Northern Virginia Academy of Early Learning Burke Campus

LOVE THIS PLACE! my daughter is in the infant program here, i was on the waiting list for the Alexandria location and moved to Burke. The staff is loving of my child as if it was there own, same as the reviewer under me. One the first day i dropped her off they called me every 2 hours with updates. I called as much as i wanted and bottom line i dont worry about my child while she is there. They will even tell you what they observe while your child is there (if a product you use isnt working — for example a cream for formula) LOVE THIS PLACE!

I cannot say enough good things about this center and the staff! My child has been enrolled at this center since September 2011 and placing her here, was absolutely the best decision I could’ve made for her. The staff is very warm and inviting. I am always greeted by everyone not just the teachers of my daughter. As a parent when you entrust your child to others to keep them safe and throughout the day, it can get hard because you really don’t know what is going on when you aren’t there. I have come several different times throughout the day and it’s always the same. I feel like my daughter is treated as if she is there own. AS A PARENT IT DOESNT GET ANY BETTER THAN THAT. Its not just my child, I see the same treatment for all the children at the school. Each classroom my daughter has been in, she is now in the 4-​yr-​old program, all the teachers have the same warm inviting demeanor. I thank God that my daughters preschool experience hasn’t been one from hell, which I read a lot of lately. I highly, highly, highly recommend Northern Virginia Academy if you are looking for a great preschool for your child.

If a parent were to ask me my opinion I would not recommend this center. My son attended this campus for the summer and then subsequently for before and after school care. I found that the teachers were not very attentive to the children and to be honest I felt like I was paying for a glorified babysitter. There was some disconnect between the main office and the classrooms. For example, I was paying for breakfast for my son but after two weeks I learned that they were not feeding him in the morning. When I brought up the issue it was corrected. In the afternoons for the after school care there was a lot of chaos and the teachers did not seem to have a lot of control over the children. I would sometimes arrive and stand and listen outside the door. There was often a lot of yelling from the teachers. The room they have is very small for the amount of children they have attending. Finally, my son came home singing a rap song one day that was very inappropriate and that had explicit lyrics. I asked him where he heard it and he told me the Academy bus that transports him to and from his elementary school in the morning and afternoon. I contacted the director/​staff about my concerns. I felt like they reluctantly apologized but were very defensive and said that he was going to hear it eventually anyways from the bigger kids on the bus. I said the bus driver has the authority to tell kids to be quiet if they have foul language. It is a two minute bus ride to school, so if they cannot play age appropriate music then there should be no music at all on the bus. I felt like they did not think it was a big deal. I had to defend my reasons for why I thought it was inappropriate which I thought was blatantly obvious. I had the opportunity to enroll my son into SACC and we are both much happier with this arrangement, even though it is more expensive. My son is much happier. While my son was there I also looked into their infant care as I was soon expecting. I paid the $ 50 registration fee and was put on the wait list. When I told them at the end of the school year that my oldest son would not be attending the following school year, they inadvertantly took me off of the infant care wait list as well. I did not find this out until I called them to see what my status was while I was on maternity leave. They did not offer an apology at their mistake and were very apathetic to the stress that they had caused. Anyone living in the NOVA area knows that infant care is very hard to come by. They said another slot should be opening soon and they would call me with the exact date and I confirmed with them that I wanted the infant slot. I never heard from them again. They did keep my $ 50 fee. One time they also lost everyone’s checks before they had a chance to cash them. They did refund everyone the cancelled check fee which is the right thing to do, but I do not feel like it is very good quality care or management for the price you are paying. They are not accredited, and there are probably many good reasons why. I would not recommend this facility