Shepherds Gate

"Friendly and caring staff"

"Very unprofessional and LAZY staff with the exception of one teacher (who was awesome) and taught in the 3 years old preschool classroom. The schedule says they are to have “nap” time from 1-3pm. During this time all 4 “teachers” sit in a dark room on their phones while the children that don’t nap squirm around and stare at the ceiling for hours. I had previously talked to my sons teacher about letting him bring in his educational device during nap time instead to keep him active rather than staring at nothing. He would often tell me he got in trouble and had to be in “time outs” for not sleeping so I tried to find an acceptable solution. I even asked why one teacher couldn’t take the older children who didn’t nap into a different room for structured quiet time but apparently that was an issue as well. His teacher said they allowed educational devices so I thought all was well until today. When I picked my son up they were just waking up from nap time at 3:50pm … so 3 hours of non napping children laying around staring at the ceiling. My son had holes in the knees of his sweat pants from squirming around on the dirty cots provided. When I asked the director about the incident she responded with an attitude and even gave me criticism for allowing my 4 year old to have an educational device. They also do NOT have any lesson plans, take home notes, or educational activities even though they advertise to the public as “preschool”. They change the weekly pricing whenever they want without any warning. My child often expressed to me that he was AFRAID to go to school which absolutely broke my heart. I would find anywhere else other than this program. If I could I would rate LESS THAN ONE STAR. ** the only notes they sent home were asking for money donations for the school even those we paid $150 a week for not even full days or weeks."

"Loving, professional staff. There was never a day that my granddaughter did not want to go to "school". Also she was totally prepared for kindergarten. I highly recommend Shepherd's Gate."

"This place was very attentive with my child during the two years I had him in preschool. The teachers and staff were very friendly and accommodating. Most of them would go out of their way to help out even after hours. They take their security and overall safety of the children seriously. The facility is nice setup as well. Over all good experience for my child."

"While here my child did alright. Their speech, hand dexterity, and ability to play with other kids improved, but this can also be attributed to just growing up. My issues lie with their policies and treatment of the kids. First, more often than not my child would have a poopy diaper when I picked her up. I could smell it when I walked into the facility; this is not ok, if I can smell her then so could everyone else and there is no reason for her to be playing with a dirty butt. I often noticed, the teachers were busy on their phones and/or talking to each other when I arrived and I felt they could have been attending to the children more. Second, unless your child is always calm, quiet, and listening then this is NOT the place for you. If they act out, are stubborn, or have a few bad days you will definitely hear about it. My daughter happens to be louder than others (we are getting her hearing checked) and we were given a warning to fix this behavior at home. How do you fix something that is not an issue at home? The daycare blamed the Church saying the Church was complaining they only heard my daughter. When I called the Church to inquire about this…I was given a different story and a lot of attitude from the ladies at the daycare once they found out. It was after this they decided my daughter should no longer attend this daycare and sent a note home to me on a Weds telling me her last day would be Friday of the same week. They literally gave me a 2 day notice to find other care for my daughter. The same note also stated that my daughter tried to kick an adult after being restrained in the corner. Third, the teachers are fine but expect too much out of kids so young. They are toddlers, they are not meant to be sitting and learning all day. They need to play and interact. I also felt the teachers were too old to get down and really play with the kids. They didn’t seem to genuinely enjoy kids and I really felt they were just there to get hours in to get paid. I would suggest they hire a few younger people who really enjoy kids and want to be there every day with them teaching and learning together. This daycare is in the basement of a church, they do teach the Bible. In the Bible it preaches acceptance and tolerance for all and they obviously never accepted nor tolerated my child because she was more rowdy than the others. In summary, I will never send any of my children back here. Unless they have a drastic change with new directors, new teachers, and a better policy I hope you won't consider it either."