Beyond Montessori

My wife had been a Montessori teacher for 10+ years. So when we were looking at schools, we were very critical in how we evaluated. We wanted one there was a good balance of those principles at the same time wanted our child to be more immersed in other languages. Beyond montessori has turned to be a great school with a strong curriculum. The teachers are caring and attentive. Additionally, the school has good security and is very clean. I’d highly recommend Beyond to anyone.

My daughter has been enrolled at Beyond Montessori for 3 months since September 2015. It is not immersion at all. Not only that but the 40% Mandarin figure they cite is 40% of the weekly lessons, there are 2 lessons a day so 40% equals 4 hours per week! My daughter came from a true immersion preschool in Berkeley. She spoke fluent Mandarin. After a time I noticed she no longer spoke to us in Mandarin at home. I also noticed in the morning during free play, when they got the kids ready to go outside and when they played outside all the teachers spoke to my daughter in English, even the Chinese one. When I started asking questions, the true story came out. If you are looking for a preschool, you’ll be fine here. But if you are looking for your kids to learn Chinese or Spanish, look elsewhere. The Director has also been incredibly defensive and unresponsive to my complaints. She has not even provided me with a daily schedule which I have requested repeatedly!

When it comes to mandarin immersion programs, it seems to be really slim pickings out here in the east bay. I was thrilled to have found Beyond Montessori and not only does it offer mandarin immersion, it offers spanish immersion as well. Mrs Sophia Jai, the School Director, is an excellent communicator about her school and program. I have enjoyed my chats with her about the montessori method, her own teaching philosophy and I appreciate her passion for educating and nurturing these young minds. She has carefully crafted her curriculum and has personally trained the teachers to follow the program.
The teachers are all well qualified and there is a biography of each of their qualifications as you enter the school. My daughter attended a traditional preschool previously and is currently 4+ and so coming into a mixed age group, which is a Montessori philosophy, was new to us but she has adapted well. The school covers a broad range of topics; which at first I thought may be a little advanced for the younger kids aged 2+ but learning is afterall through exposure.
The teachers definitely work hard to keep up with the curriculum and I have seen my daughter progress in her phonics and reading of simple words, she was able to sound and blend the alphabets and I was impressed and she told me Mr Steven, the english teacher, taught her that. She seemed better with her simple arithmetic and came home singing an addition song that Miss Jennifer taught her. I like that they are using creative methods to teach concepts so that learning is fun and memorable. She even sings the Beyond Montessori school song. =)
Other wonderful things about the school is that they have diverse programs throughout each months — yoga, cooking, music, and weekly show and tell. I think these are all great exposure especially when as a working mom, you would like to provide them the opportunities to bring them to such activities but just simply don’t have the time. The school also has weekly communications about the new things they learned at school. Their play area is also amazing and it is out in nature and shady and if offers many activities for the kids to do, interact with nature or just run around. Another BIG plus is that they warm up the lunches that are brought from home for the kids
All in all, we are confident and happy about selecting Beyond Montessori as the preschool for our daughter. She is happy and excited about learning and that is what matters to us.

Best curriculum I’ve seen to date. My son seems to be learning something new and actually absorbing the learnings — singing months of the year, days of the week songs, etc. My son has also improved his Mandarin speaking skills over the last few months since attending. We speak to him at home but when he was in English only speaking schools his Mandarin was struggling, so I know the immersion program here is working for my son. He doesn’t speak as much Spanish but every child is different and possibly he is speaking Spanish I just don’t understand it! :)
The playground is very shady (which is a huge plus in Dublin) and the toys are very simple which allows the children to be more creative and be closer to mother nature.
He has also acted up the least while at Beyond Montessori, compared to the other preschools. He obeys most of the teachers there as well, they are good at communicating with children, especially the head of the school — Mrs. Sophia Jai. She is the reason why I enrolled my son as she has a very loving and advanced philosophy on teaching and she puts a great deal of effort and time into the curriculum and training her teachers. The school is also very clean and my son hasn’t gotten sick as often as at other preschools.
Over the last few months, more students have begun to join the school as word is getting out on the merits of Beyond Montessori. I expect they’ll be at full capacity soon, so definitely reach out and get a tour and I believe you’ll find a good home at this preschool. I look forward to many more years here!

We enrolled our 2-​year-​old son at Beyond Montessori in the Fall of 2014 after attending an open house over the summer. At the open house, we were able to speak with the staff and get the educational backgrounds of all the teachers. The teachers are well qualified, with Early Childhood Development training and have earned BA’s or Masters degrees. Over the school year, our son’s speech development really began to blossom. He is now a chatty young man and likes to count in Spanish and Mandarin. He has learned social grace and is sharing amongst his friends. The children are independent and know their responsibilities, even at a young age.
The recent graduates are at the 1^st and 2^nd grade reading proficiency level in English, Spanish and Mandarin which is amazing! The school also offers cooking projects, cultural studies, yoga, music classes, gardening and composting.
The program is well suited for following Piaget’s stages of development; where the child learns at their own pace, but still learns sequentially. Manners and grace are well taught throughout the day. During snack time, the children sit and wait until everyone is served, sing a song and then proceed to eat. Moreover, the physical space of the school is inviting, clean, and well organized. It’s not overcrowded with toys or sterile from any imagination, unlike some other schools that we visited.
The play area is AMAZING! It is surrounded by redwoods and has a big gazebo that offers afternoon shade for the children. The program director Mrs. Sophia is wonderful with the children and is always looking to improve upon her program. The staff is warm and inviting and really know the children based on their individual personalities and preferences.
I can’t say enough about how much our son has developed in such a short amount of time. Our son loves going to school and we look forward to his continued growth as a well-​rounded person.

I love the place! Our son started in the school several months ago and he totally loves it! The program is amazing, the director, Mrs Sophia, is wonderful, thoughtful and very gentle with children. She hired only the most experienced teachers with extensive experience and Montessori backgrounds. It is also notable how all teachers work in great coordination with each other. Tri-​lingual program helped our son to start speaking not only our native Russian and English, but also some Mandarin and Spanish. He loves to sing and sometimes he comes home and sings in Mandarin or Spanish, which is a great way to learn for a three year old.
The most important for us when we were enrolling were two things: low student-​to-​teacher ration and gentle kindness and compassion from the director and the teachers. Of course advanced Montessori program was also a must. This school met all of our requirements and we are very happy to have our son enrolled at the school!

I decided to make an updated review after staying a year with Beyond Montessori due to the greatness and how much benefit my son has received from the teachers and director. My son has language delay, but after a year of study at this school, he can name a lots of words in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese (it’s his mother language) and English. Even the speech therapist at school district got amazed by his big progress after a summer. My son is very slow adoptive and did having some behavior issue between the time; but the school did help me and my son to learn his mistake and solves the problem which is very important than just asking for accommodation. I am so proud to see his independence and big progress. To make statement short, school is nicely organized, curriculum is courses, teacher and director is responsive and easy to work with. It definitely meet our expectation.

This place is the best! My son has been attending here since he was 20 months old and has learned so much since he started here (currently 2.5 now). The fact that he is exposed to Chinese, English and Spanish is just the beginning. There are many activities that the school provides to have all the students well rounded (culture, math, stories, puzzles, dancing, art, cooking projects). As a bonus, teachers actually teach manners (!) and he has become a very polite little man.
All the kids are very happy and the owner (Sophia) really puts her heart and soul in making the school the very best. You can tell this is her passion and it’s noted by the way she understands every kid’s behavior/​personality, her choice of teachers and the curriculum that she created.
Sending him here was one of the best decisions ever. THANK YOU! He loves going to ‘school’ everyday :)

Not truly a tri-​language immersion program if you’re looking for that. Of all the staff that watch the children, most speak English only including the lead teacher. There is circle time taught in English, Mandarin or Spanish however the days we observed, English only. We asked our child what languages were spoken to him during his time there, he said English. Curriculum schedule and who’s teaching and when is not up to date in what they publish either. Double check and interview all the teachers if you’re planning to commit to this expensive preschool. Unfortunately we did not do our research prior to enrolling.