Bell Tower Trilingual School

Bell Tower School has exceeded my expectations. This will be our 5th year at BTS, and our children are thriving. I remember meeting with the principal before we started and I remember what made me so excited about the program. I was looking at options for language emersion and toured some of the public options in the area. Bell Tower was the only school that has students emersed in three languages, additionally BTS teaches every subject in each language. While looking into other schools I was surprised to find that they split subjects. For example, math was taught in one language while social studies was taught in the other language, to me that meant that the children were missing out on important vocabulary. I did not want to send my kids to a school where I felt they were missing something. Bell Tower School offers the best option   for a balanced trilingual emersion program, add to that their arts/theater program and BTS has really been the perfect fit for our family.
Aug 2nd, 2021

We have loved Bell Tower School over the past 3 years. Each of my 3 kids are excelling in 3 languages (full curriculum of read/write/speak, math, and social studies in Mandarin, Spanish and English) and both emotional development and community are great. Cost is very competitive and before/after care (7am-6pm) is included. They also offer tap, ballet, jazz, PE, music, and student shows 2x year. I will be keeping my kids there as long as possible- their test results are high, theyre very happy, and school administrators are responsive when I need them.
Mar 16th, 2020

I am not easy to please, especially when it comes to my son's education. So, the five-star rating I give Bell Tower is beyond deserved. Bell Tower is an amazing place. It is academically rigorous -- providing instruction in three languages (English, Spanish, and Mandarin) at a level that is far beyond my expectation for kids this age. The administrators and instructors at Bell Tower clearly have figured it out: they know exactly how much these little minds can absorb and exactly how to deliver the information so it does not feel like "too much." My son, who is four and in the pre-K program, adores the school. He is learning more than I ever imagined he would at this age (for example, he has weekly spelling tests and knocks them out of the park, and he does homework in Mandarin that I can't begin to comprehend, and I have a graduate degree!); he spends his days with cheerful teachers, who really love their job and really love him (even though he's far from perfect); he comes home happy; he sometimes tells me during the weekend that he wishes the next day was a school day (and our weekends are really fun!).I heard about the school from a teacher in the South Pasadena public school district. She was seeing these kids coming into the public school light years ahead of the other kids. She discovered those kids came from Bell Tower. She then decided to send her own young children there and loved it. As do I. I feel confident my son will not only enter elementary school fully prepared but as a kid who really enjoys school. What more could a parent want?Plus, the school's handling of COVID has been amazing. As a working parent, I appreciate the option to send my son to school in person full time (the school offers Zoom instruction as well for those who wish to keep their kids home). The administrators, teachers, and staff have implemented safety precautions for the in-person kids that have proved highly effective. Additionally, I find the school is run very smoothly, which means a lot to me. I can always get someone on the phone or a very quick reply to an email. There's regular communication about how my son is doing, as well: parent-teacher conferences, daily reporting about his days, and developmental assessments.  I couldn't recommend Bell Tower more highly.
Feb 1st, 2021

WARNING:  This is a long review but I promise for those who are looking for a nurturing, educational and loving place for their children, it's worth the read!I am so grateful that we discovered Bell Tower this year.  We live in South Pasadena specifically for the schools, but when COVID hit, I needed another option for my daughter that was not 100% virtual.  She had been recently diagnosed with mild/moderate autism and I knew being virtual would not work for her.  I called different schools, but a friend referred me to Bell Tower and the principal scheduled a meeting with me and explained the different strategies they were looking at to minimize the impact of COVID on the younger children and provide both an in-person and virtual option for parents. The principal and staff worked tirelessly through the summer and on Sept 8, the school opened for Kindergarteners, but for parents that did not feel comfortable, they continued a 100% virtual option, which they've maintained to date.  At school, they have taken a number of pre-cautions (masks, temperatures, separate supplies and recess games that require no contact, dance , music, etc.) to make the kids feel safe but also have fun.  Since my daughter started there has not been one positive case of COVID and they have normalized this experience for the kids, to the extent possible.This is something they've done for every child, but for my daughter, I cannot begin to explain how grateful I am for the principal, who after several weeks with my daughter, met with me and validated a lot of my concerns with how she was processing new information.  The principal, along with a designated teacher, created an individualized curriculum that provided my daughter with a lot of one-on-one time and different methods for learning, but also kept her integrated in the classroom so that she benefitted from social interactions with her peers.  More than that, she assured me that my daughter was very capable of learning, but just needed a different method.My daughter started school this Sept struggling to identify different colors appropriately, today she can; consistently write her own name, correctly write half the alphabet, read a handful of sight words, is speaking and understanding closer to her age level, identifies more than 20 words in Spanish, speaks several Spanish words and can count to 20 in Spanish. She's even starting to understand Mandarin!   On top of that she absolutely loves school, her teachers and her friends.  To see her blossom this way has been the greatest gift in what has been an extraordinarily difficult year. We've had such an amazing experience at Bell Tower that I've decided to keep my daughter there for first grade and am highly considering continuing her as long as possible. The tuition is very affordable for a private school (I actually paid almost as much a month for my son's after care program at this age!), they have incorporated common core so that kids that do transition to public school are not behind, and they get a very individualized experience.  If you are looking for alternative, affordable option, where diversity is incorporated and the curriculum builds a strong foundation in early education, I would 100% recommend Bell Tower.
Feb 1st, 2021

I called them many times. Spoke to more than one person and everyone keep telling me the principal will call me so I left my number with the people I spoke with. This all started in may by the way. I've been following up with then and here we are in July said principal didn't call me so I called frustrated. Talked to Cecilia who told me that the principal will call. I told her that's what u said last time. Still nothing. I finally sent her a final email copying the principal email from state of California website to tell them that isn't good business practice even during pandemic because I had contacted other private schools and none of them treated me like this. So principal said she did called me twice and left me.messages. I said I had my # for last 10 yrs. Sure enough the number she called was WRONG  number. I left my real/ correct number with 2 different people at different occasions. This tells me this isn't the right school for me. If you can't even perform simple task such as taking a message and getting a correct pH # down this tells me is 1.  u do not have competent staff. 2 u do not train them well. By the way the staff were also giving me wrong information such as availability and assessment and made me think they had an opening where as in fact they don't. The principal confirmed. The school need to realize that an inquiry shouldn't take 3 months to answer(many phone calls and emails) even during pandemic and regardless of school size.This message isn't to smear a school but rather learn something from this review and take necessary steps.
Jul 24th, 2020