Providence Preparatory School

We love PPS! Both of our boys have attended this school. The curriculum and the creativity are exceptional. Our oldest son graduated and is now in kindergarten and is truly excelling. We are grateful for the amazing foundation that PPS gave him. Teachers love the children and the children love them just as much. The school's facility and grounds are extremely top- notch and impressive. The play grounds are designed with a child in mind- and are Modern, environmentally friendly and encourage creativity all while being very safe.The classrooms are good sized, inviting, full of natural light and even real fish. The rooms are designed to benefit children's development. I personally love the real birds enclosure and the Discovery Den. Take a tour, you'll be impressed.

We love this pre-school. The staff are very good with our daughter and the place is always spotlessly clean! The progress our daughter has made over the last 18 months while a student at PPS has been astounding - we have such a great relationship with her teachers and leadership at this school. Highly recommend!

This is by far the best daycare in Charlotte run by two great people. I have three children and have had them in 4 other daycares in the area. I've researched countless others. This daycare has amazing facilities and teachers and extracurriculars and administration and... It's such a relief that my children love going to school (sometimes ask to go on Saturday). It's also a relief to see how well they are prepared for the future during this key developmental stage of life. PS the landscaping is amazing too. And the organic gardening. And weekly water play. And haircuts on site. And soccer shots on site. And Charlotte Ballet on site. And even child yoga on site. Seriously one of a kind.

As a science/environmental educator I am so impressed with PPS and all the love and creative offerings for children. The new Discovery Room and the children's interest-centered approach to education is benefitting my grandchildren in all aspects of their young lives. My grandchildren cannot wait to see what is in store for them each day in a pre-school experience that is exemplary! Thank you to all who contribute to their experience--owners, teachers, staff, cooks, specialists and of course, children and parents!

This school is truly extraordinary. We could not be happier. Our son becomes so attached to his loving teachers that we don't want him to grow up to the next classroom, and then the same thing happens with the new teachers. The ownership team Sandy and Betsy are just warm hearted people and the new management team under Courtney is easy to talk to, great with teachers, and great with addressing all of the questions and concerns that all parents have about how their baby is doing! We have and will continue to recommend PPS to our closest friends and family as it is a really special community to be a part of. My favorite part of the school is the outdoor space that is just a toddler dream! I have not seen anything else like it in Charlotte.

Our toddler son attended PPS from the day they opened and I was so excited about this promising new day care that I recruited quite a few of our friends to leave our daycare for PPS. There were many many problems--mostly small things. One of the reviewers covered some. I felt forgiving, but would talk with the director occasionally when serious problems presented. After 8 months or so, Sandy, the owner, called my husband and said they were kicking us out of the daycare--literally, asking us to LEAVE the daycare! LOL, I asked my husband if you "can" get kicked out of daycare. Like: we pay the bill every month, right?! Well, it happened, and it was nothing short of shocking and plain weird. The owner was vague about the reason, but alluded to the fact that it wasn't appreciated that I would talk to the director about the problems the daycare was having th. I still don't really understand "why" this transpired, but it is what it is. I am a nice woman and always respectful, not like some parents, and never felt like my talkis with the director were a problem. I have been criticized for being too nice, so I don't think the problem was with me but who knows. The director seemed open to talking. I can't say improvements were made after our meetings, but still there was no unpleasantness, and it was a warm relationship. Dawn was the director but I have heard she has been terminated. Regardless, she would tell the most wild stories to explain why your kid got hurt on the playground, but then her story would be different from the teachers story and she was just hard to believe. The teachers in my son's classroom loved him and raved about how sweet he was and what a good helper, and told me he was the popular kid in class. I was just shocked at being asked to leave. It's not like he hurt anyone or there were any class problems to speak of. I established relationships with the parents and my son had friendships. Explaining to friends that we were being kicked out for a reason that I couldn't specifically explain was weird and incredibly embarrassing. We were always very generous with the teachers, doing nice (and expensive) things for the holidays and birthdays and donated items to the class room that they asked for for art projects of whatnot. I figure that preschool teachers probably don't make much money and the job is hard, so to express our gratitude we were generous. I became running partners with one teacher. My point is there was nothing wrong that I knew of and being kicked out without notice was a complete shock. We also had a logistical problem: my husband and I both work and we had no child care. As many know, Charlotte child care wait lists can be years long. I took a week off which meant canceling meetings and flights, and I began visiting day cares and spent almost $1000 getting on a bunch of waitlists. We couldn't find anything above a 4-star rating in a 25 minute drive and ended up getting a nanny, who we still have and love. But our childcare cost went from $1500/month to almost $3000/month, plus the vacation time I spent finding replacement care in a pinch. It was not easy or pleasant. I was mad, to say the least. This review is written almost a year later, so consider this is measured reflection on what happened. I guess what I'm saying is that PPS created a huge problem for us financially--it just screwed us to completely change our childcare cost and schedule--again, without notice. Imagine if this happened to you! Most people couldn't accommodate their child care costs doubling with no notice. I had to stop contributing to my 401k to pay for the nanny, but TMI. We also prepaid for the whole year of soccer class and the gym class they have at PPS, so we lost that money too! That alone was hundreds. I feel sick to add the total in my head of how much this place cost us in the end. Thousands. But the thing that broke our hearts was the fact that our son wasn't able to go to school with his friends, some who he shared a class with since infancy because so many friends came to PPS with us. It was incredibly sad and he had some behavioral problems in the transition away from day care to the nanny, and was always asking about his friends. I was just sick over it. I didn't know what to do or what to tell him. I wouldnt recommend this daycare. There were positive aspects but what happened to us, making us move our son from his friends, and us paying out the nose for the nanny, really hurt us a many ways and there was no good reason for it. In fairness, there was one good and unique thing PPS (maybe) did: have toothbrushes for the kids to brush after lunch. Whether the toothbrushes got used is doubtful since my childs brush was always in the exact same spot in the box with the others, but the thought that they were brushing was cool.

Our child has been at PPS for three years. PPS is not perfect but it has been great for us. I am confident that our child is safe and nurtured at PPS. The team has been OUTSTANDING during COVID-- great communications and protocols. I can't imagine what we would do without this school over the last 9 months.

Good things: healthy food, new and clean facility, offers soccer / hair cuts / gym activities / coffee for parents Bad things: astronomical teacher turnover and classroom instability due to turnover; expensive compared to similar facilities; teachers let young kids watch movies to give themselves a break. We experienced problems with our child being hurt most days of any given week (large, bloody scrapes, deep, bruising bites from others kids, sometimes with broken skin), but the teachers rarely reported seeing these things happen or record them on incident reports. This is concerning from a infection control perspective (open wounds + other kids' body fluids). My fundamental expectation is that my child be safe at day care, barring minor and occasional incidences, and this place is disappointing on that account. Don't know if this is an across the board experience in all classes...Important to note: this day care was founded expressly to bring children into the southern baptist church--that may be desirable for some families, but not for others.

I'm writing as a prospective parent having looked at many early learning centers in recent months and PPS is ok but nothing special. The tour was actually one of the most un-engaging and unorganized I've been on. Our guide certainly didn't try to sell me on the program. The classrooms are very large and spacious which is a huge plus and the children had a lot of visual stimulation. All good things. When I asked about the curriculum, since this is what they say they are attuned to, nothing was really mentioned specifically other than preparation for kindergarten. So how are you preparing them? I did ask about technology and was told that there is one iPad per room that the kids can use. That's not technology as a teaching tool.There was tremendous emphasis throughout the tour that children could get their haircut and they would take my laundry for me. Big deal. I learned more about that than I did about what I would consider pertinent information.There are many wonderful child care facilities in the area that are much nicer and truly focus on what's most important, your child. I agree with many of these reviewer's comments and we ultimately placed our child in another location -- and we're thrilled b/c he's learning, he's comfortable and we know he's cared for and cherished each and every day.

After one week of my niece being in the 1year old classroom, she was walking and talking more than she ever had before! The teaching staff is very friendly and knowledgable and the school if clean and beautiful! I would recommend this school to anyone with a small child.