Pasadena Montessori School

Shreya Jhunjhunwala _{on Google}

Sep 22nd, 2023

My little one recently started Enchanted Castle and I really appreciate being able to rest easy knowing that he is well cared for! The teachers are really great and take the extra step to ensure childrens safety and comfort level. Would definitely recommend!

Kyle Kwon _{on Google}

Sep 8th, 2023

What an amazing experience & journey we had with Enchanted Castle. I am grateful that we had such a caring teachers for my five years old daughter & two years old son. If it wasn't for our family relocating for a new place, we would never thought of leaving this school. They had such a great academic programs for my daughter that she had no problem transitioning to kindergarten. My two years old son loved his teacher so much not a single day he didn't want to go learning & playing. I can tell teachers actually do care and very passionate about the kids. The moment we took a tour of school till day we had to say good bye, not a single day I was disappointed with this school. Thank you so much & we miss you guys!

Shaggy Ymeri Plummer _{on Google}

Sep 6th, 2023

We love Enchanted Castle! Our (now) 6 year old attended for almost 2 years before moving on to Kindergarten. And now our twins will be attending (they are almost 3 years old). They take SUCH great care of the kids, truly love and nurture them, and as nervous parents, we really appreciate how well they communicate with us. The teachers and director are wonderful, caring, and professional, and I could not be happier with our experiences there.

Nathalia M. _{on Yelp}

Jul 24th, 2022

My daughter started Enchanted Castle right before the pandemic lockdowns in January 2020, she was only 2.5 years old and although the first week was hard for her (she had been home with a nanny the first 2.5 years of her life), she adjusted wonderfully and became so close to Ms. Samar.She returned after we were comfortable sending her back to school post-pandemic in April 2021, this time at almost 4 years old and in the big kids class. She is thriving. She surprises me everyday with how much she is learning, from her simple things like the alphabet, to counting to 100, art, dance, music. And her social life is so full and it is all because of the wonderful attention she gets from the school. She loves her teachers in Room 1, (Ms. Denise, Ms. Rachel!) and her friends, and it is with a heavy heart she will be starting kindergarten at a new school this fall. The school has become like a family to us, and we will be sure to keep in touch with all the teachers. We love Enchanted Castle!

Enna O. _{on Yelp}

Jul 4th, 2022

Our child went to Enchanted Castle Pasadena for almost a year. We were informed by the school on 5/20/22 via an email sent to all parents that due to a COVID surge in the area, that all children and all staff would be required to wear masks until 6/10. We felt reassured, safe, and  appreciated the measures being taken by the school.On  6/7 while dropping off our child we saw an unmasked man with a cell phone in his hand in the classroom standing directly in front of and facing the children's restrooms of which children are not allowed to close the doors when they're inside and exposed. On 6/9 we saw the same. We were told that he was an aide to a student hired by his parents. He had been working there for 2 weeks and refused to wear a  mask despite being asked to do so by school staff.We raised our concerns to the school about both his lack of a mask and  being positioned in front of the open children's restroom. We were told that the school could not enforce the policy to make him wear a mask. (Why not? CA Dept of Public Health states you can mandate patrons of  your business to wear a mask.) Regarding the restroom issue, we were told the school would look into possibly installing a privacy partition but we didn't hear back.On 6/9 we received a message about a positive COVID case in the class. Two days later our child tested positive. She had been wearing her KN95 mask all day except for snack and lunch time. We found out later that there were multiple positive cases bu we were not informed.When we looked at photos from school we noticed that not a single teacher was wearing a mask (art, music, dance etc.).We believe,1. Children are put at an unnecessary risk during lunch, snack and nap time due to not wearing masks and being in very close proximity with each other. Lunch and even most activities could be organized outside. During naps children could have been spaced further apart with all windows and doors kept open. Potentially consider HEPA filters, air  purifiers, and/or portable fans to increase ventilation.2. Require everyone to wear N95 or equivalent masks since it's been shown that cloth and surgical masks don't help reduce transmission much if at all.We also want to share our experience with a COVID positive child:1. We  noticed that the Fever Free app, which is intended to notify the school when kids are sick, gave our child clearance for school even when her temperature was elevated by 2 degrees to just below 100F. If we were unaware of her COVID exposure, we could have easily sent her to school with COVID. Since the app records every child's temperature daily, perhaps, there could be a policy update to report any child's elevated temperatures of 2 or more degrees.2. Our child tested negative on a home, rapid antigen test, even after her symptoms began and with an elevated temperature. 12 hours later we took a PCR test and it was positive. This makes home tests, which are accepted by school, unreliable for protecting children from COVID exposure. All of the above made us realize that our child was not safe at Enchanted Castle. We only had a false sense of safety due to the policy announcements and then learned the hard way that a policy means nothing when it's not enforced. Our child, despite every sacrifice we made during the pandemic, caught a potentially deadly virus at Enchanted Castle where she attended for 3 days a week. And her baby brother got it from her. We realize we're taking a risk of COVID exposure by sending her to school, but this school did not take the crucial and easy steps to reduce the risk dramatically. This is the reason why we decided to pull her out. When we shared these concerns with the school, nobody bothered to ask about our children's health status. From there, it was only a cold business contract termination via email.It's too late now for us to fix anything for our child. This Yelp review will surely not get us the $50 offered by the school to parents who write a Yelp review and bring the print out to the management, nor do we want it, but we feel responsible to share our experience with other parents so they can make an informed decision and demand necessary precautions from school for their children's safety.