Springbridge International School

I can’t say enough good things about Springbridge. Its rare to find a school that offers bilingual programs in Chinese, Japanese and welcomes families who are non-​native speakers. Our child loves the school, teachers and staff and has been going for close two years now, looks forward to going to school every day.

Springbridge International School is awesome!
Our 4 year old daughter has been in the Springbridge preschool program for over 1 year and will be continuing with Pre-​K, Kindergarden, 1^st, etc. The teachers are all amazing, and the program is so rich with various experiences and activities for the children. The kids learn so much about life, education, friendships, values, and we are very thankful to all the effort put in by all the faculty. The school is very personal and family oriented.
My daughter absolutely loves going to school everyday.

Our son started 1^st grade in Springbridge this year. We’re just about one semester in and so far all of us — parents and child, love it here. Picking the right school for your kid is subjective and highly personal. We moved our son from another bilingual school, b/​c we were unhappy there, but this is not a review/​tirade for the other school. I’ll just highlight what we like about Springbridge (and you can get a sense of the things we care about) —
1. Program — Springbridge offers rich curriculums for K-​5 (they have preschool too, but I’m not familiar with that). The focus is on well-​rounded learning and development, and a healthy balance between academics (math, language arts, sciences) and creatives (history, arts, crafts, music, and sports).
2. After-​school program — hassle-​free transition from day program (ends at 3pm) to after-​school program (ends at 6pm). We’re a dual-​working family, so this makes it so much easier for us. However, the best part is SB offers a variety of courses/​activities to choose from based on day of the week (e.g. chess, abacus, tennis, piano, soccer, second language, even Lego! all at basic levels). A great way to introduce your child to different things and hopefully something will piqué his/​her interest.
3. Teachers — high caliber staff who cares about how your child progresses in lessons as well as personal development.
4. Bilingual — yes, it advertises as a bilingual school, but the difference here is they offer more than one non-​English language. Japanese/​English, Chinese/​English, and I think they’re working on Spanish/​English. Hopefully French/​English too.
5. Family environment — SB values the social/​community connection it has with their students’ families. There are events around major (cultural) holidays and mini events like movie nights and picnics.
6. Administration & price — for a small and very young (maybe 4 or 5 years) institution, this place operates professionally with minimum staff. Price is also very reasonable compared to other private schools in the bay area. (Details on tuition are published on their website, best to check it there to get the most current info).
7. Optional/​paid lunch — SB offers catered lunch from Choice Lunch. They have decent selection for both hot and cold meals, and their website is super easy to use. My son is a picky eater, so I mix it up w/​lunch bag from home and pre-​order his favorite (e.g. mac and cheese or cheese pizza) from Choice Lunch. It’s a nice option to have when I’m super busy or forgot to pack lunch.
8. Field trips — There are field trips throughout the year, almost one per month. These are a mix of educational and fun outings for the kids. For example, waterpark in Sep (it was extremely hot last year), pumpkin patch in Oct/​Nov, candle-​making in Dec, planetarium in Jan, etc. There is a small fee for each trip, about $ 5 to $ 20 per kid, depending on the activity. The school has a mini bus that takes the kids to these events. My son gets super excited whenever there’s a field trip coming, he would count down the days. And on those evenings that I pick him up, he’d happily start a conversation and talk non-​stop about the things he saw and did — really puts a smile on my face, especially after a long stressful day at work.
We’re happy and pleased with Springbridge. My son was shy and sad when he first started, b/​c he didn’t speak Japanese and most kids do. The teachers helped him adjust and he made friends eventually. I remember by the second or third week, he was already happy and looked forward to school each day.

We found this school through a friend and we’re so happy that we did. Both of our kids go to this school, one in Kindergarden and one in Second grade. The school provides a true immersion program with both Japanese and Chinese curriculum. The teachers are extremely experienced and caring. The staff are very accommodating to the needs of our kids.
What we like a lot is that the school feels like a big family and there’s a lot of interactions among kids from different grades and between teachers and students. Academically, our kids are at least one or two grades ahead of public school without much extra work after school. So it’s really a peace of mind sending them to the school. Being a younger school, it has improved a lot in the past two years in terms of administration and communication with the parents. The Chinese program is currently small but we are hoping to utilize it in the near future.