Aspirations School of Learning

I agree with other reviews that this place may focus too much on profit:
1. Parents are consistently asked to donate, e.g. food drive, toy drive, celebrations of major or minor holidays, annual gala, and etc. I do support donations to good causes and contribute to 5 – 6 charities per year. But I do not think it is appropriate to ask parents to pay for school’s good cause efforts. If the school matches parents’ donation, that would be a different story.
2. Too frequent/​many request for donation is a sign of bad budgeting or profit gauging. If a serious budgeting has been conducted, the asked tuition would ensure a profit for the school. I do not mind to pay high tuition since the out-​of-​pocket money is transparent and parents can decide whether they want to have their kids here. However, once kids are here with the school, asking parents to «donate» sounds pushy: who want to have their kids embarrassed and shamed in their classes?
2. Kids are required to attend year-​round if they want to return next year (as mentioned in other reviews)
3. Too many days off (as mentioned in other reviews)
4. Staff turnover is too high — why it is so difficult to retain staff. If staff decide to leave on their own, high turnover indicates the school does not compensate them well; If staff were left go, the school did not do diligent screening of potential hires.
5. Create a school policy/​common practices that all teachers follow: some class rooms have bulletin board that lists two-​week activities — great; some other classes rooms have no updates at all. Parents have to talk to teachers if they want to know what happened to their kids’ day. — not a good idea.
This school’s tuition is almost the high in the area. I would suggest the school uses part of the profit it earns to improve kids’ experience (e.g. enrich book collection in each class) and parents’ experience (parking is a headache; knowing your kid’s day is not easy for some classes).
To be fair, many teachers I met here are friendly and pleasant.

I gave them a $ 100 deposit after being told that my daughter was being placed on a waiting list and there would «probably» be a space for her in three months. That was almost TWO years ago and they have never called. I called six months ago to check in and was told nope, not yet, but soon. Very soon.
Obviously, I can’t speak to what it’s like to have a child enrolled there. But I can tell you that you should consider the $ 100 required for the waiting list as a donation to the school or maybe a tour fee because you’ll never hear from them again.
Oh, and she’s enrolled in Encinitas Country Day now and we love it. No wait list there. No scam.

I actually like this place A LOT. As a daycare center, it’s a 5 star. Unfortunately, they call themselves a school, and as a school, it’s solidly average. Their vaunted Reggio Emilia system seems like mostly just marketing. They claim «learning through play», but that’s what kids do. Put a kid in a room with some blocks and sticks and he/she’ll learn something. I wouldn’t call that a school, though. That isn’t to say that’s a bad thing. I think many kids could use more play and less structure in today’s world. But when you advertise yourself as a «school of learning», and even more «Aspirations»… So, again, if you primarily need daycare, this is by far the best facility I’ve seen. And, they cater to it with long days for working parents and a nurturing environment. If I had to leave my child in a school ALL DAY, from 8am to 5pm, I’d far rather leave my child here than in some intense school program. There’s only so much a child can absorb. So I do feel bad that I give this a 3 star rating but I think people who are looking for a «school of learning» for their «Harvard aspirations» might be misled by this school’s focus. I’m not even sure that it’s possible to have all day care that is also a great school — I think those two things might be mutually exclusive.

Well the older one graduated and move I to 1^st grade with ease after Aspiration’s teachers gave so many tools to succeed. Now another one of our children is 2 years into aspirations and her vocabulary and communication skills are developing beyond any reasonable expectation. Try having a sophisticated conversation with a pre-​kinder ! We can thanks to Aspirations!

My son attended Aspirations starting at 3 months all the way through their Pre-​K program. It is a wonderful place. The staff and students became an extension of my son’s family. He felt loved there and safe to be creative. I love how they blended science and art together. It really is a great place for your little one to love learning.

Our son has been at Aspirations for 3 years. He loves it and so do we. It is one of the pricier options around, but worth it in our opinion. It is stimulating and creative and safe. The teachers are consistently great. In three years, we have had several different sets of teachers on both the little side and the big side. The only portion that we haven’t had direct experience with is the infant area. All of our interaction with the teachers and administration have been positive and professional. The staff have been helpful collaborators in helping curb certain behaviors and reinforce others.
Lots of activities to help develop social, cognitive and emotional skills. The staff are truly devoted to the well-​being of children.

My Son has been attending this school for over 8 months now. We love everyone at Aspirations and feel very blessed to have found such a wonderful place.

We’ve been at Aspirations for 2 years and are very pleased. The teachers are all caring and have the kids best interest in mind. They teach respect and kindness and encourage communication. They really value enabling children to learn for themselves so that they can learn important life lessons.
My only gripe is the new hours. It went from 5pm last year to 4pm this year. This is very frustrating. Of course you can stay longer for a fee. In general though, it’s a great school.

My son has attended Aspirations 1.5 years. He is currently enrolled in the pre-​k program. We have been so happy with our entire experience. He has three teachers in his classroom and is learning about art, music and spanish. Learning the alphabet is incorporated into all aspects of learning. Every day there is a poster board of pictures of the kids with a detailed description of everything they accomplished that day. All of his art projects have a quote of what he said while he was creating. In my opinion, it’s the best and I wouldn’t dream of sending him anywhere else!

My son has been attending Aspirations for 3 years. I am a mom of 3 and have had much experience w/​preschools over the last 9 yrs. Aspirations is a fabulous place. My son is currently in the Jr Kindergarten program and I could not be happier with the class or his teachers. I agree that it is expensive, but it is on par w/​other private preschools. The facilities are top notch, the class sizes are age appropriate and the administration is always available for a quick hello or to discuss any matters that concern your child.

I know plenty of parents who are extremely happy with this school. My son has attended for 2 years now, and he loves this school! We are so happy with his teachers and the staff. He is extremely smart and so are all of his classmates. This school has a strong focus on the love of learning and creativity beyond your typical preschool projects. Teachers feel strongly about respect between peers and adults. Tuition is quite competitive compared to schools of the same caliber. I also noticed that both parents and staff make an effort to encourage healthy organic snacks as opposed to processed food. This school is definitely worth visiting!

I must completely agree with A.Z. in the review of this school. We started 18 months ago with a fabulous tour in which we were signing papers before we left the parking lot. We had an outstanding teacher who sent daily emails but left after her first year. We should have questioned why!
At the time of our initial enrollment, year round school was not mandatory. Subsequently, we were told by the owner that it was «difficult to keep the lights on». In order to «keep the lights on» the second year started rough, with a huge increase in class size and tuition and teachers who were overwhelmed with too many students and no support from the administration. The teachers were AMAZING with what they had to handle and our child did seem happy. However, as we approached the end of the year, we were told that there was no space in our requested schedule for our second child. Ultimately, it became apparent that this was due to the fact that we decided not to have our first child participate in the summer classes as she was moving on to public school. This was particularly frustrating because we had addressed this issue with the owner in the fall of 2009. During that meeting she verbally agreed to our situation, and then denied ever having the conversation when it was time to schedule our second child for fall 2010.
Unfortunately, the school promises family and love, but their actions speak differently. Aspirations is a BUSINESS first, not family-​oriented, and has not been loyal to the original families. The school charges a significant tuition and then has parents pack lunches, bring snacks, flowers and supplies. In addition, they host an «Art Night» which turns into a complete money-​making operation and the «lesson» is completely lost on the children. We thank the teachers for their overwhelming amount of pain-​staking work to pull the event together! The «Atelier» is empty and our children spend most of the time painting in their classroom or playing on the playground due to the large numbers of children in each class. We were «wowed» by the beauty of the school and the promises of the «Reggio-​Inspired» child. Unfortunately… this goal was never achieved and we will now look forward to an older, established school in the fall!

Unlike the previous reviewer, my child actually goes to this school. The staff are very friendly and nice. They all really enjoy the kids and always welcome everyone as they come in.
My child loves the school, the other kids, and the staff.
The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because they’re closed on A LOT of holidays and it’s really hard when my husband and I work full time.