Bell Tower School

I never had to create a Unilocal account because I never I had the need to. (This should tell you something)
First and foremost I contacted the school several weeks ago about my nephew enrolling in this school, I have a Friend who has two kids currently under the daycare portion of the school. The school was more than willing to accept new applicants. My sister went (alone) and was honest about my nephew. He is not mental deficient or retarded by any means. She told the principal this prior to applying. His only issue is his communication (verbal)portion about putting sentences together. We figure a bilingual school, perfect they can work with him! She was refer to an additional education center that’s part of this school, she made appointment to bring my nephew. Once she talked to someone there they refuse to meet with her because my nephew didn’t have any mental disability, handicapped or retarded (as they put it). My sister contacted BTS again to come in and continue with application process ($ 50 fee just to apply). She waited a week to hear from them before calling them to see what was the status or if additional paperwork needed it to be submitted. She was basically told her application was rejected because of my nephews speech/​communication problem. Principal has never met my nephew, you would think some face to face interview to see him first to even make that your ONLY consideration to not accept him. He doesn’t need to be taught color, numbers, letter and even reading, he KNOWS all of that already, he probably knows way more than most first graders with his math skills. The issue here is why not meet the child before you reject the application? My sister is a single mother and working long hours to make sure she can provide to her son for some school to think they are above everyone! Not every kid comes perfect to the school! That’s the whole point of getting good schools to work with them. He is a nice kid and pretty smart, and we were looking forward to him learning mandarin! At this point the principal has failed to answer any of our calls over a week now. If she already made up her mind about taking in my nephew why have my sister apply? Just to collect an application fee? Right now I don’t even care if he goes to this school. I just want people to know, we don’t know what the principals issue was with my sister or nephew (which he never met). Especially from an immigrant principal with an accent, she is not perfect by any means, gives her no right. We are not sure if she was discriminating against us because we we are not white or Asian, we are not rich but we can sure pay for his education. By the way he is in preschool in a different school, a little over 5.5 years old. Sweet kid, but maybe this school is NOT good for him.

The most unique and innovative school that LA has to offer.
I am writing this Unilocal Review as a parent of a three and four year old. My daughter is part of the Sr. Preschool, she is 4 years old, and my son is in the Jr. Preschool, he is 3. We are a bilingual family, at home we speak both Spanish and English. This gives you a vantage point for this review.
We chose this school for our two preschoolers because A) it offers a trilingual curriculum B) it incorporates performing arts C) it offers a rigorous academic school environment for toddlers.
To begin, I love the trilingual program. My daughter comes home teaching me a new Mandarin word each day. I like that half of the day is Spanish and the other half is in English. My kids get an hour of Mandarin a day and the Mandarin teachers are really enthusiastic and willing to educate the parents who do not speak the language. The regular day teachers, who are bilingual, are all very educated, are well trained and good with the kids. The school not only teaches the 3 languages but they incorporate culture into the classrooms. The school fundraised enough money and were able to buy technology for each classroom. They use Apple TV to show the kids cultural songs and videos. My 4 year old is able to read all letters in English and she knows the sounds and writes them. She is also able to identify 95% of the letters in Spanish, 80% of their sounds and can write the words if she hears the sounds. My son has a strong pen and pencil grip, can identify shapes and colors in Spanish and English and knows some letters in both languages.
Second, their performing arts program is very fun and interactive. Students get to sing songs in the different languages and do cultural dances. During the year the students are practicing these dances with other classmates and then there is a big performance, once each semester. The kids get custom fitted outfits for these shows and parents and other family members get assigned seat in local school auditoriums. Unfortunately, this comes at an additional price. But the students, even as young as they are, feel empowered, confident and independent when they are on stage performing for their loved ones.
Third, the schedules provided for the pre k kiddos are rigorous and academically challenging as well as engaging and interactive. My daughter at the age of 4 knows letters and numbers in both English and Spanish and completely understands both languages. Of course, since we live in an English speaking society and the kids in the school all speak English, both of my children speak stronger English than Spanish. But at home we speak Spanish so we are constantly encouraging our kids to speak in Spanish. The students also learn about culture in different places in the world and watch little informational videos about them. They also celebrate different cultural holidays with cultural foods, clothing and customs (Chinese New Years, Cinco de Mayo, Christmas, Easter, etc.). They have science as well where students are planting seeds and watching seeds grow, attending veterinary clinics meeting veterinarians in a surgical setting, making aquatic models in water bottles with food coloring, water, sand and little glitters. They do art daily with paper mache, painting (and I mean really painting with little smocks and everything). My 3 year old has become quite the artist and his fine motor skills have really developed. Did I mention they have their language and dance each day along with all these other activities? The kids are definitely busy and they are growing physically and mentally. (they get an 1.5 hour nap each day which im really big on for neuroligical development).
Teachers I recommend from my expereince are:
Sr. Preschool: Ms. Perez
Jr. Preschool: Ms. Carmona and Ms. Ramirez
Mrs. Spik the prinicipal is very organized and is awlays looking out for the best interests of the students and she knows all the kids’ names in the school. she is willing to help families that are financially struggling and she is always striving to help the school grow to its best potential.
The price is more than reasonable for all they have to offer. I would give an additional star if they had more teachers, like teachers aids for the younger grades, but I would rather have a few highly qualified staff members that truly cared about my kids over many staff members who don’t have a genuine connection with my kids.

My daughter has been going to BTS since kindergarten. So far it’s been five great years with her in the school. They have truly treated my daughter like their own. The academics are great and it’s a multilingual school with English, Spanish and Chinese (Mandarin) classes. The school also excels in Performing Arts putting on two big shows a year showcasing the kids singing and dancing in all 3 languages. The combination of all of this gives great confidence for the kids. BTS is a private school with high standards. Before we took our daughter to BTS we visited other private schools in the area in Pasadena and Alhambra, some of which have been around for a while. I was not nearly as impressed with these other schools. They appeared to have no structure for the kids and it the academics where not what they should be. I felt like these were schools for parents that wanted something «easy» and not so challenging for their children. BTS is a solid school with proper balance and structure. My child has always gotten great individualized attention with the proper size of the classrooms never being too big. This has given my child a great advantage as she and her classmates don’t get lost in a big crowd. The staff are great in accessing the needs of the children individually and communicate on a regular basis with the parents to work together in whatever your child needs help with.
Most importantly the parents are great as well, which makes it a good community that all share the same goal of giving our children something extra in their elementary school experience. I highly recommend this school if you want the best for your child. It is challenging enough to push your child to perform their very best in academics, but also a school that your child can feel right at home and know all their classmates as their close friends. If your goal is to give your child that extra edge and set them up for the proper so they will succeed for the rest of their academic career, BTS is your school hands down. There is no other school that can match BTS and the price is well worth it for your child’s future.

BTS is the brainchild and labor of love of its headmistress and founder, Ms. Adriana, who I met a few years ago when she was my oldest daughter’s teacher at another school. At that time, I was impressed with with her energetic devotion to her students and with her competence in both English and Spanish. Since then, Ms. Adriana opened BTS to educate a new crop of kids in three of the most widely-​used languages in the world, English, Spanish, and Mandarin, using speech, writing, music, dance, and art to cultivate all the regions of the developing brain. Now my younger daughter (enrolled in Pre-​K), along with two of her cousins (in Kindergarten and First grade, respectively), is blossoming at BTS!
Of note, my youngest daughter has been correcting my Spanish pronunciation, as she is apparently learning the Argentinian version (yes, she sounds just like Pope Francis).
Also, the BTS kitchen serves meat products, including pork, so kids on healthier diets or religious restrictions need to pack their own lunches, at least some days of the week.

My 3 children have attended this school for well over 3 years.
The best thing about the school is the staff, they are so loving and each morning when I leave my children there I truly feel like I have left them with family. The director of the school is only an email or phone call away in case you ever have any questions. You can also drop by anytime as they have an open door policy for enrolled families. This school is constantly growing and changing, always reshaping to adapt to our children’s needs.
When I was searching for a school for my children I knew I wanted a place where they felt safe and definitely a school where learning is a priority. I didn’t want my children to just be baby sat. We believe our children need to be even more prepared then we were. In colleges and universities, even in high schools there is so much competition. This is definitely a school that focuses on academics. Based on state testing scores my children 1^st grader is at 3^rd grade level, 3^rd grader is at high school level and 5^th grader is at high school level & post high school level. These are real scores that any parent considering the school can ask to see. This alone is a reason to consider this school, but there are even more reasons. My children love their school. They look forward to being there and being with their friends. When the end of the school year is near they become sad to know it means time away from friends. The children at the school are so close and more importantly they are so inoccent. It’s rare to see boys age 10 & up still hug each other goodbye in a school setting. But I’m happy to know my children are in an environment that keeps them being kids, unconditional sweet innocent kids. And also kids that know how to be dedicated and work hard. I’m really sad to think about the day when my children outgrow the school. I only wish they would go up to high school.
Just a last note, besides being trilingual they offer arts, including dance, drawing, painting & performance. All children can participate.

My son is in the preschool program at BTS.
Is it very academic? Yes. This may not be a good match for every child, but for our family and for my son it has worked out. He is being challenged, he is having fun learning, he is gaining confidence from his accomplishments, he is learning the value of hard work, he looks forward to going to school, and most of all he knows that he is loved and accepted by the faculty and his classmates.
And they play here and have fun. A lot. I’m really happy w/​the sensitivities of the program and the teachers to these little ones and their need to sometimes squirm or run or jump or get some energy out.
I really love that my son is being exposed to Mandarin and Spanish in the classroom, and he often comes home singing in those languages. He will also try to teach me his vocabulary words, and he sometimes asks me about how to translate certain English words. I love that BTS is giving him information, but also encouraging him to be inquisitive and look at the world around us w/​an explorer’s mind!
I really, really appreciate the performing arts aspect of the curriculum, as well. It’s such a great confidence-​builder to be able to perform on stage and it sure is fun to watch. :)
My favorite aspect of BTS is that the staff really and true cares for the kids. They really want to know them as individuals and to understand their needs and personalities. I see teachers actively playing w/​the kids at recess, gently redirecting them when necessary and showing so much respect and kindness to the kids that it makes me feel so happy to have found them as partners in teaching my son.