San Francisco, CA
One Fifty Parker School

Parents' Comments

Parent #1
We love 150 Parker. They are wonderful with our son.

Parent #2
Teachers guide the children to resolve conflict in a manner that allows both students to be heard and respected.

Parker Teachers observe what student interest is while involved in play and then develop a theme that might be explored for a day or up to two weeks (depending on the concept). Students choose what they want to do during the first few hours of school. They come together at the end of the day for 20 minutes to look over the calendar, read a book or discuss any topic of interest (social/emotional, educational) during "circle time". In the "PM" Program students are introduced to letters and numbers in a very gentle way so those who are ready latch on to the new information can; while those who need more time feel are very relaxed and don't feel pressure to memorize or "perform." VERY supportive teachers and parent community.


Parent #3
I have had three children go through Parker, and I feel lucky to have found such a lovely place for my kids to attend. I'm a true believer that play, not structured academics, is what prepares children to be little citizens of the world! We have enjoyed watching our children thrive at Parker, and move on to do well in K-8 school. I think Parker kids are the kind of little people that get along well with each other, and the world. Our K-8 school's admisisons person told us, "We love kids from Parker!"

Parent #4
They are great with rotating toys and activities in and out to keep things fresh. They really encourage creativity. They encourage learning through play, and have a little structure to help the kids achieve this.

Parent #5
The facilities are amazing - perfect playground and newly renovated classrooms with excellent equipment. The pre-Kindergarten program is wonderful but not all kids will attend that program because they go to kindergarten earlier. There is a great sense of community. There is Halloween Faire, Art Faire, and many other events that bring the school community together.

Parent #6
A.M. nursery class is great transition from home. Pre-K is great transition to formal school. Parent body is nice bunch of (mostly) committed people. Over 3 years the teachers have helped my rather reserved daughter gain self assurance in social situations. Groups children of like age together (a plus in my view). Highly recommend this school to parents looking for a play-based part time preschool. I would not recommend it to anyone looking for an academic preschool, though I believe an academic preschool is inappropriate.

Parent #7
The school creates a warm, safe and low-stress environment. It really focuses on building the child's confidence. With its aftercare program as well, our only daughter is really learning to get along with others. I work full time so this is extremely important. She is thriving there. This is a play based curriculum so children choose what activity they want but guidance & structure is provided. As room parent this year, there were a lot of really active families wanting to get involved & create a sense of community. Weakness: no formal music program. Board of Directors seems ineffective.

Parent #8
I love the school, but because is it very developmental in its way of doing things, it doesn't feel it is the job of the school to get them into a private school. It wants to teach your child appropriately for their age level and doesn't believe in forcing kids to memorize things for testing purposes. Some parents may not be comfortable with this, but both my children ended up at very good schools regardless.

Parent #9
Parker is a wonderful community of children, parents and committed teachers! It's the perfect school IF you are cool with the developmental, play-based philosophy -- if you don't believe in that, you will NOT be totally happy with the school (I've heard one parent say, 'Why isn't my 3-year old writing his name yet?! So-and-so's kid at St. Luke's is doing that already!' It's just not that kind of school! They will never, NEVER push your child to do something that's not developmentally appropriate...). If you are a pretty mellow parent who believes in 'letting a kid be a kid' and enjoying his or her childhood in an encouraging, fun, non-threatening environment, you'll love it, and you'll love seeing how HAPPY your child is every single day going to school. I liked Parker when I toured it & met w/ the director, but honestly, when your child is 1 or 2 (or 6 months, in some cases!), you have no idea what environment would be best. As it turns out (looking back, years later), Parker is great for all three of my kids, all of whom have very different personalities but thrive in Parker's developmental philosophy of 'do it at your own pace & have a blast doing it'.

Parent #10
Overall, I am pleased with this school because it really cares about the kids. The director is responsive to questions and available for meetings. Our disappointment has been with the communication of the K teachers with us about a problem they were having with our daughter in class that they brought up to us very late in the year which in turn resulted in her not being accepted to any of the schools she applied to. We don't blame the teachers for our child's character, but we do blame them for not pointing out during reviews her poor social behavior being made evident in the classroom. We have since made efforts on our part to correct this but would have started earlier.

Parent #11
Parker is particularly strong with regard to social development. The children learn early on to think about how their actions and words affect other children and adults. They learn to express what they are feeling and to pay attention to the feelings of others.

Parent #12
While I would have liked more of a music program, in general Parker is great. All of the families have been easy to get along with, and the kids all seem to interact well also. I was originally hesitant about sending my child 5 days a week, but I has worked out just fine for our family and the consistency has been great for our child. By spending so much time together, the kids in the class really seem to bond. I particularly noticed this when we organized a class trip to the zoo. All the kids played wonderfully together outside of school too.

Montessori? Waldorf? Play-based?

What school type is right for your child? Is one model better than another? What does the research say?

View an example from the Savvy Source guide to learn more.

Trace around your child's foot, with shoe on, on a piece of white construction paper or card stock. Have child cut out the shoe print and add a spooky face. Glue it to a popsicle stick and you have a ghost stick puppet!

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