Sapientia Montessori School, Cedar Park | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

My children have been attending Sapientia since 2016.Between the kids, we have had great experience with the school’s toddler room, primary room (pre-k) and elementary classrooms.
This review hopes to summarize our experience pre-covid and during the covid times
(1) Leadership: The principal Ms Kalika is in general, on top of things. Her leadership was particularly evident when the school transitioned from in-person to remote learning in a snap during March 2020.
(2) Quality of education: Montessori based learning is very hands on and engaging. My children love working on their lessons and would always be excited to show off their lessons during watch me work day, which during the pre-covid times, happened twice in a semester. In order to retain the hands on experience as much as possible with remote learning, the school provided high quality printed materials at the start of this school year.
(3) Staff retention: Having seen our share of daycares across the many states we have lived in, it goes without saying that this school has a high staff retention ratio, which has offered tremendous stability for our children
(4) 1-1 attention: the class teacher is always in tune with the child’s needs and abilities.
(5) communication: Whenever we felt the need to talk about our childrens performance, how they adapted as they moved classrooms etc, the teacher/principal was very accommodating of our schedules to meet and discuss. Being a first time mother, and still learning how to handle various emotions and behaviors of a child, the school teachers have been quite a guiding force that I would always be grateful for.
(6) connecting with young children during remote learning: remote learning has been challenging for children in general and is particularly hard on young children. The teachers in the primary room have demonstrated quite a knack for holding the child’s attention for the entire duration of the class -be it general learning or arts or spanish language.
(7) practical life: From an early age, there is emphasis on self-reliance and independence. Children in the primary classroom are taught practical life lessons such as kitchen skills, cleaning, taking care of themselves and their environment.
(8) child’s character: The teachers strive to bring out the best in the children. There are rules, boundaries but I have never seen these rules affect my children in any negative way.
(9) extra -curricular offerings: The school attracts high quality teachers for many extra curricular activities such as chess, piano etc.

For any parent that is looking for a caring, nurturing environment for an overall development of a child in addition to learning, look no further than Sapientia Montessori.

Both our daughters attended Sapientia, an AMI certified school, for close to a combined 12 years, and thrived! Starting at age 2, they went through the toddler, primary and elementary programs before moving to traditional school for 6th grade.

The Head of School, Ms Kalika, with her very hands-on “whole child” approach really sets the tone of this school in making sure that all teachers and students follow the authentic Montessori method. Classrooms are well-organized and uncluttered. Children are taught to work on their own and to be responsible by taking care of their own needs and belongings. Our girls learned through one-on-one lessons, observing and working with a mixed-age student group, lots and lots of hands-on practice and self-correction, all under the close supervision of their teacher. These qualities have enabled them to become self-directed learners. Since classrooms are mixed-age, the older children have the opportunity to teach and mentor the younger ones, who in turn learn to collaborate with and learn from their peers.

A big part of our learning at the upper elementary (9-12 years) level was the incredibly enriching Montessori Model United Nations (MMUN) experience. Each participating student represents a specific country and plays the role of that country’s delegate. Student delegates research and prepare position papers and speeches on complex topics like Cyber Security, the Arms Race in Outer Space, Protection of Global Climate, Food Security, etc. for the culminating MMUN conference in New York.

As parents, we loved the small community feel and how everyone is friendly ,kind and gracious. The staff always goes above and beyond to make sure the child is emotionally comfortable and all their needs are being met. Our girls flourished at this school, both socially, and academically.

We had no trouble transitioning to traditional school. Currently in high school and middle school respectively, both girls qualified for above-grade level curriculum when they moved to middle school. They have continued to excel ever since – an outstanding testament to the solid foundation for life that they gained at Sapientia.

My son attended Sapientia from 2nd to 5th grade and I must say I am very pleased with the whole experience. The care, interest and responsibility from the staff, teachers and of course Ms. Kalika towards my son was in my opinion excellent! Because of the excellent education he got at Sapientia my sons drive for learning is probably every parents dream.

He learned about personal morals, about human rights and even some basic home economics which I think is vital for children to have. He learned to take responsibility for one another and help each other in class. He was push to do his best in every subject, Ms. Kalika always told me, “It is my job to set the foundation (I’ll never for it when she said it) so that the children can be self sufficient” and you know what my son is self sufficient! anything he doesn’t understand he finds out and he finds out how to do it pretty much all on his own.

During our time at the school we even got to experience and learn about the United Nations, we got to Travel to New York and got to address real life situations at the UN, because of my son’s participation in this, It gave him so much personal growth, he went from being very quite and maybe a little shy to a proud self confident young boy. I can go on with some many more great stories. I can tell you that you’ll be pleased just as I am. I am also pleased to let you know that on some of my sons recent testings he scored way above grade level.

I am grateful for Ms. Kalika and her educators and I highly recommend this school.

MC