Joan Bourriague’s Pre-School

Long and overdue review for this little gem. We arrived to this school almost by chance as we were so «late» trying to find a pre-​school (you know, shockingly, we didn’t really sign up for the famous schools in town when the baby was born because we didn’t even live here then!).In any case, we can’t be happier. It is a play base school with a very small class led by two teachers that put their heart on it every day. Teacher Susan has an amazing talent to engage the kids and make learning fun and teacher Jeremiah is like that incredible cool uncle who can carry three toddlers on his back. Kids love them both. I have seen my kid and his buddies extremely happy here all the time. Their new location (a little tiny house walking distance for downtown Los Altos) is super cute and comes with the added bonus that now the kids can have hot lunches. So my little one enjoys real food, served warm with his best friends on a daily basis. I can’t stress enough how much both teachers care about all the kids. Some other reviewer (who seems like didn’t end up signing up) mentioned their (lack of) organization skills. You know what, their organization skills are fine and work to keep the place running smoothly. I prefer they spend quality time with my toddler, the one-​on-​one attention they provide to all kids and overall the amazing feeling of knowing that your kid is taken care and nurtured by really good people than any fancy spreadsheet or parents newsletter. I don’t need a parent newsletter, I talk to the teachers everyday! they can even guess when my husband is on a business trip because of the slight change of mood of our son!
I also appreciate very much the fact that they are so easy going with toddlers still in diapers and help them transition as well as how open minded they are about bi-​lingual and tri-​lingual kids. Our son’s level of English improved dramatically since attending JB but he still has an excellent command of French and a decent command of Spanish.
Love, love, love this place.

I work near the school and observe them everyday. The children get a lot of outdoor play time and there are always creative art projects drying outside. They’ve even planted a small vegetable garden! I am continually impressed with her ability to engage and teach the children and give individual attention to all, even those with special needs. There is a summer session coming up which we are most excited for! Each week has a different theme.

My son who is 2 ½ years old now is currently at JB Preschools. He seems to really enjoy himself and Susan and her son are really great with the kids. I love the fact that it’s a small amount of children so they all get a lot of attention compared to other schools who have so many kids in them. Plus other schools require children to already be potty trained and Susan is willing to work with kids who are in the process of it which is pretty rare to find. It takes a lot of patience to deal with children and i’m amazed how well they deal with them. We are very happy with them so eventually my little girl will also attend their school!

This staff is very friendly, especially Susan. I love the location and they were very well organized. And, the most important of all is that all the kids seemed very happy there.

I really wanted to like the school. The owner, Susan is very pleasant and the location was very close to home. However, they appear very understaffed, the area is disorganized. I visited the school 2 different times, and the children just seemed very low energy and bored. I hope they hire someone with more experience with early childhood education and one more to clean up the place.

My daughter loved this school. She started at 2 ½ (not yet potty trained). Susan was really great at making sure she was taken care of if she started to cry when I dropped her off. She would scoop her up and distract her with a book or some music. She knew exactly what would work with my daughter. The small size is nice because Susan and her son, Sean, can get to know the kids well and give them all a lot of attention. They did different art projects everyday and had lessons of the week that I thought were a nice step towards kindergarten preparation. This school is much more affordable than others in the area too. Overall, it was a great experience.

My daughter loved attending Bourriague’s pre-​school. Susan Cretekos is so attentive and enthusiastic about kids, my little one loved being here so much did not want to go home and really loved Susan. It was a great experience.

I love this school!
Joan Bourriague’s Preschool (JB Preschool) has all the things I looked for when I started my preschool hunt. It has a small class size, a loving, experienced teacher (Susan Cretekos is the director), and a curriculum that prepared my older child for kindergarten. If you are looking for a preschool that makes school and learning fun, JB Preschool is definitely worth checking out.