The Westwood School

Mar 3rd, 2017

Not a school I would send my child. A lot of yelling from teachers and students. Lack of communication between teachers, administration, and owner (Sirlena). Preschool class is over crowded. By law you are suppose to have 10 students per 1 teacher however, it exceeds that amount and the poor teacher looks stressed and exhausted! I have heard many teachers wanting to leave and looking elsewhere. Complaints of lack of material and support. Stay Away!
Jun 11th, 2015

My issue isn't with the Westwood school in general or totally. It's with the woman they have as the "face" of the company, Fran. I was first exposed to the school from a front page news paper ad that gave me high hopes about the school and my children (I have 3 boys I was strongly considering for students of Westwood) were very excited about touring the school. So we arrive and were greeted very warmly by the children, who mistook me for a member of the staff, the school cook. But they were nice children either way. Very well behaved. One of the faculty members escorted my 4 and 6 year old sons to use the bathroom. I filled out some paperwork while I waited for my children to return. I was told by Fran not to fill out one for my youngest son who is 2. I became perplexed because one of the MAIN reasons I decided to tour this school is not because it's close, I live in West Philly mind you, but because I was under the impression that all three of my boys could attend based on what was written in the news paper ad, which I have a picture of but couldn't post here. Fran cavalierly and tacitly informed, 2 1/2 is the youngest age. And quickly moved on to other subjects, completely ignoring my dumbfounded reaction. She began to explain tuition costs and I asked if she had this information in writing to which she replied, no, we don't, that would make too much sense! Now I took her comment as disrespectful sarcasm, that was just a little funny, so I chuckled a little because I can tell jokes like that too. But then I realized she wasn't joking. She wrote out the information by hand on a poorly torn sheet of legal pad paper. So, painfully swallowing that fact, I was at least expecting the "tour" for which we traveled an HOUR for. From Fran's body language, and general lack of initiation, Fran had no intentions on giving me and my children a tour. I was the one who had to ask if we could see the place, and her reaction was as if she didn't even feel like it! She announced the location of all the rooms before we even began to walk as if to hope I wouldn't want to see it. Mind you my boys are used to visiting schools and wanted to feel the place out more. All we saw was one class and the school yard which we had a better view of as we walked the perimeter of the school just to get to the front door. In the age of the internet (well past fax machines at this point) my 60 minute travel to tour the school boiled down to a hand written note with tuition fees on it and finding out my 2 year old son could not be admitted, which could have all been transmitted by 1. Email, 2. Posted on the Website, 3. Faxed to me, 4. Told to me on the phone. There is a second floor to the place which I told Fran I did not want to see, because at this point I was disgusted by her treatment of us, even though my children wanted to see it, I already knew I would not send my boys here nor would I EVER refer anyone else. I can't tell you how many students they have lost due to Frans actions. I sincerely hope she, or you if you are reading this Fran, finds work she likes, for management she/you respects. She/you clearly does not respect the school administration, does not like her/your job and is, in my OPINION sabotaging the schools efforts... which makes sense as to why they [Westwood] is still in need of Kindergarten students and students in general, even though the school year is well into the first month. She/you is the SOLE reason I had a horrible experience with the school. I hope someone from the school administration reads this and finds a new front desk person. You may be asking why didn't you/I call the school and speak to someone? They have one phone number and guess who answers it...yup. Fran.
Feb 8th, 2015