First Steps International Academy

The turnover rate for teachers and office staff is through the roof. I saw 4 teachers quit in one year and 4 different office managers within a span of two years. Special treatments are given, and no discipline are handed down to students whose parents are affiliated with the school or close friends with staff. Their children can basically do whatever they want, to whomever they want, with no repercussions. If you are not from South America, be prepared to feel out! The winter festival show and graduation show is almost entirely in Spanish. And the reason they call it a bilingual school is because the teachers speak English as a second language. Teachers and staff are not proficient in the English language nor can they spell simple English words. Typos on everything from classroom projects to newsletters. It's really a shame. They are more interested in taking your money than hiring (and keeping) good teachers and staff.

First let me start by saying I have never written a review. So for me to write one, my experience must have been either really bad or really good. In this case it was extremely bad. If I could give it 0 stars or even negative I would. My 2 year old attended First Steps for about a month until I no longer felt it was safe for him to be there. The first time I saw something that made me uncomfortable was when I went to pick my son up and his class was on the playground, which you can see from the parking lot. I thought I should watch my son for a few minutes to see how he was interacting with the other children, and to see how he was adjusting to his new school. Although what I saw was a little disturbing, I decided to let it go because maybe, just maybe, what I saw was misinterpreted. There was a child riding a toy car and the teacher was trying to take him out. Instead of gently lifting him out of the car, she aggressively lifted the child with the car and shook him until the car fell off his legs almost knocking another kid down. Then 2 weeks later I went for my sons classroom birthday party. Again the kids were on the playground and I was in the parking lot with my mother in law and husband. There was a child on the ground crying hysterically and red in the face as it was a fairly hot day, as the teacher and 2 assistants stood by and ignored him. As he continued to cry, the main teacher, for whatever reason, angrily lifted another kid by one arm and carried him behind a tree where I could no longer see what was happening. Immediately my mother in law and I gave each other an uncomfortable look and continued to go inside for my sons party. After we set up for the party, the children came in from the playground to enjoy cupcakes and snacks. I was told before I enrolled my son that washing hands was a priority, especially after the playground. Not only did they not wash their hands but did not even use hand sanitizer. I understand that people make mistakes and maybe they forgot on this day but after what I had already seen on the playground this was just the last straw for me. And with a teacher and 2 assistants I expect at least one of them to remember to wash their hands. When I called the principal to let her know that my son would not be attending anymore her response was "can I call you back?" There was no "what happened?" or "Im sorry" or "is there anything I can do?" After about 2 hours I get a call back from her secretary saying the principal couldn't understand what I was saying so she had her call me back. I was born and raised in Ohio so I know its not my accent that she couldn't understand. So I asked the secretary what exactly was so hard to understand about me wanting to take my son out of the school. She asked me what happened and after I explained it to her she just said "ok." I never received an apology let alone a call back from the principal. I feel very uncomfortable knowing that children are being treated this way and the parents don't even know. This is why I felt I needed to write a review because at least people who will consider this school in the future will see my review. There are many other "questionable" things that I saw and I urge you to send your children somewhere else as there are many other schools in Weston to choose from.

This school has a very effective teaching strategy; I haven't seen anything like it in any other school. Teachers are warm and caring with ALL their students. The staff goes above and beyond to make the families feel welcome.

Learning the letters of the alphabet and how to color inside the lines is important... but at First Steps the learning goes much further. the teachers and the school are devoted to helping children develop their thinking skills in ways that prepare them for elementary school and life in general much better than other schools in the area. The kids have fun while learning and the teachers are very caring. i recommend it

The school is not what is appears to be. My child would come home everyday with bruises and scrapes due to the conditions of the shrubs in the playground. The children from the different age groups are mixed in together creating a very unsafe environment especially for the young ones. This in in addition to the existing conflict of interest created by the defined preferences to other teachers children's within the classrooms. Do your homework before you commit!

Classrooms are not as clean as you can expect, very high teacher turnover, conflict of interest in many classrooms, Toddlers classroom is not structured (21 kids in one classroom), and some teachers loose control managing kid���s behavior, inexperienced teachers, overpriced. Definitely would not recommend it.