Shady Lane School

Feb 19th, 2024

Absolutely the best of the best when it comes to childcare and education. We are so impressed by the staff and our daughter has had a phenomenal experience.
Sep 10th, 2020

My first experience with my first child (daughter ) was good.My children are seven years apart . That being said that this new group of directors and teachers were not at best interest when it came to my son becoming prepared for kindergarten. My son is black and he apparently has all odds against him in this world of ours.So, I wanted him to be successful starting at Shady lane "School". My son will be turning 5 next month and he is nowhere prepared for kindergarten. I had a former teacher evaluate him at the school in fall of 2018. My son could not even hold a pencil correctly, didn't recognize the alphabet, many numbers, or some shapes . I had faith in the school hence my daughter attending years ago. So , I didn't think to question their ability to get my son together. After having concerns , both the teachers and directors started to treat my son different. They started to single him out and become very unprofessional. Long story short they unjustly Kicked my son out because of my concerns about him learning. I had a conversation with the teachers because of a rude invalid email that they sent. The teachers were very unprofessional and told me that i should have told them how to teach him. They continue to state that they are a play based learning school, but where does the learning take hold?
Nov 4th, 2019

After moving from my hometown to Pittsburgh with my preschooler, it was really important for us to find a school that was warm and welcoming while also providing a challenge for a late fall birthday baby who's been through a year of preschool already. After lots and lots of research and so many phone calls, we chose Shady Lane School. The staff at Shady Lane are all incredibly friendly and welcoming. Drop off and pick up usually take us longer than I expect because my son wants to go around and visit different teachers and say hi to everyone. Everyone learned his name quickly and greets him warmly even when he's being grumpy. Whenever I have to talk to the administrative team, my son is thrilled to play at the large train table by the front desk. His teachers are so dedicated, and I think that is such a big part of why this school is special. Our family is big and complicated, but my son's teachers have gone out their way to learn names and faces. They offer positive encouragement and praise as well as boundaries and redirection. My son used to argue with me about going to school at his last learning center/childcare provider, but now he's always eager to get up and go. I am so thankful that we found Shady Lane, and I will certainly keep them in mind if/when we have another child.
Sep 16th, 2019

So my child graduated this past year and I can now provide an updated review and some more points.  I dropped the rating slightly because of the belief that the quality of education and care really depends on the teachers your child has, and thus, depends on the level your child is at.  We were thankful in our child's 4-5 (2nd last year), the teacher Ms. Susan provided amazing instruction and really elevated our child's knowledge and kept challenging her.  Even at this age, she was learning numbers, letters and was never bored.  However, our child's last year, it was as if she took a step back.  Both teachers seemed unmotivated and dropped the level of lessons and knowledge one or two years back.  Suggestions from parents were pushed back from the teachers and often both teachers felt depressed and resisted in communicating with parents.  It's as if our child went back in time, and most parents were dismayed.  When our child was assessed at her current school for kindergarten, we were so thankful that most of her time in the previous year got her through the admissions process.  The last year at Shadylane was like a lost cause.  Very frustrating.  But overall though the first two years at Shadylane were amazing for our child.  The last year was just child care, not building on foundations presented previously.Positives: Good parental involvement, mostly caring teachers, updated classrooms and facilities including refresh of the playground, nice parking for drop off/pick up.  Tuition is reasonable overall for the care.  Negative: No surveys or ratings from parents of teachers.  No way to make good and helpful comments regarding child's education/teachers except directly to the teachers.  You can go to administrator but we saw most parents wanted a survey mid-year and end of the year.  No way for Admin to know red flags exist with specific teachers.  Limited space for library.
Sep 14th, 2017