Pilgrim Community Preschool

"This school has exceeded our hopes for our daughter's first experience at school. We looked around extensively before settling on PCNS and are so happy with the program. Our daughter was 3, (now 4), and before classes started, her teachers came to meet her at our house and did a little art project with her, and then there was an open house before classes started. Because of this, she already knew them and the space on her first day and she wasn't anxious at all, just excited. Her classroom is well laid out (and is clean!) with a lot of different things to explore and play. There's a mixture of free play and structured play. I am very impressed with her curriculum, which covers literacy, writing & drawing, math, and science every week following different themes. She loves her teachers Mr. Rob and Ms. Molly, and has been learning a lot of social skills and making friends with her classmates. We saw a big improvement with her at home after she started school as she's learning how to manage and express her feelings and communicate them with words. Early in the year, they had parent-teacher conferences and my husband and I were impressed (again) with her teachers. It was obvious they had been paying a lot of attention to her and had identified some areas where we could work with her at home in terms of academic and social skills, as well as the things she was doing very well on. We feel like we have a great collaborative relationship with them and are very comfortable talking to them about concerns or to seek advice. I'll close with a story about something that just really highlights the love and the care that the staff have for the kids. At the end of a week, we picked up my daughter to take her to her yearly pediatric appointment and she was afraid of getting a vaccine. She was crying very hard as we left, and the director of the program, Ms. Emily, (who every day welcomes them as they arrive and says goodbye as they leave) sat down on the ground and talked to her until she started to calm down. Ms. Emily said she was also going to get a shot that weekend, and she suggested that she and my daughter both concentrate on saying the ABCs and they could compare what letters they got to before the shots were done. It was a big help both in the moment and while we were at the doctor. And then she actually remembered and specifically asked my daughter about it when she arrived the next Monday! We're looking forward to another year there. We're also expecting another child now and will definitely be sending him to this school when he's old enough. If you're looking for a wonderful program with expert staff and a play-based philosophy, I strongly suggest this one."

"My child went here for less than two months and I wish I took her out sooner. My daughter was so excited for school and making friends and she couldn't stand going here by the last 2 weeks. Within the first month, she was injured and the teacher said she didn't see what happened, "she just fell". I was furious. Then she was sick multiple times (which I know happens) but the teacher admitted that all the teachers had been sick and none of them ever stayed home. Then my child got a rash which doesn't happen unless the facility is dirty and no one is paying attention to a child. On top of all that the staff is very nonchalant and lied to myself and my partner. What's the point of a parent portal if nothing is ever posted on it and I can't receive accurate updates about my child??!! I saw children getting left outside of the fence at the end of the day and I witnessed teachers saying "did someone pick up (student's name) because I didn't see them leave." Oh and there's a ton of extra fees."

"Pilgrim is an amazing preschool. The teachers are incredible in fostering a playful and creative environment that enabled our children to grow. Our kids love going to Pilgrim every single morning; their friendships with classmates endure beyond their enrollment; and we're friends with other parents, too!"

"It was very important to us to find a school with a loving and caring environment. As soon as we walked into Pilgrim’s open house house we knew we had found the right place. The teachers and staff are truly amazing, caring people and we felt like we were joining a community of parents and teachers with a common goal of embracing the uniqueness in each child there and helping them to explore the world around them and learn how to build and manage relationships and social interactions. My kids have made some of their best friends there and they talk about their teachers all of the time. I was also blown away by how much their minds started exploding when they started school. They come home singing songs, putting on their coats by themselves (a big deal for a 2 yr old sometimes), pointing out new things they have learned at school, asking more questions about their surroundings. I couldn’t be happier with this school. My son just graduated up to Kindergarten and he still has play dates with his pilgrim friends and looks through his memory book from pilgrim. Couldn’t recommend this place more!"

"Fantastic program. My son attended Pilgrim & he'd come home with songs, stories, art work, we'd have video blogs and opportunities to get involved as little or as much as we wished. Pilgrim has teachers who are compassionate and truly care about the kids they teach. It's play based but also focuses on learning new concepts (shapes, letters etc). Joel Rhea is a great director -I highly recommend."