Shu Academy Preschool

"This review is long over due. Both my kids went to Shu Academy from 2018-2022. How lucky we were to find the perfect bilingual school for our kids! They nurtured our kids emotionally, intellectually, even potty trained both. The teachers and director Katie are amazing- attentive to the child and parent's needs. My kids still have fond memories of the art, playtime, weekly music teachers, animal shows, and holiday celebrations. I loved that they were exposed to the alphabet, letter tracing, reading early on at Shu Academy. They came home singing Chinese, English and Spanish songs at age 2. The director Katie really puts a lot of thought into the preschool experience. I highly recommend Shu Academy to anyone looking for an amazing preschool."

"My son (now 3) has been going to this school since October 2020, back when it was called Curious Beans and in a different space. I've seen a huge change in his overall pace of development. At his previous daycare, he wasn't challenged at all, and we were worried he had some sort of cognitive delay. Now he's very lively and has strong communication. I attribute a lot of that success to his new preschool. Katie and the teachers are very warm, attentive, and strike a good balance between providing a safe experience and a convenient / fulfilling experience, given COVID. Every day they do fun activities like singing, reading, and crafting. They also do tons of awesome one off stuff like science experiments with mushrooms and having an animal show onsite. I get lots of info on how he's doing via tons of high quality photos. By looking at the photos, I get a much better sense of how well he interacts with the teachers and other kids. Katie is super communicative and responsive. I'm very very glad we switched."

"This school is brand new, clean, and very well run. I’m a first time mom and was fully prepared to hate every daycare but loved Shu Academy. The location may not be ideal (for us or in general - it's located close to downtown San Mateo), but the facilities are excellent—safe and spacious which is important during pandemic, and the people are just WONDERFUL! They have excellent curriculum and apply Montessori methods which is a huge plus. Frequent activities like yoga dance, saran wrap painting, balloon tennis and many other creative and fun activities. Best of all, they have Chinese one on one time everyday which is a huge plus for non-Chinese speaking families but hoping to have their kids speak Chinese. We're only a couple of weeks in at this point, but so far I have to say that the staff is just amazing. They upload tons of photos to an app everyday to keep us updated on our child throughout the day. Yesterday I got over a dozen photos of my kid, plus updates on the naps, feedings, diaper changes, and more from the teachers. My kid still cries some time I drop her off, but it's really gratifying to see her smiling in the photos uploaded little bit later so I know she is happy all day. A huge thank you to Katie the Director, Ms. Claire, Ms. Abby, and all the other wonderful people that work there. I'm constantly surprised that my daughter seems to be comfortable with all the teachers on sight when we walk in the door; it makes the place feel a lot more like a family. Thank you all for taking care of my daughter at Shu Academy. I know it isn't easy, and we really appreciate how much you care."