New Horizon Academy

I love my daughter teacher she is awesome she communicate with me daily and address any concerns I have the director Mrs Monica was very helpful with my daughter transition to this new school we loved it here

My son loves going there and he's always learning something new. They have all new toy and feed them a variety of food daily.

I write this review 8 months later because I have been shocked at how impacted my three year old is with his experience at this center. My son attended NHA Lone Tree for several months in 2021. He had a really great transition to the school when it opened, but when the center transitioned him to the three year old room, it was the opposite. He is not a perfect child, and did work with the first teacher around how to cope with negative emotions and transitions-which seemed developmentally appropriate. When the transition occurred, I did leave it to the team at the school to decide what would be best, and they told me they met as a team and thought he was ready and that we would could transition him after he returned from a summer trip, on the day he turned three years old. He spent less than 6 days with the new teacher, and I was called several times for him being unsafe (not listening, trying to hit others, crying, and hitting his own head, which he has never done before). The first day in the new room he came home with a lump on his head. I tried talking to the teacher about strategies to help-transitions are hard for him in general, so it wasn't a surprise he was struggling. The school kept saying "this room is very different than the two year old room", which again, only makes sense that this was difficult-going from a setting where it was less structured to more structured with centers/curriculum. I received reports from the director that the teacher would leave the room crying and needed to take breaks in the director's office because she was so upset about my son's behavior. I was called on the sixth day to pick him up in the morning, and when I arrived, I had a positive conversation with the director, and we discussed strategies that might help. I work in education as a school social worker and was empathetic toward the teacher, as I know it can be hard for a teacher when a kiddo is having a hard time. When I walked in the room, I was shocked. My son was screaming, not in a tantrum, but in terror. The teacher was rolling her eyes, was rude toward me, and made a comment toward my three year old, stating "You got what you wanted, your mom is here." She even negated some of the positive things she had said within the first week, and was very dysregulated in front of me and the other students. I didn't want to keep sending him until we had a problem solving meeting with the teacher to best support my son, so I kept him out for several days until the meeting. At the meeting, the teacher continued to be rude, appeared very cold, she denied she made the comment to my son, and said "I am sorry if you think you heard me say that" and basically said that nothing else could be done, that she couldn't do any more for him and that he needed "one on one attention she couldn't give." The director did not take a leadership role in this discussion, and unfortunately there were no next steps identified to try to best support him. I tried offering research based solutions (i.e. ideas around how to scaffold, use visual supports, build in time to build the relationship--I even created a folder with ways for him to choose positive coping skills)-but was essentially ignored. After the meeting, we decided it was not a good fit, and looked elsewhere. While looking for a new center, I never talked negatively about the teacher in front of my child, and have not brought her up to him or in any conversation around him. He has brought her up multiple times, and has expressed anxiety about switching rooms at his new school (as of last week). He has made concerning statements like "Ms. Rita locked the door" and "Ms. Rita nice to other kids and not nice at me," which really signals to me that he has internalized being treated differently by the teacher, regardless of the intention of her actions. I was extremely disappointed in the lack of support during this transition, and felt that the 'problem solving meeting' was a forced exit, where the teacher gave up after 6 days, and that the center really was not child-centered. Lastly, he is doing great at his new center. He was able to successfully transition to a Preschool room, and vocalizes that he feels loved by his teachers. He did not require a one-on-one teacher and needed an environment where someone genuinely cares about him, as all kids do.

This is a wonderful school. Both our kids attend and love it to pieces. They even ask us to take them on the weekend! Thank you all for creating such a special place.