Little Excellence Preschool, Staten Island | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Review

It took me a really long time to sit down and write this review, as I have very mixed feelings about my experience at little excellence. I didn’t want to write it while the wound was fresh and I was still upset about what happened. Little excellence was my 2 year old daughters first school experience and she was going full time 3 days a week, with an extra hour of care in the morning. Everything went swimmingly in the beginning and she loved going there.

November hit and the honeymoon was over. I got a call that my daughters face got scratched and that there was a mark on her face over a fight over a toy and that as a response my daughter put her mouth on the child as if she was going to bite him but did not leave any marks (as per the phone call message I received). This was our “first warning that she could be “kicked out”. I did my part and printed books for both school and home on why we can’t bite, as the school asked me to come up with a plan for her. I gave them strategies via email and in person on how to better help her especially before she gets frustrated. There was a second incident, where no one was able to tell me what exactly happened as it was during diaper changing time and there “was not enough staff to watch all the kids at that time”. I was told my child had to leave the school as per their policy which I had no problem complying with, but when I asked to see the video so I could see what was happening so I could better help and see what was occurring before the incident, I never received a response.

This cut me to my core as it was right before Christmas and my daughter had no idea she was about to be ripped from the only school she’s ever known leaving us in a position to scramble for a school. Her last day was the Christmas party where the staff talked about how sweet my daughter was and how sad they were to see her leave, but it was difficult for me to hear as it was not our choice to leave.

I do not dispute the school policy and them following the policy what I did not like was how it was handled. No one offered to help her work through this very normal unfortunate toddler behavior. No one allowed me to see how, when or why it was occurring via video.

Needless to say we found a great school for our daughter and she is thriving there so much we increased her to 5 full days.

Overall I feel like the school has very young teachers who need the time and experience to gain knowledge on how to intervene and teach students rather than resorting to expulsion. I am sticking with 3 stars because my daughter really did love going here and she always had a great time, in morning care she had no issues. Although the teachers were young they still need some more experiences to help them better intervene with toddlers in the future. This wasn’t the school for us, but maybe it will be for others.

As a working mom, my biggest fear was leaving my son to be cared for by people I didn’t know for 10+ hours/day while I was working 45 miles away. So, I did what any well-educated (and albeit, neurotic) parent would do, I researched, inquired and visited several. Little Excellence was the fifth place I toured, and the last. I had the pleasure of meeting with the director, Ida, and Christine, my son’s 2 year old teacher. The staff is always smiling and are friendly, warm, so loving and extremely thoughtful. They work so hard to make special crafts (everyday) and keep the daycare immaculate! My son comes home clean everyday- hands washed, not a single stain on his clothes, and always with a dry pull up on. Furthermore, he has not gotten sick since joining LE!

I cannot speak highly enough about the quality of care you’ll be getting for your child and could never thank all the wonderful teachers enough for what they’ve done for my family!

I love LE and will miss them terribly!!!! ??