Cottage School at Gatewood

[Liz]

Does anyone know anything about the Cottage School at Gatewood?

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[KatHP]

Although I do not know what Cottage School is like today, we tried their preschool program back in March of 2006. After the fact I’d found out that only months prior to our enrollment there was a huge turnover in staff there, including the director, who left after a disagreement with Cottage School Management re: focus of the program. The turnover there during the short period of time our son attended (less than three weeks!) was frightening: there were no fewer than FOUR staff changes during this time.

Our son would bawl most every morning when we’d drop him off, and he was used to being taken to a caregiver, so it wasn’t as if separation anxiety was the issue. The experience was so horrible that I pulled him out a little after two weeks’ time.

While on Kindergarten tours in Feb 2007 I toured Gatewood and was able to talk to one of the long-time parents there about what the deal has been with Cottage School. She herself had pulled her children out, unhappy with them. I’m sorry I can’t remember the details of what she’d told me. Her children were older than mine at the time.

I’m not sure if your child is older or is preschool-aged like mine was, but after the Cottage School fiasco I ended up trying the Sanislo location of the Community Day School Association (CDSA). My son thrived at CDSA – he loved it. It’s a bit physically cramped but the teachers were wonderful, loving, and very engaged with the children. As an aside, the “student” population there was much more diverse than what I found at Cottage School, something I was very happy about.

Maybe Cottage School has pulled it together over time and they’re currently a great place to have your child. However, if history is any barometer, it would be worthwhile to ask Cottage School if they could put you in touch with some parents of the program who could give you the inside scoop.

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[Liz]

Wow thank you so much for the scoop!

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[flowerpetal]

CDSA also has a site at Highland Park Elementary.

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[therese]

I can’t speak to the preschool program at Cottage, but my daughter went to CDSA Highland Park for pre-K, and is now at Gatewood for kindergarten and goes to Cottage School for after school care. She had a good year at CDSA, though there was a lot of staff turnover there during the year. Only one person who started the year was there at the end, and she had gone from teacher to administrator. Our experience at Cottage has been mediocre — it’s not the highlight of our kid’s day, but rather a convenient necessity for us working parents who can’t be home by 3:00 when school gets out. The kids get plenty of time to run around outside and blow off steam, plus indoor activities and reading time. There was a lot of turnover in the Cottage afterschool staff during the first half of the year, but since the Xmas break things have stabilized. A new director also started about that time. The two afterschool teachers are recent college grads who seem to have a good rapport with the kids. I don’t know enough about the preschool to say whether I’d send my younger there when he’s old enough – will have to explore more.

Unfortunately I think staff turnover is a reality at many preschools due to the dismal pay.

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