OFJCC Leslie Family Preschool

Our daughter had a great time at this preschool.
Mar 4th, 2024

Very beautiful! And the teachers are very efficient with pickups and drop offs. Great covid measures as well.
Sep 16th, 2021

Our kid stayed there for 3 years but have switched to another preschool for awhile. We thought it should be a place full of love but the experiences were just on the contrary. The teachers simply ignored him. Lots of examples: teachers did nothing when other kids said 'go away don't play here'; teachers didn't ask him to join any class activities so a lot of times he was just playing alone by himself; in the daily uploaded photos our kid rarely show up. We tried to talk to the head teachers many times but they could always find some excuses for that (the app didn't allow them to upload more photos, etc.). We don't see the love but see the cold, indifference and unprofessional of those teachers.
Sep 8th, 2021

I truly loved my experience at the JCC Preschool. I'm the mom that tours every single school prior to making a choice.  I'm extremely picky when it comes to the care of my children. I'm taking the time to write this review because we've recently moved around in the area and have experienced other schools. Solidifying even more what a magical experience being at the JCC was for us. We were at the JCC for a total of 4 years with both my son and my daughter from the time they were 12 months old (in the mommy and me program they call the Yad-B-Yad with teacher Shuly). In our experience, the teachers are loving, caring and they were truly invested in the development of our kids. The Director Lauren Berman is amazing. The amount of care she leads the school with is incredible. I was part of the school parent committee where we worked first hand with Lauren to help make key decisions about the school, so I saw first hand the amount of strategy, planning, and thoughtfulness that went into running the school. We were also at the JCC during Covid. And I truly believe our kids excelled during this time because of the strategy and execution of how they handled the school. Lauren would call her strategy (the Swiss cheese effect). Creating multiple layers of protection for the kids safety while ensuring and maintaining a loving environment. I know first hand, other schools did not handle this time nearly as well. Our son was at Phillips Brooks (when he aged out of JCC) while our daughter was still at the JCC. And our experience was sub-par there compared to the JCC.I would do it all over again. Sending my kids here. I miss the warm staff, the community of parents, and being in the classroom for Shabbat singing songs with my kids and their classmates. I miss seeing my kids garden, picking tomatoes and kale with teacher Debbie. I miss seeing my kids run around on the giant grassy field playing games in the sun. I miss seeing them dance and sing during their music class. I miss the care that went into planning activities for the day. I am truly grateful to all their teachers who planned a day packed full of activities to instill ability of freedom of choice and asked thought provoking questions to instill a curious and creative mindset in my children. I love our memories from the JCC, they have a very special place in my heart. I often look back fondly at our school year book filled with images of celebration, warmth and smiles. The thing I know from being at other schools is this, in my experience the JCC is a special place, special place, being led by amazing leadership that truly love and care for their families and students. This combination is hard to come by.
Apr 22nd, 2022

Hi, fellow parents! You're trying to pick the best preschool for your kid in an area with so many excellent options. Other parents you know have impossibly high standards and even if, when you started your search, you weren't feeling so opinionated on the color of the sheets used during nap time, here you are - at 11:55 PM on Yelp - trying to find some breadcrumb clues to help you make THE BIGGEST DECISION OF YOUR LIVES!!! AHHH!Well. First of all, there are some funky reviews on here. *Note the date.* If they are from pre-2019, there is a new director who is going to set the bar so high that you're going to hate the head of the Ivy League university your child will surely one day attend because Lauren Berman is the most personable, accountable, reliable, responsible, and forward thinking preschool director in town. Whomever was here before, fuggedaboutit. This legend of a director just pulled the school through COVID and fires and mass exodus of educators from the Bay Area and the preschool, which my oldest son just graduated from, is sparkling in the Palo Alto sun.Secondly, parents are busy. SO MANY PARENTS LOVE THIS SCHOOL and will never have the time to write a Yelp review because they should be making lunches instead. So, know that a glowing review like mine is backed up by about 100 more that will simply never get written. Why is this school so great?Your kids will be enveloped in love, in the cutest little classrooms - YES THE TOYS ARE WOODEN AND YES THEY USE LOOSE PARTS, I promise - with an edible schoolyard garden - YES YOUR KIDS WILL EAT KALE AND HOLD WORMS AND YOU WILL SEE PICTURES OF THIS THROUGHOUT THE DAY -  and a dynamic duo of music teachers to bless their days. Bless. Loaded word? They learn songs and blessings and it's not going to turn your kid into a bible thumper but instead is just going to give them a routine, which kids and religions both love, so chill. ;) [respectfully, chill]- In a non-COVID year, your kids get to take swim lessons while at school because you are on the JCC campus and there is a full service pool steps away from the preschool gates!  And because according to Jewish texts, it is more important for a child to learn to swim than to study the Torah. So you get to have your kid learn to swim while they're at school anyway. Amazing.- Your kids will run on a track field or play with hula hoops in the basketball gym for their PE class, passing by senior citizens who live in the apartments overlooking the plaza and are part of our community! Yes, children still see old people and haven't yet learned to ignore them! This is educational, my people. - Your kids will celebrate double the holidays they would if they weren't at a Jewish school because there is a Jewish holiday for everything, and every month practically. AND let's not underestimate the weekly holiday of Shabbat which means baking and breaking fresh bread together, offering our little humans the opportunity to sing together, to have their weekly turn in the spotlight as the Shabbat Helper and to be part of a Friday ritual that reminds us how important it is to rest and be in a community. This year, the school started doing zoom shabbats on Friday evenings and your relatives from far away can sign in and forget to mute themselves and gush over your cute child on the screen.- Your kids will be exposed to different cultures, most notably Israeli culture and, with that, Hebrew because that is interwoven in the curriculum, but also  be in an environment that embraces different languages and cultures: students and staff alike come from many different backgrounds, and are not exclusively Jewish. Like Hebrew a lot? The Ulpanon immersion program is like a year abroad program but without the travel. Highly recommended (and Lital the director there is also phenomenal).- Now that I've done some name dropping, there are some legendary teachers who have been teaching for more than 9 years (some more than 20 years) so put a pause on those rumors about teacher turnover: this staff is educated, dedicated, and for the most part sticks around. New educators in the area also get a chance to work here, paired with veteran team teachers and my impression is that the administration is very supportive of staff.How do I have the credentials to even write this review?Between my two sons who are both under 5, we have been to 6 different preschools.Lemme tell you:The JCC preschool is outstanding. OUTSTANDING.
Jun 5th, 2021