Sunrise Montessori Of Napa Valley

PO BOX 4077

Napa, CA 94558

3 Reviews

School District
Grade

PK-6
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by student on October 10, 2022

I have been going to this school my whole life. The teachers are absolutely amazing and the administrative staff are so caring and helpful. I feel strongly that I am doing well in my acedemics. For the first few years of Sunrise (preschool and kindergarten) you focus on emotions and how to honor them as well as grace and courtesy, and you set foot into the world of math, science and literature. During the elementary years, you get more in-depth with those subjects while making friends along the way. In 2020, when covid started, we did everything on zoom and the teachers handled it really well and the students continued learning as much as in the classroom. Sunrise has been more than a school to me. It’s my home. I would DEFINITELY recommend this school to anyone looking for a safe, inclusive and kind learning environment.
Submitted by parent on August 20, 2015

Both of my children attended Sunrise Montessori and while my son had a very nice experience there, he was ill-prepared for the transition to middle school. The math and science preparation at this school is very weak and they seem unconcerned about this. During our 9 years nothing was done to improve the situation short of bringing tutors to the campus, to whom parents had to pay additional fees. I guess proper teacher training or hiring people with these skills was out of the question. Despite many years of academic issues with their students, Sunrise seems smugly happy with their track record and has not bothered to improve itself. I think the fact that our local Sylvan Learning Center has about 1/3 or more of their students attending their tutoring at any one time says it all… the school has big gaps which have to be filled by outside professionals.Even worse for me, as a parent, was watching my daughter get bullied and isolated for an entire school year. Despite repeated visits to the school to observe, meetings with the classroom teachers and administrators, the school did very little to rectify the situation. It is a tiny school and the best course of action would have been to get the parents together to discuss the situation and to see if we could help our children work out their differences. Instead, the school isolated us and did almost nothing to discipline the students who were being mean and hurtful. It seemed clear that they were more concerned about ruffling the feathers of someone who donated more money than we did than providing an emotionally safe environment for our kids.Soon I discovered (after pulling our daughter out after 3rd grade) that our local (and free) public school had much better teachers, who were infinitely more qualified. All were properly credentialed and had degrees in education, vs. the Sunrise faculty, most whom do not have state teaching credentials and whose degrees, if they have them, are not in the field of education (minus their Montessori training, if they have that). My daughter has been flourishing academically since leaving the school and now has a rich social life that she was lacking at Sunrise. In our case, changing schools was the right decision.
Submitted by other on August 25, 2013

This school is incredible. The students learn more than just the basics. They learn to verbalize their feelings and how to communicate with others in a positive manner. The wonderful, caring, gentle and very patient staff helps the students to realize there is a big world out there and you are a special part of it. They work with the students show respect for each other and their special environment.