Rockridge Little School on Broadway
Community SubscriberOakland, CA
- See other Little School preschools
- June 2024: capacity has increased from 28 to 45
Parent Q&A
Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.We have had our now 4 year-old at Rockridge Little School for 2 years and love it so much that we are enrolling our 1 year-old for the fall (he will start at the Broadway campus and then move to College Ave). The teachers at RLS have been amazing people, and the environment is great. It is expensive, but the fact that they have taken care of their teachers and created a great place for little ones has been worth it to us.
I DO NOT recommend Rockridge Little School. We were only there a short time, but teacher turnover was high, and my daughter regressed significantly with her potty training while there, and they didn't seem to know how to help. And when they closed down the school site unexpectedly, there was not a lot of communication and hardly any advance notice. We did not think they would be upfront with us. The high cost does not seem worth it.
Rockridge Little School (RLS) is an amazing place. My boys attended the College Avenue location. They have cultivated wonderful friendships at RLS and have thrived developmentally. I have had the pleasure of spending ample time at the other locations as well. I am really excited about the newest location on Broadway.
There is an immediate homey magic one feels when entering RLS. The curriculum is play-based and emergent, fostering engagement and excitement. It is clear that it is a space where children can imagine, create, learn, play, and be themselves.
The teachers are creative, observant and thoughtful, musical, passionate, realistic and approachable. Each teacher is encouraged to bring their own personality, flair and talents into the classroom. RLS imparts essential values such as respect, friendship, cooperation and community. They also follow the philosophy of setting the kids up for success. The result is a safe and nurturing environment where the kids are able to learn while getting to move around, have fun and basically just be their best kid selves!
My best friend works there (and the original one too) and she can’t say enough good things about the program. She has over 15 years of experience at multiple preschools so I really value her opinion! We live in Pleasanton now, but are considering moving more north and we would definitely put our 2 year old in one of their programs.
My child attended RLS until the school was shut down due to COVID. I have mixed feelings about RLS.
PROS:
The school did provide a safe, fun, usually engaging day for our child.
Most teachers seemed caring and engaged.
Nice, clean, age-appropriate facilities.
CONS:
- High teacher turnover. When we closed in June last year there was only one remaining teacher from the year prior.
- Poor communication from teachers and management. We were never notified when a teacher was leaving or when a new one was starting. We would just come in one day to someone new with no explanation as to where the other teacher went.
- The second-year we attended they misprinted when Spring Break was for the school and only notified families of this mistake three days ahead of time (when they realized the mistake) after many families had already booked vacation/taken off work. There was never an apology from management about this costly mistake.
- There was poor communication around how the school was handling the COVID shutdown. Instead of info on when they might be able to reopen, or what they were doing to ready the school for return, we received a 45 min video of the owner describing how much COVID has affected her financially. When we tried to reach out for more clarification we didn't get a response.
If you are looking for a school that prepares your child academically for kinder, I'm not sure RLS is your school. It is play-based and does not focus on any academic curriculum. I think it prepared our child for kinder in other ways but not in any academic way. Lynn was a teacher at our location for a while until she left to manage Broadway and we always really liked her. Hopefully, this info is helpful, and feel free to reach out for more info.