students, and walked away. When the teacher left (only one TA remained in the classroom)and didn't return for several minutes,  I finally went over to see what was going on and found her crying! Kids were making fun of her and wouldn't let her eat snack. The TA had told them to let her have snack, but didn't intervene or tell me.
We left immediately.
If you're looking for daycare, you'll like Fountainhead Montessori. But if you want an authentic Montessori experience for your child look elsewhere.

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